تابع،،،
13- بولسلو الاول كروبر

(aka Bolesław I the Brave or the Valiant) (Czech: Boleslav Chrabrý) (967 – 17 June 1025), in the past also known as Bolesław I the Great (Wielki), was a Duke of Poland in 992–1025 and the first King of Poland from 19 April 1025 until his death. He also ruled as Boleslav IV, Duke of Bohemia during 1002–1003.
He was the firstborn son of Mieszko I by his first wife, Dobrawa, daughter of Boleslav I the Cruel, Duke of Bohemia.[1][2] He was named after his maternal grandfather.
Bolesław I was a remarkable politician, strategist and statesman. He turned Poland into a country that was not only comparable to older western monarchies, but also elevated it into the European elite. Bolesław conducted successful military campaigns in the west, south and east. He consolidated the Polish lands and conquered territories outside of modern borders of Poland such as Slovakia, Moravia, Red Ruthenia, Meissen and Lusatia as well as Bohemia. He was a powerful mediator in Central European affairs.
Bolesław was an ally of Holy Roman Emperor Otto III who may have crowned him rex. Following the death of Otto III in 1002, he carried out a series of successful wars against the Holy Roman Empire and Otto III's cousin and heir Henry II, ending with the Peace of Bautzen in 1018. In the summer of 1018, in one of his most famous expeditions, Bolesław I captured Kiev, where, according to legend, he notched his sword when hitting Kiev's Golden Gate. Later, a sword known as Szczerbiec, meaning notched sword, would become the ceremonial sword used in the coronation ceremony of Polish kings.
Bolesław I also managed to establish a Polish church structure with a Metropolitan See at Gniezno, independent of the GermanArchbishopric of Magdeburg, which had tried to lay claim to Polish areas. During the famous Congress of Gniezno he officially freed himself of tribute to the Holy Roman Empire and finally, at the peak of his reign, he had himself crowned as King, the first Polish ruler to do so.
He was an able administrator; he established the so-called "Prince's law", and build numerous forts, churches, monasteries and bridges. Bolesław I established the first Polish monetary system, of a Grzywna divided into 240 Denarii,[1] and minted his own coin. He is widely considered as one of the most talented and accomplished of the Piast rulers.
Life

Bolesław I was born in Poznań as the first child of Mieszko I, Duke of Poland and his wife, the Bohemian princess Dobrawa. At age six he may have been sent to the Imperial court in Germany as a hostage, according to the agreements of the Imperial Diet of Quedlinburg (although historians now dispute this detail). Another theory stated that Bolesław I spent some time during the 980s at the court of his maternal uncle, Duke Boleslav II the Pious of Bohemia.
In 984 and at the instigation of his father, the eighteen-year-old Bolesław I married the daughter of Rikdag, Margrave of Meissen, probably named Hunilda or Oda. It is believed that following the wedding he became the ruler of Lesser Poland with his capital at Kraków. The death of Margrave Rikdag in 985 left the marriage devoid of any political value, and shortly thereafter the union was dissolved and Hunilda was repudiated.
At the end of 985, probably at the instigation of Boleslav II the Pious, Bolesław I married an unknown Hungarian princess with whom he had a son, Bezprym.[3] In older literature, the princess was identified as Judith, daughter of Géza, Grand Duke of Hungary.[4] Though opinions vary about the identity of Bolesław I 's second wife, there are a number of researchers who still support the hypothesis of her being the daughter of Géza.[5] However, this union also came to a quick end, probably because of the deterioration in political relations between Poland and Hungary, and around 987 the union was dissolved.
By 989, and perhaps as early as 987, Bolesław I married Emnilda, daughter of Dobromir, a Slavic prince of Lusatia. Through this marriage he had a daughter Regelinda, a son, the future king Mieszko II, another daughter and a son Otton. At this time Bolesław I's rule in Lesser Poland may have been at Bohemian conferment. Presuming that it was, he added this province to Poland only after Duke Boleslav II the Pious' death in 999. However assuming that Mieszko I took control of Lesser Poland in 990 (which is likely), than Bolesław I was bestowed the rule in Lesser Poland by his father but without its territory being included in the Polish realm. Bolesław I does not appear in the surviving summary of the Dagome Iudex document, and as such it may be supposed that Lesser Poland was already known as Bolesław I's inheritance, while his two surviving half-brothers Mieszko and Lambert, sons of Mieszko I by his second wife Oda, were to divide the rest of the realm between each other. Another theory is that Bolesław I's absence from the document might be explained by an old Slavic custom whereby children received their inheritance as soon as they reached the age of majority. Thus Bolesław I might have received Kraków as his part of his father's legacy before the writing of the Dagome iudex.[6]
Accession

ابع،،،
13- بولسلو الاول كروبر

Bolesław I, byname Bolesław the Brave, Polish Bolesław Chrobry (born 966/967—died June 17, 1025), duke (from 992) and then (from 1024) first king of Poland, who expanded his country’s territory to include Pomerania, Lusatia, and, for a time, the Bohemian princely lands. He made Poland a major European state and also created a Polish church independent of German control.
The son of Mieszko I, ) Mieszko I, (born c. 930—died May 25, 992), Piast prince or duke of Poland (from c. 963), who brought Poland into Christendom and expanded the state to the Baltic Sea. ) the first of the Piast dukes, and the Bohemian princess Dobrawa (Dubravka), Bolesław I inherited the principality of Great Poland (Wielkopolska, between the Oder and the Warta rivers) upon his father’s death in 992. He soon began, by energetic political and military action, to develop and expand the Polish state. He conquered Pomerania along the Baltic Sea in 996 and seized Kraków (formerly a Bohemian possession) soon afterward. He ransomed the relics of the martyred St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, from the pagan Prussians and buried the relics at Gniezno. The Holy Roman emperor Otto III, who had been Adalbert’s student and Bolesław’s ally since 992, attended that ceremony (March 1000) and marked the occasion by personally acknowledging Bolesław as the sovereign ruler of Poland. With Pope Sylvester II’s approval, the emperor granted Poland its own archdiocese, with Gniezno as its seat. Bolesław then reorganized Poland’s church structure, making it a national church directly under papal jurisdiction and independent of German ecclesiastical control.
After Emperor Otto III’s death (1002), Bolesław seized the imperial lands of Lusatia and Misnia (Meissen) and the principality of Bohemia. These actions started a series of three wars between him and the German king Henry II that lasted until 1018, when, by the Treaty of Bautzen, Bolesław retained Lusatia and Misnia and Henry II won Bohemia. Bolesław’s expansionist policy continued. When he defeated Grand Prince Yaroslav I the Wise of Kiev in battle (July 21, 1018) and placed his own son-in-law (and Yaroslav’s brother), Svyatopolk, on the Kievan throne, his control extended from the western tributaries of the middle Elbe River to the eastern reaches of the Bug River. Though recognized as a sovereign by Otto III in 1000, Bolesław sought to strengthen his position and his independence from imperial control with his papally-sanctioned coronation by the archbishop of Gniezno on Dec. 25, 1024

Military
At the time of his death Bolesław I left Poland larger than the land he had inherited: he had added to his domains the long-contested marches of Lusatia and Sorbian Meissen as well as Red Ruthenia and possibly Lesser Poland. Militarily, at the time, Poland was unquestionably a considerable power as Bolesław I was able to fight successful campaigns against both Holy Roman Empire and the Kievan Rus. On the other hand it must be highlighted that his long-term involvement in the war against Germany allowed Western Pomerania to gain independence from the Polish aegis. Another negative side of Bolesław I's drawn out military campaigns was a damaging influence on the economy of his kingdom. With the passing of each year, Bolesław I needed ever-increasing amounts to finance his wars, especially when fought on two fronts; in Germany and Kiev. Unceasing war had placed ever-increasing fiscal obligations on his subjects, which in turn caused negative sentiment, sentiment that increased throughout his reign, and that would erupt into popular revolt soon after his death.

‎
Increasing both the internal and external strength of the realm was of paramount importance to Bolesław I, especially in the face of increasing pressure from the magnates. The magnates demanded a larger share in the administration of the country while Bolesław I sought to strengthen the central authority of the ruler. Bolesław I's coronation, sometime in 1025, was aimed precisely to reinforce his leading position. In general an overall integration of the country took place during his reign.
Bolesław I was able to establish an independent Polish church structure with a Metropolitan See at Gniezno, with papal and imperial sanction. His work laid a foundation for the use of designation "Poland" that was to unite all regions of the realm, as well as for the use of one symbol to represent the supreme authority of the prince. The symbol was a sign of Gniezno's knightly class: the white eagle.

تابع،،،
13- بولسلو الاول كروبر

تزوجوالده امرأة اخرى بعد موت والدته .، وخطط الملك بأن يتولى احد ابناؤه من الزوجة الثانية الحكم. ولذلك
ارسل الى خاله في ملك تشكوسلفاكيا لتجنب الصراعبينه وبين اخوته غير الاشقاء.

، (ولد في 925، كولونيا، توفي 11 أكتوبر، 965، ريس، الشمبانيا، يوم العيد 11 أكتوبر)، رئيس اساقفة كولونيا وcoregent من الامبراطورية الرومانية المقدسة .
The youngest son of King Henry I the Fowler of Germany and St. Matilda, and brother of Emperor Otto I the Great, Bruno was educated at the cathedral school of Utrecht and the court school of Otto. الابن الاصغر للملك هنري لي فاولر من ألمانيا وسانت ماتيلدا، وشقيق الإمبراطور أوتو الأول ربيت الكبير، وبرونو في مدرسة كاتدرائية أوترخت و مدرسة محكمة من اوتو. Proficient in Latin and Greek, he was a patron of learning. وكان يتقن اللاتينية واليونانية، وراعيا للتعلم. As chancellor from 940, he prepared his brother's official papers and after ordination to the priesthood accompanied him to Italy in 951. كمستشارة من 940، مستعد أوراق شقيقه الرسمية، وبعد التنسيق الى الكهنوت رافقته إلى إيطاليا في 951. Already abbot of Lorsch and Corvey, where he restored monastic observance, he was elected to the see of Cologne in 953 and soon was named duke of Lorraine by Otto. بالفعل رئيس الدير من ماولبرون وCorvey، وحيث أعاد مراعاة الرهبانية، انتخب لنرى من كولونيا في 953 وسرعان ما عين دوق لورين من أوتو. As bishop, Bruno was a zealous and exemplary pastor, and his episcopate marked a new epoch in the city's growth; among the many institutions he founded was the monastery of St. Pantaleon at Cologne. اسقفا، وكان برونو القس متحمس ومثالي، والأسقفية له علامة على عصر جديد في نمو المدينة، وبين العديد من المؤسسات التي أسسها وكان دير القديس بانطاليون في كولونيا. In the troubled duchy of Lorraine, by his prudent and statesmanlike policies he restored peace and devised a new administrative division, maintaining at the same time cordial relations with France . في دوقية لورين المضطرب، من خلال سياسته الحكيمة والحنكة هو استعادة السلام ووضع تقسيم إداري جديد، والحفاظ على علاقات ودية الوقت نفسه مع فرنسا . During Otto's absence in Italy for his imperial coronation (962), Bruno shared the responsibilities of government and care of the Emperor's son, Otto II. أثناء غياب أوتو في إيطاليا لتتويجه الإمبراطورية (962)، يشارك برونو مسؤوليات الحكومة ورعاية ابنها الإمبراطور أوتو الثاني. Bruno died on a mission to France and was buried at St. Pantaleon. مات برونو في مهمة لفرنسا ودفن في القديس بانطاليون.

==
وكان برونو الكبير (أو أنا برونو) (925-965) رئيس أساقفة كولونيا ، ألمانيا ، في الفترة من 953 حتى وفاته، و دوق Lotharingia من 954. He was the brother of Otto I , king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor . وكان شقيق أوتو الأول ، ملك ألمانيا ، وفيما بعد الإمبراطور الروماني المقدس .
Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler and his second wife Matilda of Ringelheim . وكان برونو الابن الاصغر لل فاولر وهنري وزوجته الثانية ماتيلدا من Ringelheim . While he was still a child, it was decided that he should pursue an ecclesiastical career, and he was educated appropriately. بينما كان لا يزال طفلا، فقد تقرر أنه يجب اتباع مهنة الكنسية، وتلقى تعليمه على النحو المناسب. In 951, Otto appointed Bruno as his archchaplain. في 951، عين أوتو برونو كما archchaplain له.
Bruno soon received further advancement. برونو تلقى قريبا إحراز مزيد من التقدم. In 953, the Archbishopric of Cologne fell vacant just when Conrad the Red , Duke of Lotharingia and Otto's son-in-law, had joined a rebellion against Otto. في 953، وانخفض في مطرانية كولونيا الشاغرة فقط عندما كونراد الأحمر ، ودوق Lotharingia وأوتو نجل في القانون، قد شاركت في تمرد ضد أوتو. By appointing Bruno to the vacant position, Otto provided himself with a powerful ally against Conrad in Lotharingia (much of which fell under the archdiocese of Cologne) just when he needed one most. من خلال تعيين برونو لهذا المنصب شاغرا، شريطة أوتو نفسه مع حليف قوي ضد كونراد في Lotharingia (والكثير منها سقط تحت أبرشية كولونيا) فقط عندما هناك حاجة واحدة أكثر من غيرها. By the next year, the rebellion had collapsed. بحلول العام المقبل، وكان التمرد انهارت. Otto deposed Conrad as Duke of Lotharingia and appointed Bruno in his place. المخلوع اوتو كونراد كما دوق Lotharingia وعين برونو في مكانه.
Bruno was to be almost the last duke of the whole of Lotharingia: in 959 two local nobles, Godfrey and Frederick , were appointed as margraves of Lower Lotharingia and Upper Lotharingia respectively. وكان برونو ليكون تقريبا دوق الأخير من كل من Lotharingia: في النبلاء 2 959 المحلي، غودفري ، و فريدريك وعين، كما margraves من Lotharingia السفلى و العليا Lotharingia على التوالي. Both margraves were recognised as dukes after Bruno's death. واعترف كلا margraves كما الدوقات بعد وفاة برونو. The two duchies would only be reunited between 1033 and 1044 under Gothelo I, Duke of Lotharingia . وفقط 2 الدوقيات يمكن لم شمل بين 1033 و 1044 تحت أنا Gothelo، دوق Lotharingia .
The combined positions of archbishop and duke — or archduke , as his biographer Ruotger called him — made Bruno the most powerful man after Otto not just in Germany but also beyond its borders. مواقف مشتركة من رئيس الأساقفة والدوق - أو الدوق جعل برونو أقوى رجل بعد اوتو ليس فقط في ألمانيا ولكن أيضا خارج حدودها -، كما Ruotger كاتب سيرة حياته ودعا له. After the deaths of Louis IV of West Francia in 954 and Hugh the Great , his most powerful feudatory, in 956, Bruno, as brother-in-law to both of them and maternal uncle to their heirs Lothair , the new king, and Hugh Capet , acted as regent of west Francia. بعد وفاة لويس الرابع من فرانسيا الغرب في 954 و هيو الكبير ، له feudatory أقوى، في 956، برونو، وصهر في لكليهما، والخال إلى ورثتهم لوثير ، الملك الجديد، و هيو كابيت ، بدور الوصي من فرانسيا الغرب.
From 961 onwards, Bruno was also appointed as Otto's regent in Germany while Otto was absent in Italy . من 961 فصاعدا، وعين أيضا برونو كما ريجنت أوتو في ألمانيا في حين أوتو كان غائبا في ايطاليا .
Bruno died in Reims in 965 and was buried in the monastery of St Pantaleon , which he had founded, just outside Cologne. مات برونو في ريمس في عام 965 ودفن في دير القديس بانطاليون ، التي كان قد أسسها، فقط خارج كولونيا.
Bruno's position in Cologne was little short of royal. وكان موقف برونو في كولونيا قصيرة القليل من الملكية. Indeed, Otto delegated to Bruno and his successors as archbishop a number of normally royal privileges — the right to build fortifications and set up markets, to strike coins and collect (and keep) such taxes as the special ones on>>> in return for royal protection, those on market trading and tolls from traffic along the Rhine . في الواقع، أوتو المفوضة لبرونو وخلفائه كما المطران عددا من الامتيازات عادة الملكي - الحق في بناء التحصينات وإقامة الأسواق، لضرب النقود المعدنية وجمع (والاحتفاظ) الضرائب مثل تلك الخاصة في مقابل حماية الملكية ، وتلك على التداول في السوق والمكوس من حركة المرور على طول نهر الراين . Even though Bruno's successors as archbishops would not be dukes as well, they would be the secular as well as the ecclesiastical rulers of Cologne until the battle of Worringen three centuries later. على الرغم من خلفاء برونو كما مطارنة لن يكون الدوقات كذلك، فإنها تكون علمانية، وكذلك الحكام الكنسية من كولونيا حتى معركة Worringen ثلاثة قرون في وقت لاحق.
Bruno's court in Cologne was the main intellectual and artistic centre of its period in Germany — far more so than that of his brother Otto, which was far more peripatetic and militarily oriented. وكانت محكمة برونو في كولونيا المركز الرئيسي الفكري والفني من فترة في ألمانيا - أكثر بكثير من أن من أوتو شقيقه، الذي كان أكثر متجول وموجهة عسكريا. Among others, Ratherius and Liutprand of Cremona spent time at the court. من بين أمور أخرى، Ratherius و Liutprand من كريمونا قضى وقتا في المحكمة. Many of the next generation of German ecclesiastical leaders were educated at Bruno's court, like Everaclus of Liège , Gerard bishop of Toul, Wikfrid, bishop of Verdun, and Theoderic , bishop of Metz. تعلموا الكثير من الجيل القادم من قادة الكنسية الألمانية في محكمة برونو، ومثل Everaclus لييج ، جيرارد أسقف تول، Wikfrid، اسقف فردان، و Theoderic ، اسقف متز.

Bruno the Great (or Bruno I) (925–965) was Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, from 953 until his death, and Duke of Lotharingia from 954. He was the brother of Otto I, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor.
Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler
) Henry I the Fowler (German: Heinrich der Finkler or Heinrich der Vogler; Latin: Henricius Auceps) (876 – 2 July 936) was the Duke of Saxony from 912 and German king from 919 until his death(
and his second wife Matilda of Ringelheim. While he was still a child, it was decided that he should pursue an ecclesiastical career, and he was educated appropriately. In 951, Otto appointed Bruno as his archchaplain.
Bruno soon received further advancement. In 953, the Archbishopric of Cologne fell vacant just when Conrad the Red, Duke of Lotharingia and Otto's son-in-law, had joined a rebellion against Otto. By appointing Bruno to the vacant position, Otto provided himself with a powerful ally against Conrad in Lotharingia (much of which fell under the archdiocese of Cologne) just when he needed one most. By the next year, the rebellion had collapsed. Otto deposed Conrad as Duke of Lotharingia and appointed Bruno in his place.
Bruno was to be almost the last duke of the whole of Lotharingia: in 959 two local nobles, Godfrey and Frederick, were appointed as margraves of Lower Lotharingia and Upper Lotharingia respectively. Both margraves were recognised as dukes after Bruno's death. The two duchies would only be reunited between 1033 and 1044 under Gothelo I, Duke of Lotharingia.
The combined positions of archbishop and duke — or archduke, as his biographer Ruotger called him — made Bruno the most powerful man after Otto not just in Germany but also beyond its borders. After the deaths of Louis IV of West Francia in 954 and Hugh the Great, his most powerful feudatory, in 956, Bruno, as brother-in-law to both of them and maternal uncle to their heirs Lothair, the new king, and Hugh Capet, acted as regent of west Francia.
From 961 onwards, Bruno was also appointed as Otto's regent in Germany while Otto was absent in Italy.
Bruno died in Reims in 965 and was buried in the monastery of St Pantaleon, which he had founded, just outside Cologne.
Bruno's position in Cologne was little short of royal. Indeed, Otto delegated to Bruno and his successors as archbishop a number of normally royal privileges — the right to build fortifications and set up markets, to strike coins and collect (and keep) such taxes as the special ones on Jews in return for royal protection, those on market trading and tolls from traffic along the Rhine. Even though Bruno's successors as archbishops would not be dukes as well, they would be the secular as well as the ecclesiastical rulers of Cologne until the battle of Worringen three centuries later.
Bruno's court in Cologne was the main intellectual and artistic centre of its period in Germany — far more so than that of his brother Otto, which was far more peripatetic and militarily oriented. Among others, Ratherius and Liutprand of Cremona spent time at the court. Many of the next generation of German ecclesiastical leaders were educated at Bruno's court, like Everaclus of Liège, Gerard bishop of Toul, Wikfrid, bishop of Verdun, and Theoderic, bishop of Metz.
Bruno's effect on medieval Cologne was immense. Apart from building a palace, he extended the cathedral to the point where it was regarded as rivalling St Peter's in Rome (this cathedral burned down in 1248 and was replaced by the current one). He brought the area between the old Roman walls and the Rhine within the city fortifications; and built new churches to Saint Martin of Tours within this area and to Saint Andrew just outside the northern city wall and a Benedictine monastery dedicated to St Pantaleon to the south-west of the city.
Bruno translated St. Patroclus'relics from Troyes and buried them in 964 at St Patrokli Dom in Soest, where Patroclus is still today venerated.

ابن الملك هنري ملك المانيا قرر العائلة على ضرورة ان يعيش في الكنيسى وارسل اليها طفل صغير. مات ابوه وهو في سن الحادية عشرة,

يتم في سن الـ 11.

(بالتايلندية:) فترة:(20 مارس 1736—7 سبتمبر 1809) المؤسس الأول لمملكة سيام والجد الأول لأسرة شاكري بعد أن تم خلع ملك مملكة ثونبوري كان فيرا شاكري وهو قائد في جيش مملكة ثونبوري في غزوة الي كمبوديا وبعد سقوط الدولة عاد الجنرال شاكري معا جيشة الي ثونبوري واستطاع ان يحكم البلاد واسس مملكة سيام

Redirected from Rama I
Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke or Rama I the Great, was king of Thailand from 1782 to 1809.
He was born in Ayutthaya on March 20, 1737 as son of Phra Aksorn Sundara Smiantra, a noble man in the Ayutthaya kingdom. His birth name was Thong Duang. After getting education in a Buddhist temple, his father sent him to serve as a page for the later king Utumporn. There he met his friend Sin, the later king Taksin. After the fall of Ayutthaya he joined Taksin's army, and was known as Chao Phraya Chakri. The name Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke was given posthumously by king Nangklao (Rama III).
While Taksin's general, he conquered Vientiane in 1778/79, putting the country under vassalage, and removing its Emerald Buddha to Thonburi. In 1782, when Taksin was declared mad after a coup d'etat and was later executed, he assumed power, establishing the Chakri dynasty. He was crowned on April 6; the date is now a public holiday in Thailand.
King Rama I continued Taksin's task of saving the newly reunited country from attack by Burma, but he also reestablished the traditions of the country by salvaging Buddhist texts lost in the chaos after the sacking of Ayutthaya. He also built the new capital Bangkok and in his palace the Wat Phra Kaew to house the Emerald Buddha, and created a new code of laws, the Book of three seals. As literature was his passion he also wrote a Thai version of the Ramayana epos called Ramakian.
He died on September 7, 1809, and was succeeded by his son prince Isarasundorn, king Buddha Loetla Nabhalai[?] (Rama II).

اهم احدث طفولته:

المعروف عن طفولته انه درس في معبد بوذي حيث ارسله والده للدراسة هناك ثم خدم كحارس للملك الذي كان رفيقه في المعبد ثم انقلب عليه.

مجهول الطفولة.

Cnut the Great] (Old Norse: Knútr inn ríki;[c. 985 or 995 – 12 November 1035), also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F. Cantor has made the paradoxical statement that he was "the most effective king in Anglo-Saxon history".[
Cnut was of Danish and Slavic descent. His father was Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark (which gave Cnut the patronym Sweynsson, Old Norse Sveinsson).
) Sweyn I Forkbeard (Old Norse: Sveinn Tjúguskegg; c. 960 − 3 February 1014) was king of Denmark and England, as well as parts of Norway. His name appears as Swegen in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He was a Viking leader and the father of Cnut the Great).
Cnut's mother was the daughter of the first duke of the Polans, Mieszko I; her name may have been Świętosława (see: Sigrid Storråda), but the Oxford DNB article on Cnut states that her name is unknown.[

As a prince of Denmark, Cnut won the throne of England in 1016 in the wake of centuries of Viking activity in northwestern Europe. His accession to the Danish throne in 1018 brought the crowns of England and Denmark together. Cnut held this power-base together by uniting Danes and Englishmen under cultural bonds of wealth and custom, rather than sheer brutality. After a decade of conflict with opponents in Scandinavia, Cnut claimed the crown of Norway in Trondheim in 1028. The Swedish city Sigtuna was held by Cnut. He had coins struck which called him king there, but there is no narrative record of his occupation.
The kingship of England of course lent the Danes an important link to the maritime zone between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, where Cnut like his father before him had a strong interest and wielded much influence among the Gall-Ghaedhil.[10]

Cnut was a son of the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard, and an heir to a line of Scandinavian rulers central to the unification of Denmark.[12]Harthacnut was the semi-legendary founder of the Danish royal house who, according to Adam of Bremen, came to Denmark from Northmania. Gorm the Old, Harthacnut's son, being the first in the official line (the 'Old' in his name being to this effect) and his son, Harald Bluetooth, the Danish king at the time of the Christianization of Denmark (his acceptance of Christianity being the first among all Scandinavian kings).
Cnut's mother's name is unknown, although a Slavic princess, daughter to Mieszko I of Poland (in accord with the Monk of St Omer's, Encomium Emmae[5] and Thietmar of Merseburg's contemporary Chronicon[6]), is likely.[7]Norse sources of the high medieval period, most prominently Snorri Sturluson's Heimskringla, also give a Polish princess as Cnut's mother, whom they call Gunhild and a daughter of Burislav, the king of Vindland.[13] Since in the Norse sagas the king of Vindland is always Burislav, this is reconcilable with the assumption that her father was Mieszko (not his son Bolesław). Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum is unique in equating Cnut's mother (for whom he also produces no name) with the former queen of Sweden, wife of Eric the Victorious and by this marriage mother of Olof Skötkonung.[14]
To complicate the matter, Heimskringla and other Sagas also have Sweyn marrying Eric's widow, but she is distinctly another person in these texts, by name of Sigrid the Haughty, whom Sweyn only marries after Gunhild, the Slavic princess who bore Cnut, has died.

Cnut's brother Harald was the first born and crown prince.
Some hint of Cnut's childhood can be found in the Flateyjarbók, a 13th-century source, stating at one point that Cnut was taught his soldiery by the chieftain Thorkell the Tall,[16] brother to Sigurd, Jarl of mythical Jomsborg, and the legendary Joms, at their Viking stronghold on the Island of Wollin, off the coast of Pomerania.

There is a passage of the Encomiast's (as the author of the Encomium
Emmae is known) with a reference to the force Cnut led in his English conquest of 1015/16. Here (see below) it says all the Vikings were of "mature age" under Cnut "the king".
Cnut, with the legend "CNUT REX DÆNOR[UM]" (Cnut, King of Danes)
A description of Cnut can be found within the 13th-century Knýtlinga saga:
Knut was exceptionally tall and strong, and the handsomest of men, all except for his nose, that was thin, high-set, and rather hooked. He had a fair complexion none-the-less, and a fine, thick head of hair. His eyes were better than those of other men, both the handsomer and the keener of their sight.
—Knytlinga Saga]
Hardly anything is known for sure of Cnut's life until the year he was part of a Scandinavian force under his father, King Sweyn; with his invasion of England in summer 1013. It was the climax to a succession of Viking raids spread over a number of decades. With their landing in the Humber[21] the kingdom fell to the Vikings quickly, and near the end of the year King Aethelred fled to Normandy, leaving Sweyn in possession of England. In the winter, Forkbeard was in the process of consolidating his kingship, with Cnut left in charge of the fleet, and the base of the army at Gainsborough.
On the death of Forkbeard after a few months as king, on Candlemas Sunday 3 February 1014, Harald succeeded him as King of Denmark, while Cnut was immediately elected king by the Vikings, and the people of the Danelaw. However, the English nobility took a different view, and the Witenagemot recalled Aethelred from Normandy. The restored king swiftly led an army against Cnut, who fled with his army to Denmark, along the way mutilating the hostages they had taken and abandoning them on the beach at Sandwich.[ Cnut went to Harald and supposedly made the suggestion they might have a joint kingship, although this found no favour with his brother.[23] Harald is thought to have offered Cnut command of his forces for another invasion of England, on the condition he did not continue to press his claim.[ In any case, Cnut was able to assemble a large fleet with which to launch another invasion.[]

Cnut was generally remembered as a wise and successful king of England, although this view may in part be attributable to his good treatment of the Church, keeper of the historic record. Accordingly, we hear of him, even today, as a religious man (see below), despite the fact that he was in an arguably sinful relationship, with two wives, and the harsh treatment he dealt his fellow Christian opponents.
Under his reign, Cnut brought together the English and Danish kingdoms, and the people saw a golden age of dominance across Scandinavia, as well as within the British Isles.[49] His campaigns abroad meant the tables of Viking supremacy were stacked in favour of the English, turning the prows of the longships towards Scandinavia. He reinstated the Laws of King Edgar to allow for the constitution of a Danelaw, and the activity of Scandinavians at large. He also reinstituted the extant laws with a series of proclamations to assuage common grievances brought to his attention. Two significant ones were: On Inheritance in case of Intestacy, and, On Heriots and Reliefs. He strengthened the currency, initiating a series of coins of equal weight to those being used in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia. This meant the markets grew, and the economy of England was able to spread itself, as well as widen the scope of goods to be bought and sold.

King of Denmark

In 1018, Harald II died and Cnut went to Denmark to affirm his succession to the Danish crown as Cnut II. In the 1019 letter (see above) he states his intentions to avert attacks against England. It seems there were Danes in opposition to him, and an attack he carried out on the Wends of Pomerania may have had something to do with this. In this expedition at least one of Cnut's English men, Godwin, apparently won the king's trust after a night-time raid he personally led against a Wendish encampment.
His hold on the Danish throne presumably stable, Cnut was back in England in 1020. Ulf Jarl, the husband of his sister Estrid Svendsdatter, was his appointee as regent of Denmark, with the entrustment of his young son by Queen Emma, Harthacnut, whom he had made the crown prince of his kingdom.
Thorkell the Tall's banishment in 1021 may be seen in relation to the attack on the Wends for the death of Olof Skötkonung in 1022, and the succession to the Swedish throne of his son, Anund Jacob, bringing Sweden into alliance with Norway. Thus, there was cause for a demonstration of Danish strength in the Baltic. Jomsborg, the legendary stronghold of the Jomsvikings, thought to be on an island off the coast of Pomerania, was probably the target of Cnut's expedition.[50] After this clear display of Cnut's intentions to dominate Scandinavian affairs, it seems Thorkell was wont to reconcile himself with Cnut in 1023.
When Olaf Haraldsson and Anund Jakob took advantage of Cnut's commitment to England and began to launch attacks against Denmark, Ulf gave the freemen cause to accept Harthacnut, still a child, as king. This was a ruse on Ulf's part since the role he had as the caretaker of Harthacnut consequently gave him the reign of the kingdom. Upon news of these events Cnut set sail for Denmark, to restore himself and deal with Ulf, who then got back in line. In a battle known as the Battle of the Helgeå, Cnut and his men fought the Norwegians and Swedes at the mouth of the river Helgea. 1026 is the likely date for the battle, and the apparent victory left Cnut as the dominant leader in Scandinavia. Ulf the usurper's realignment and participation in the battle did not, in the end, earn him Cnut's forgiveness. Some sources state, at a banquet in Roskilde, the brothers-in-law were playing chess when an argument arose between them, and the next day, Christmas of 1026, one of Cnut's housecarls, with his blessing, killed the jarl, in Trinity Church, the predecessor to Roskilde Cathedral.

Cnut died in 1035, at the Abbey in Shaftesbury, Dorset. His burial was in Winchester, the English capital of the time, and stronghold of the royal house of Wessex, whom the Danes had overthrown more or less two decades before.
In Denmark he was succeeded by Harthacnut, reigning as Cnut III, although with a war in Scandinavia against Magnus I of Norway, Harthacnut was "forsaken (by the English) because he was too long in Denmark",[90] and his mother Queen Emma, previously resident at Winchester with some of her son's housecarls, was made to flee to Bruges, in Flanders; under pressure from supporters of Cnut's other son – after Svein – by Ælfgifu of Northampton. Harold Harefoot – regent in England 1035–37 – succeeded to claim the throne, in 1037, reigning until his death in 1040. Eventual peace in Scandinavia left Harthacnut free to claim the throne himself, in 1040, and regain his mother her place. He brought the crowns of Denmark and England together again, until his death, in 1042. Denmark fell into a period of disorder with the power struggle between the pretender to the throne Sweyn Estridsson, son of Ulf, and the Norwegian king, until Magnus' death in 1047 and restoration of the Danish sovereignty. And the inheritance of England was briefly to return to its Anglo-Saxon lineage.
The house of Wessex was to reign again in Edward the Confessor, whom Harthacnut had brought out of exile in Normandy and made a treaty with. Like in his treaty with Magnus, it was decreed the throne was to go to Edward if Harthacnut died with no legitimate male heir. In 1042, Harthacnut died, and Edward was king. His reign meant Norman influence at Court was on the rise thereafter, and the ambitions of its dukes finally found fruition in 1066, with William the Conqueror's invasion of England, and crowning, fifty years after Cnut was crowned in 1016.
Had the sons of Cnut not died within a decade of him, and his (only known) daughter Cunigund – set to marry Conrad II's son Henry III eight months after his death – not died in Italy before she became empress,[91] Cnut's reign may well have been the foundation for a complete political union between England and Scandinavia

Casimir III the Great (Polish: Kazimierz Wielki) (30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370), last King of Poland from the Piast dynasty (reigned 1333–1370), was the son of King Władysław I the Elbow-high
والده
)Władysław the Short or Elbow-high (or Ladislaus I of Poland, Polish: Władysław I Łokietek; 1261 – 2 March 1333), was a King of Poland. He was a Duke until 1300, and Prince of Kraków from 1305 until his coronation as King on 20 January 1320. Because of his short height he was nicknamed 'Łokietek', a diminutive of the word 'łokieć', meaning "ell" or "elbow", as in "elbow-high(.
والدته
and Hedwig of Kalisz.
)Hedwig of Kalisz (Polish: Jadwiga Bolesławówna) (1266 – 10 December 1339) was the second of three daughters, born to Boleslaw the Pious and Jolenta of Poland. Her paternal grandparents were Ladislaus Odonic Plwacz and Jadwiga of Pomerania, her maternal grandparents were Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. Her elder sister was Elisabeth of Greater Poland. In 1293, Hedwig married Władysław I the Elbow-high,[1] son of Casimir I of Kuyavia.(.

Born in Kowal, Casimir the Great first married Anna, or Aldona Ona, the daughter of the Prince of Lithuania, Gediminas. The daughters from this marriage were Cunigunde (d 1357), who was married to Louis VI the Roman, the son of Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor, and Elisabeth, who was married to Duke Bogislaus V of Pomerania. Aldona died in 1339 and Kazimierz then married Adelaide of Hesse. He divorced Adelheid in 1356, married Christina, divorced her, and while Adelaide and possibly also Christina were still alive (ca. 1365) married Hedwig (Jadwiga) of Głogów and Sagan.
His three daughters by his fourth wife were very young and regarded as of dubious legitimacy because of their father's bigamy. Because all of the five children he fathered with his first and fourth wife were daughters, he would have no lawful male heir to his throne.
When Casimir, the last Piast king of Poland, died in 1370, his nephew King Louis I of Hungary succeeded him to become king of Poland in personal union with Hungary.

Casimir is the only Polish king who both received and kept the title of Great in Polish history (Bolesław I Chrobry is also called the Great, but his title Chrobry (Valiant) is now more common). When he received the crown, his hold on it was in danger, as even his neighbours did not recognise his title and instead called him "king of Kraków". The economy was ruined, and the country was depopulated and exhausted by war. Upon his death, he left a country doubled in size (mostly through the addition of land in today's Ukraine, then the Duchy of Halicz), prosperous, wealthy and with great prospects for the future. Although he is depicted as a peaceful king in children's books, he in fact waged many victorious wars and was readying for others just before he died.
Casimir the Great built many new castles, reformed the Polish army and Polish civil and criminal law. At the Sejm in Wiślica, 11 March 1347, he introduced salutary legal reforms in the jurisprudence of his country. He sanctioned a code of laws for Great and Lesser Poland, which gained for him the title of "the Polish Justinian" and founded the University of Kraków which is the oldest Polish university, although his death temporarily stalled the university's development (which is why it is today called the "Jagiellonian" rather than "Casimirian" University).
He organized a meeting of kings at Kraków (1364) in which he exhibited the wealth of the Polish kingdom.

In order to enlist the support of the nobility, especially the military help of pospolite ruszenie, Casimir was forced to give up important privileges to their caste, which made them finally clearly dominant over townsfolk (burghers or mieszczaństwo).
In 1335, in the Treaty of Trentschin, Kazimierz relinquished "in perpetuity" his claims to Silesia. In 1355 in Buda, Casimir designated Louis I of Hungary as his successor. In exchange, the szlachta's tax burden was reduced and they would no longer be required to pay for military expeditions expenses outside Poland. Those important concessions would eventually lead to the ultimately crippling rise of the unique nobles' democracy in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
His second daughter, Elisabeth, Duchess of Pomerania, bore a son in 1351, Casimir IV of Pomerania. He was slated to become the heir, but did not succeed to the throne, dying childless in 1377, 7 years after King Casimir. He was the only male descendant of King Casimir who lived during his lifetime.
Also, his son-in-law Louis VI the Roman of Bavaria, Margrave and Prince-elector of Brandenburg, was thought as a possible successor as king of Poland. However, he was not deemed eligible as his wife, Casimir's daughter Cunigunde, had died already in 1357, without children.
The Poles repulsed many raids of the Tatar-Mongols. However, Casimir III the Great submitted to the Golden Horde and undertook to pay tribute in order to avoid more conflicts.[2] The 7 Mongol princes were sent by Jani Beg khan to assist Poland.[3]
Casimir had no legitimate sons. Apparently, he deemed his own descendants either unsuitable or too young to inherit. Thus, and in order to provide a clear line of succession and avoid dynastic uncertainty, he arranged for his nephew, King Louis I of Hungary, to be his successor in Poland. Louis was proclaimed king on Casimir's death in 1370, and Casimir's sister Elisabeth (Louis's mother) held much of the real power until her death in 1380.

· Elisabeth of Poland (ca. 1326–1361). She married Bogusław V, Duke of Pomerania.
· Cunigunde of Poland (1334–1357). Married Louis VI the Roman.
Aldona died on 26 May 1339. Casimir remained a widower for two years.

On 29 September 1341, Casimir married his second wife Adelheid of Hesse. She was a daughter of Henry II, Landgrave of Hesse and Elisabeth of Meissen. Her maternal grandparents were Frederick I, Margrave of Meissen and his second wife Elizabeth of Lobdeburg-Arnshaugk. They had no children.
Casimir started living separately from Adelheid soon after their marriage. Their loveless marriage lasted until 1356.

Casimir effectively divorced Adelheid and married his mistress Christina. Christina was the widow of Miklusz Rokiczani, a wealthy merchant. Her own origins are unknown. Following the death of her first husband she had entered the court of Bohemia in Prague as a lady-in-waiting. Casimir brought her with him from Prague and convinced the abbot of the Benedictineabbey of Tyniec to marry them. The marriage was held in a secret ceremony but soon became known. Adelheid renounced it as bigamous and returned to Hesse without permission.
Casimir continued living with Christine despite complaints by Pope Innocent VI on behalf of Adelheid. The marriage lasted until 1363/1364 when Casimir again declared himself divorced. They had no children.

In about 1365, Casimir married his fourth wife Hedwig of Żagań. She was a daughter of Henry V of Iron, Duke of Żagań and Anna of Mazovia. They had three children:
· Anna of Poland, Countess of Celje (1366 – 9 June 1422). Married firstly William of Celje. Their only daughter was Anne of Cilli. Married secondly Ulrich, Duke of Teck. They had no children.
· Kunigunde of Poland (1367–1370).
· Hedwig of Poland (1368 – ca. 1407). Reportedly married ca. 1382 but the details are obscure.
With Adelheid still alive and Christine possibly surviving, the marriage to Hedwig was also considered bigamous. The legitimacy of the three last daughters was disputed. Casimir managed to have Anne and Cunigunde legitimated by Pope Urban V on 5 December 1369. Hedwig the younger was legitimated by Pope Gregory XI on 11 October 1371.

Casimir also had three illegitimate sons by his mistress Cudka, wife of a castellan.
· Niemierz (last mentioned alive in 1386). Oldest son. Survived his father, inherited lands around Stopnica.
· Pelka (1342–1365). Married and had two sons. Predeceased his father.
· Jan (d. 28 October 1383). Youngest son. Survived his father, inherited lands around Stopnica.

والدته
Hedwig of Kalisz (Polish: Jadwiga Bolesławówna) (1266 – 10 December 1339) was the second of three daughters, born to Boleslaw the Pious and Jolenta of Poland. Her paternal grandparents were Ladislaus Odonic Plwacz and Jadwiga of Pomerania, her maternal grandparents were Béla IV of Hungary and Maria Laskarina. Her elder sister was Elisabeth of Greater Poland. In 1293, Hedwig married Władysław I the Elbow-high, son of Casimir I of Kuyavia.

Her husband was a bitter rival of Wenceslaus II of Bohemia who was King of Poland between 1291–1305. Life was dangerous for Hedwig and her family during this time, she and three of her children had to go into hiding for a while during 1300.
In 1305, Wenceslaus II died and was succeeded by his son, Wenceslaus III of Bohemia. Wenceslaus III reigned for a year before he was assassinated under mysterious circumstances so his campaign of Poland ended.
His wife, Viola Elisabeth of Cieszyn had not borne him any children so his successor was Władysław.
In 1318, Władysław embarked on a coronation campaign. The pope, though initially unwilling, finally granted his approval and Władysław and Hedwig were crowned King and Queen of Poland on 30 January 1320 in Kraków; a new crown was made for the new queen and it was later used to crown other queens of Poland. Times were not always good for the royal family. Władysław and Jadwiga lost their two eldest sons, Stephen and Władysław. Their joy was however restored with the birth of two more children, Casimir and Jadwiga.
The coronation was a sign that he had overcome Poland's internal fragmentation and re-united and re-instated the country as an independent kingdom under his rule. Poland now needed friends abroad; so in 1320, Hedwig and Władysław's daughter Elisabeth married Charles I of Hungary, son of Charles Martel of Anjou and Klementia of Habsburg. Their son was Louis I of Hungary.
Hedwig played an active part in politics during her husband's reign. She took over the regency of Stary Sacz when her granddaughter by Kunigunde, Constance of Swidnica resigned to become a nun.[2]
Her husband died in 1333. Jadwiga lived until 1339.

تابع....17- كاسمير الثالث العظيم

ولد هذا الملك في عام 1310 ولم تكن طفوته سهله فقد كان والده على خلاف مع الملك الذي سبقه ولذلك اضطر للاختباء لفترات كما مات له اخوين واحد عام 1312 ( وعمره 2 سنة ) والاخر عام 1322 (اي عندما كان عمره 12 عام)، كما ان والده مات عام 1333 اي عندما كان عمره 23 سنة وماتت اهه وعمره 29 سنه.
لن نعتبره يتيم لانه فقد الوالد بعد سن الحادية والعشرين لكن واضح ان ظروف طفولته كانت مأزومة.
مأزوم.

18 - كاثرين العظيمة

من ويكيبيديا، الموسوعة الحرة
الملكة كاترين الثانية (2 مايو1729 - 6 نوفمبر1796)، إمبراطورة روسيا من 28 يونيو1762 حتى وفاتها. ويقال إنها تجسد حقبة الطاغية المستنير.
دافع فولتير عنها عندما قامت بانقلاب على زوجها، وقال: “مستبد عاقل خير من مستبد جاهل!”[1]

ولدت كاترين كأميرة عين شمس (صوفي أوجستا فريدريكا) في 1729. والد كاترين، امير سلامة السيدأمير وحمل رتبة محافظ مدينة تشيتشن في بولندا باسم ملك بروسيا، ولكن كاترين لديها أصل روسي بعيد جدا.
إثنين من أبناء عمومة كاترين أصبحا ملوك السويد هما غوستاف الثالثوتشارلز الثالث عشر.
وفقا للعرف السائد آنذاك بين طبقة النبلاء الألمانيه، تلقت تعليمها بصورة رئيسية بالفرنسية.
اختيار صوفي كزوجة القيصر المرتقب بيتر الثالث ملك روسيا نتجت عن الإدارة الدبلوماسية، أراد فريدريك تعزيز الصداقه بين بروسيا وروسيا من أجل إضعاف نفوذ النمسا.

كانت أعوام حكمها الأربعة والثلاثون من أعظم الأعوام التي مرت بها روسيا، فلقد ازدهرت الصناعات والتجارة ونمت، وتم إنشاء أول بنك حكومي وإصدار العملة الورقية للمرة الأولى. وقد اتخذت إجراءات صارمة لحماية الصناعة الوطنية، من خلال حظر استيراد السلع التي يمكن إنتاجها في البلاد.
وقد ازدادت صادرات روسيا إلى أوروبا وخاصة الحديدوالحديد الزهر، كما تم فرض رسوم كبيرة على السلع الرفاهية، وكذلك النبيذ والحبوب والألعاب.

كانت كاترينا الثانية ترعى العلوم والثقافة والفن بعناية فائقة، وأولت اهتماما بالغا بقضايا التعليم وخاصة تعليم الفتيات، حيث افتتح في عهدها عدد كبير من الجامعات والمعاهد والمدارس والمكتبات والمطابع، فضلا عن صدور الصحف والمجلات المختلفة. وقد شغفت بالأدبوالمسرح وقضايا الفلسفة وكتبت العديد من المؤلفات النثرية والأعمال المسرحية والمؤلفات النقدية، بالإضافة إلى المشاركة في النقاشات الأدبية والفكرية على صفحات المجلات الروسية وحتى انتشر عشر روسيا إلى أمريكا الجنوبيةوغرب آسيا وأصبحت لها نفوذ متنوعة.
كما كانت تقوم في غضون سنوات طويلة بعقد علاقات صداقة وإجراء مراسلات مستمرة مع أبرز المفكريين في أوروبا الغربية مثل فولتيروديدرو، وغيرهما من رواد عصر التنوير.

شهد عصر كاترينا الثانية تبدلا جذريا في سياسة الحكومة القيصرية بالنسبة للإسلام وسكان روسيا المسلمين عقب تربعها على العرش عام 1762، فقد كانت الإمبراطورة الجديدة تعبر عن آراء ومواقف الفئة المتنورة من ممثلي الأوساط الحاكمة الروسية الذين أدركوا تماما فشل محاولات السلطات الرسمية الرامية إلى إزاحة الإسلام وإكراه المسلمين على اعتناق المسيحية. فقد كانت هذه الممارسات تؤدي خلال قرنيين من الزمن، إلى اندلاع الانتفاضات داخل البلد وتعقيد العلاقات بين الامبراطورية الروسية والدول الإسلامية.
وقامت بزيارة للإطلاع على أحوال المسلمين هناك، وقد استجابت لرجال الدين الإسلامي التتار بخصوص السماح ببناء المساجد في قازان.
ونزولا عند رغبة رجال الدين الإسلامي في بعض المناطق الروسية مثل جزيرة القرموالأورالوريزان، أصدرت كاترينا الثانية تعليماتها إلى المسؤوليين هناك لبناء عدد كبير من المساجد، كما ارتأت بنفسها أن ثمة أهمية خاصة لتشييد مساجد في سيبيريا من أجل جذب تجار بخارى لممارسة النشاط التجاري هناك.
وتلبية الحاجات الروحية للمسلميين في قراءة القرآن الكريم تم في عهد كاترينا الثانية إصدار القرآن باللغة العربية عام 1787 ثم أعيدت طباعته في الأعوام 1790- 1793-1796.
ولم تكتف هذه الإمبراطورة بهذه الإجراءات العملية باتجاه رعايا الدولة الروسية للمسلمين، بل حرصت على صياغة هذه الإصلاحات في مراسيم وقوانين لتنظيم أحوالهم الدينية، فقد أصدرت في عام 1783 مرسوما يقضي بمنع التعميد القسري وإزالة تأثير رجالات الدين المسيحي على القضايا المتعلقة بالدين الإسلامي، وحفظها ضمن دائرة اختصاص السلطات المدنية. كما يوصي المرسوم الكهنة الروس بدرء النعرات الدينية بين المسلمين والمسيحيين لكي يسود بينهم الوئام والوفاق.
ففي عام 1764 وضعت القيصرة الجديدة نهاية التعميد الإجباري للمسلمين، وذلك بالغاء الهيئة الرئيسية للتبشير في قازان، وقامت في العام ذاته بزيارة لهذه المدينة للإطلاع على أحوال المسلمين هناك، وقد استجابت لرجال الدين الإسلامي التتار بخصوص السماح ببناء المساجد في قازان التي كانت في غضون مئتي ونيف سنه محرومة من أماكن العبادة، بموجب حظر فرضته السلطات القيصرية على تشييد المساجد في أماكن الإقامة المشركة للسكان المسلمين والمسيحيين.
كما صدر مرسوم قيصري بإحداث إدارات دينية للمسلميين في القسم الأوروبي من روسيا وبعض المناطق الأخرى.
وكانت الحكومة الروسية تدفع رواتب العلماء الدينيين والأئمة وجميع الذين يعملون في هذه الإدارات أو يخدمون في المساجد.
هذه لمحة موجزة عن الإصلاحات الهامة التي جرت في عهد كاترينا الثانية والرامية إلى تخفيف وطأة الاضطهاد الديني، الذي كان يتعرض له المسلمون من رعايا الإمبراطورية الروسية، وإرساء التسامح الديني في البلد. وبفضل المساعي الجليلة لهذه الإمبراطورة حصل الإسلام في روسيا على الاعتراف الرسمي كأحد الأديان الأساسية في البلد.
وعلى العموم فقد اتصفت سياستها الداخلية بسمات "السلطة المطلقة المتنورة" وأجرت إصلاحات عديدة وانتهجت سياسة خارجية نشيطة ضمت إلى روسيا في عهدها المناطق الشمالية من البحر الاسود، بما في ذلك شبه جزيرة القرم وكذلك جورجيا الشرقية وأوكرانيا الغربية وبيلوروسيا وجزء كبير من بولونيا.
ولكن من جهة أخرى شهدت روسيا خلال حكمها انتفاضة ضخمة لفلاحي وقوزاقحوض الفولغا بقيادة إيميليان بوغاتشوف، وقد شمل نطاق هذه الانتفاضة مناطق عديدة في حوض الفولغا ومنطقة الأورالوسيبيريا الغربية.(المزيد) لم تعطى كاثرين تلك الامتيازات للمسلمين من باب التسامح الدينى ولكن لضمان عدم انضمامهم للدولة العثمانية أثناء حربها معهم

Catherine II


also known as Catherine the Great (Russian: Екатерина II Великая, Yekaterina II Velikaya; German: Katharina die Große), Empress of Russia, was the most renowned and the longest-ruling female leader of Russia, reigning from 9 July [O.S. 28 June] 1762 until her death on 17 November [O.S. 6 November] 1796. She was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on 2 May [O.S. 21 April] 1729 as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, and came to power following a coup d'état and the assassination of her husband, Peter III, at the end of the Seven Years' War. Russia was revitalized under her reign, growing larger and stronger than ever and becoming recognized as one of the great powers of Europe.
In both her accession to power and in rule of her empire, Catherine often relied on her noble favourites, most notably Grigory Orlov and Grigory Potemkin. Assisted by highly successful generals such as Pyotr Rumyantsev and Alexander Suvorov, and admirals such as Fyodor Ushakov, she governed at a time when the Russian Empire was expanding rapidly by conquest and diplomacy. In the south, the Crimean Khanate was crushed following victories over the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish wars, and Russia colonised the vast territories of Novorossiya along the coasts of the Black and Azov Seas. In the west, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, ruled by Catherine's former lover, king Stanisław August Poniatowski, was eventually partitioned, with the Russian Empire gaining the largest share. In the east, Russia started to coloniseAlaska, establishing Russian America.
Catherine reformed the administration of Russian guberniyas, and many new cities and towns were founded on her orders. An admirer of Peter the Great, Catherine continued to modernize Russia along Western European lines. However, military conscription and economy continued to depend on serfdom, and the increasing demands of the state and private landowners led to increased levels of exploitation of serfs. This was one of the chief reasons behind several rebellions, including the large-scale Pugachev's Rebellion of cossacks and peasants.
The period of Catherine the Great's rule, the Catherinian Era, is often considered the Golden Age of the Russian Empire and the Russian nobility. The Manifesto on Freedom of the Nobility, issued during the short reign of Peter III and confirmed by Catherine, freed Russian nobles from compulsory military or state service. Construction of many mansions of the nobility, in the classical style endorsed by the Empress, changed the face of the country. A notable example of enlightened despot, a correspondent of Voltaire and an amateur opera librettist, Catherine presided over the age of the Russian Enlightenment, when the Smolny Institute, the first state-financed higher education institution for women in Europe, was established.

Catherine's father Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst belonged to the ruling family of Anhalt, but held the rank of a Prussian general in his capacity as Governor of the city of Stettin (now[update] Szczecin, Poland).
والدها
Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst (Dornburg, 29 November 1690 – Zerbst, 16 March 1747) was a German prince of the House of Ascania. He was a ruler of the Principality of Anhalt-Dornburg, then, from 1742, a ruler of the entire Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst. He was also a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall, but is best known for being the father of Catherine the Great of Russia.
Born as Sophia Augusta Fredericka (German: Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg, nicknamed "Figchen") in Stettin, Pomerania, two of her first cousins became Kings of Sweden: Gustav III and Charles XIII. In accordance with the custom then prevailing in the ruling dynasties of Germany, she received her education chiefly from a French governess and from tutors. Catherine's childhood was quite uneventful. She herself once wrote to her correspondent Baron Grimm: "I see nothing of interest in it."[1] Although Catherine was born a princess, her family had very little money. Catherine was to come to power based on her mother's relations to wealthy members of royalty.
The choice of Sophia as wife of her second cousin, the prospective tsarPeter of Holstein-Gottorp, resulted from some amount of diplomatic management in which Count Lestocq, Peter's aunt (the ruling Russian Empress Elizabeth), and Frederick II of Prussia took part. Lestocq and Frederick wanted to strengthen the friendship between Prussia and Russia in order to weaken Austria's influence and ruin the Russian chancellor Bestuzhev, on whom Empress Elizabeth relied, and who acted as a known partisan of Russo-Austrian co-operation. Catherine first met Peter III at the tender age of ten. Based on her writings, she found Peter detestable upon meeting him. She disliked his pale complexion and his fondness of alcohol at such a young age.
The diplomatic intrigue failed, largely due to the intervention of Sophia's mother, Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp. Historical accounts portray her as a cold, abusive woman who loved gossip and court intrigues. Johanna's hunger for fame centered on her daughter's prospects of becoming empress of Russia, but she infuriated Empress Elizabeth, who eventually banned her from the country for spying for King Frederick of Prussia. The empress knew the family well: she herself had intended to marry Princess Johanna's brother Charles Augustus (Karl August von Holstein), who had died of smallpox in 1727 before the wedding could take place. Nonetheless, Elizabeth took a strong liking to the daughter, who on arrival in Russia spared no effort to ingratiate herself not only with the Empress Elizabeth, but with her husband and with the Russian people. She applied herself to learning the Russian language with such zeal that she rose at night and walked about her bedroom barefoot repeating her lessons (though she mastered the language, she retained an accent). This led to a severe attack of pneumonia in March 1744. When she wrote her memoirs, she said she made up her mind when she came to Russia to do whatever was necessary, and to profess to believe whatever was required of her, to become qualified to wear the crown.
Princess Sophia's father, a devout German Lutheran, opposed his daughter's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite his objection, on 28 June 1744 the Russian Orthodox Church received Princess Sophia as a member with the new name Catherine (Yekaterina or Ekaterina) and the (artificial) patronymic Алексеевна (Alekseyevna, daughter of Aleksey). On the following day the formal betrothal took place. The long-planned dynastic marriage finally occurred on 21 August 1745 at Saint Petersburg. Sophia had turned 16; her father did not travel to Russia for the wedding. The bridegroom, known then as Peter von Holstein-Gottorp, had become Duke of Holstein-Gottorp (located in the north-west of present-day[update] Germany near the border with Denmark) in 1739.
As she recalls herself in her memoirs, as soon as she arrived in Russia she fell ill with a pleuritis which almost killed her. She says she owes her survival to frequent bloodletting; in one single day she had four phlebotomies. Her mother, being opposed to this practice, fell into the Empress' disfavour. When her situation looked desperate, her mother wanted her confessed by a Lutheran priest; she however, awaking from her delirium, said: "I don't want any Lutheran; I want my orthodox father." This raised her in the empress' estimation.
The newlyweds settled in the palace of Oranienbaum, which remained the residence of the "young court" for many years to come.
Count Andrei Shuvalov, chamberlain to Catherine, knew the diarist James Boswell well, and Boswell reports that Shuvalov shared private information regarding the monarch's intimate affairs. Some of these rumours included that Peter took a mistress (Elizabeth Vorontsova), while Catherine carried on liaisons with Sergei Saltykov, Grigory Grigoryevich Orlov (1734–1783), Stanisław August Poniatowski, Alexander Vasilchikov, and others. She became friends with Princess Ekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova, the sister of her husband's mistress, who introduced her to several powerful political groups that opposed her husband. Peter III's temperament became quite unbearable for those who resided in the palace. He would announce trying drills in the morning to male servants who would later join Catherine in her room to sing and dance until late hours.[5] Catherine became pregnant with her second child, Anna,who would only live to be four months old, in 1759. Due to various rumors of Catherine's promiscuity, Peter was led to believe that he was not the child's biological father and is known to have proclaimed, "Go to the devil!" when Catherine angrily dismissed his accusation. She thus spent much of this time alone in her own private boudoir to hide away from Peter's abrasive persona and his disapproved war tactics.[6]
Of the period before her accession to the Russian throne, Catherine said: "Happiness and unhappiness are in the heart and spirit of each one of us: if you feel unhappy, then place yourself above that and act so that your happiness does not get to be dependent on anything.'

تابع،،،18 - كاثرين العظيمة

اهم الاحداث التي صبغت طفولة كاترينا العظيمة:

ربما ان طبيعة والدة الملكة كترينا العظيمة كان اكثر العناصر اهمية في صناعة شخصية هذه الامبراطورة فقد عرف عنها شراستها وبرودتها وحبها للتملق للطبقة العليا. لكن ايضا يعرف ان عائلة الملكة كانت فقيرة وانها سافرت الى روسيا تاركة والده وهي في سن 12 ، وهناك مرضت مرضا شديدا كاد ان يقتلها.
ثم نجد انها تحولت الى المذهب الارثودكسي على الرغم من معارضة والدها اللوثري وهي في سن السادسة عشره لكن ورغم اهمية هذه العوامل لا يمكن التقليل من اهمية يتمها حيث مات والدها وهي في سن الـ 18 .

يتيم الاب في سن الـ 18.

19-شاندرا غبتا الثاني

Chandgragupta II (A.D 380 – A.D. 415)
Chandragupta II was the son of Samudragupta. He succeeded his father and ruled from A.D 380 to A.D 415. He strengthened his position by a policy of matrimonial alliances. He married Kubera Naga, the princess of Naga Clan. He gave his daughter Prabhavathi in marriage to Rudrasena II, the Vakataka King. He defeated the Sakas. He annexed Gujarat and Sourashtra from Sakas. It gained him the title Sakari. He made Ujjain as his second capital. He also assumed the title of Vikramaditya. It means equal to Sun God in valour and strength Kalidasa and Amarasimha were famous scholars in his court. It was during Chandragupta’s time that the Chinese Pilgrim Fa-Hien visited India (A.D 399 - A.D 414). He has written a long and detailed account on India of the Gupta period An Arab merchant Sulaiman and a Venetian traveler, Marco Polo have recorded that Chandragupta II was an ideal ruler. Chandragupta’s son Kumaragupta was a great scholar. He was the founder of the Nalanda University.
Successors of Chandragupta II
Chandragupta II was succeeded by his son Kumaragupta He ruled from A.D 415 to A.D 456, He was followed by Skandagupta who ruled from A.D 456 to A ID 468 Around this time, the Huns, a Central Asian tribe, threatened the Gupta Empire. Though Skandagupta defeated the Huns, the war with them had ruined the Guptan economy. The Gupta ruler also faced domestic problems. After Skandagupta, the empire was split into a number of small kingdoms

Chandra Gupta II, also called Vikramaditya, powerful emperor (reigned c. 380–c. 415 ce) of northern India. He was the son of Samudra Gupta and grandson of Chandra Gupta I. During his reign, art, architecture, and sculpture flourished, and the cultural development of ancient India reached its climax.
According to tradition, Chandra Gupta II achieved power by assassinating a weak elder brother. Inheriting a large empire, he continued the policy of his father, Samudra Gupta, by extending control over neighbouring territories. From 388 to 409 he subjugated Gujarat, the region north of Bombay (Mumbai), Saurastra (now Saurashtra), in western India, and ... (100 of 374 words)

Chandragupta II The Great, very often referred to as Vikramaditya or Chandragupta Vikramaditya in Sanskrit; was one of the most powerful emperors of the Gupta empire in northern India. His rule spanned c. 380–413/415 CE, during which the Gupta Empire achieved its zenith, art, architecture, and sculpture flourished, and the cultural development of ancient India reached its climax.[1] The period of prominence of the Gupta dynasty is very often referred to as the Golden Age of India. Chandragupta II was the son of the previous ruler, Samudragupta the Great. He attained success by pursuing both a favorable marital alliance and an aggressive expansionist policy in this which his father and grandfather (Chandragupta I) set the precedent. Samudragupta set the stage for the emergence of classical art, which occurred under the rule of Chandragupta II. Chandragupta II gave great support to the arts. Artists were so highly valued under his rule that they were paid for their work — a rare phenomenon in ancient civilizations.[2]
From 388 to 409 he subjugated Gujarat, the region north of Mumbai, Saurashtra, in western India, and Malwa, with its capital at Ujjain.[3] Culturally, the reign of Chandragupta II marked a Golden Age. This is evidenced by later reports of the presence of a circle of poets known as the Nine Gems in his court. The greatest among them was Kalidasa, who authored numerous immortal pieces of literature including Abhijñānaśākuntalam. The others included Sanskrit grammarian Amara Sinha and the astronomer-mathematician Varahamihira.[citation needed]
Not much is known about the personal details of Chandragupta II. The most widely accepted details have been built upon the plot of the play Devi-chandraguptam by Vishakadatta. The play is now lost, but fragments have been preserved in other works (such as Abhinava-bharati, Sringara-prakasha, Natya-darpana, Nataka-lakshana Ratna-kosha). There even exists an Arabic work Mojmal al-tawarikh (12th century CE) which tells a similar tale of a king whose name appears to be a corruption of 'Vikramaditya'. The name 'Vikramaditya' holds a semi-mythical status in India. India has many interesting stories about King Vikramaditya, his guru Manva-Patwa and his queens. It is widely believed that the great poet in Sanskrit, Kalidasa was one of the jewels of Vikramaditya's royal court.

Chandragupta II's mother, Datta Devi, was the chief queen of Samudragupta the Great. After Samudragupta's death his elder son, Ramagupta, took over the throne and married Chandragupta II's fiance Dhruvaswamini by force. The fragment from Vishakadatta's "Natya-darpana" mentions the king Ramagupta, the elder brother of Chandragupta II, deciding to surrender his queen Dhruvaswamini to the Saka ruler of the Western KshatrapasRudrasimha III (r. 388 - 395 CE), after a defeat at the Saka ruler's hands. To avoid the ignominy the Guptas decide to send Madhavasena, a courtesan and a beloved of Chandragupta II, disguised as the queen Dhruvaswamini. Chandragupta II changes the plan and himself goes to Rudrasimha III disguised as the queen. He then assassinates Rudrasimha III and later his brother Ramagupta. Dhruvaswamini is then married to Chandragupta II.
Historians still don't know what liberties the author Vishakadatta took with the incidents, but Dhruvadevi was indeed Chandragupta II's Chief Queen as seen in the Vaisali Terracotta Seal that calls her "Mahadevi" (Chief Queen) Dhruvasvamini. The Bilsad Pillar Inscription of their son Kumaragupta I (r. 414–455 CE) also refers to her as "Mahadevi Dhruvadevi". Certain "Ramagupta" too is mentioned in inscriptions on Jain figures in the District Archaeological Museum, Vidisha and some copper coins found at Vidisha.
The fact that Chandragupta II and Dhruvadevi are the protagonists of Vishakadatta's play indicates that marrying his widowed sister-in-law was not given any significance by the playwright. Later Hindus did not view such a marriage with favour and some censure of the act is found in the Sanjan Copper Plate Inscription of Rashtrakuta ruler Amoghavarsha I (r. 814-878 CE) and in the Sangali and Cambay Plates of the Govinda IV (r. 930-936 CE).
Chandragupta II's son-in-law, the Vakataka ruler Rudrasena II, died fortuitously after a very short reign in 385 CE, following which Queen Prabhavati Gupta (r. 385-405) ruled the Vakataka kingdom as a regent on behalf of her two sons. During this twenty-year period the Vakataka realm was practically a part of the Gupta empire. The geographical location of the Vakataka kingdom allowed Chandragupta II to take the opportunity to defeat the Western Kshatrapas once for all. Many historians refer to this period as the Vakataka-Gupta Age.
Chandragupta II controlled a vast empire, from the mouth of the Ganges to the mouth of the Indus River and from what is now North Pakistan down to the mouth of the Narmada. Pataliputra continued to be the capital of his huge empire but Ujjain too became a sort of second capital. The large number of beautiful gold coins issued by the Gupta dynasty are a testament to the imperial grandeur of that age. Chandragupta II also started producing silver coins in the Saka tradition.

شارلمان (742- 814) هو ملك الفرنجة حاكم إمبراطوريتهم بين عامي (768- 800) وإمبراطور الإمبراطورية الرومانية المقدسة بين عامي (800- 814). الابن الأكبر للملك بيبين الثالث من سلالة الكارولينجيين. ويعتبر بيبين القصير (حكم من عام 751 إلى عام 768) مؤسس حكم أسرة الكارولنجيين في حين يعتبر ابنه شارلمان (حكم من عام 768 إلى عام 814) أعظم ملوكها.
شارلمان هو أول إمبراطور روماني مقدس.

حكم مملكة الفرنجة (الامبراطوريه الكارولينجيه) مناصفة مع شقيقه كارلومان حتى موت الأخير عام 771. عندها أمسى شارلمان الملك الوحيد لشعبه، فقام بحملات واسعة للسيطرة على الأراضي الأوربية المجاورة لمملكته ولتبشيرها بالمسيحية. فهزم اللومبارديين في شمال إيطاليا وضم إقطاعياتهم عام 774، وحاول طرد المسلمين من اسبانيا ولكنه فشل في ذلك عام 778، ونجح في السيطرة على بافاريا عام 778.
حارب شارلمان السكسون لسنوات عديدة فهزمهم وأدخلهم في المسيحية عام 804، وأخضع أيضا الآفاريين المقيمين على الدانوب وسيطر على العديد من الدول السلافية. وهكذا تمكن من إنشاء إمبراطورية ضمت معظم الأراضي المسيحية في أوروبا الغربية باستثناء الجزيرة البريطانية، جنوب إيطاليا وجزء من اسبانيا.
في يوم عيد الميلاد عام 800 م توجه البابا لاون الثالث إمبراطوراً لما سمي بالإمبراطورية الرومانية المقدسة، واختار الإمبراطور مدينة آخنالألمانية لتكون عاصمته حيث بنى فيها تحف معمارية شتى لايزال قسم منها قائم حتى اليوم.
دعا شارلمان الكثير من العلماء والأدباء والشعراء لمساعدته في البدء بنهضة دينية ثقافية في أوروبا عرفت بالنهضة الكارولينجية. كما قام أيضا بسن القوانين وبتنظيم الأمور الإدارية في إمبراطوريته وأدخل الكتابة في الشؤون الحكومية.
خلفه بعد موته ابنه لويس الورع والذي كان شارلمان قد سبق وتوجه على العرش.

تعد القوانين الست والخمسون الباقية من تشريعات شارلمان من أكثر المجموعات القانونية طرافة في العصور الوسطى. فهي لا تكون مجموعة منتظمة، بل هي توسيع القوانين "الهمجية" الأقدم منها عهداً وتطبيقاً على الظروف والمطالب الجديدة. ولقد كانت في بعض تفاصيلها أقل استنارة من قوانين ليوتبراند اللمباردي: فقد أبقت على عادات الكفارة عن الجرائم الكبرى، والتحكم الإلهي، والمحاكمة بالاقتتال، والعقاب ببتر الأعضاء، وحكمت بالإعدام على من يرتد إلى الوثنية، أو من يأكل اللحم في أيام الصوم الكبير-وإن كان يسمح لرجال الدين أن يخففوا هذه العقوبة الأخيرة. ولم تكن هذه كلها قوانين، بل منها ما كان فتاوي، ومنها ما كان أسئلة موجهة من شارلمان إلى موظفيه، ومنها ما هو نصائح أخلاقية. وقد جاء في إحدى المواد: "يجب على كل إنسان أن يعمل بكل ما لديه من قوة وكفاية لخدمة الله وإتباع أوامره، لأن الإمبراطور لا يستطيع أن يراقب كل إنسان في أخلاقه الخاصة". وحاولت بعض المواد أن تقيم العلاقات الجنسية والزوجية بين أفراد الشعب على قواعد أكثر نظاماً مما كانت قبل، على أن الناس لم يطيعوا هذه النصائح كلها؛ ولكن القوانين والنصائح في مجموعها تنم عن جهود صادقة لتحويل الهمجية إلى حضارة.
وشرع شارلمان للزراعة، والصناعة، والشئون المالية، والتعليم، والدين، كما شرع لشئون الحكم والأخلاق[4].

كان حكم شارلمان في فترة انحطت فيها الحالة الاقتصادية في جنوبي فرنسا وإيطاليا إلى الحضيض من جراء سيطرة المسلمين على البحر المتوسط. وفي هذا يقول ابن خلدون إن المسيحيين لم يكن في وسعهم أن يسيروا لوحاً فوق البحر، وكانت العلاقات التجارية بأجمعها بين غربي أوروبا وأفريقية وشرقي البحر المتوسط غاية في الاضطراب. وكان اليهود وحدهم هم الذين يربطون النصفين المتعاديين من البلاد التي كانت أيام حكم روما عالماً اقتصادياً موحداً. وبقيت التجارة قائمة في أوروبا الخاضعة لحكم الصقالبة وبيزنطية، وفي شمالها التيوتوني. وكذلك كانت القناة الإنجليزية وكان بحر الشمال يموجان بالمتاجر، ولكن هذه التجارة الأخيرة أيضاً اضطربت أحوالها قبل موت شارلمان، وقد أوقعتها في هذا الاضطراب غارات أهل الشمال وقرصنتهم.
وكاد أهل الشمال يغلقون ثغور فرنسا الشمالية، والمسلمون يغلقون ثغورها الجنوبية، حتى أضحت لهذا السبب جزيرة منفصلة عن العالم، وبلداً زراعياً، واضمحلت فيها طبقة التجار الوسطى، فلم تبق هناك طبقة تنافس كبار الملاك في الريف؛ وكان مما ساعد على قيام نظام الإقطاع في فرنسا هبات شارلمان للأراضي وانتصار الإسلام.
وبذل شارلمان جهوداً جبارة لحماية الفلاحين الأحرار من نظام رقيق الأرض الآخذ في الانتشار. ولكن قوة الأشراف والظروف القاهرة المحيطة به أحبطت جهوده. وحتى الاسترقاق نفسه اتسع نطاقه وقتاً ما نتيجة لحروب الكارولنجيين ضد القبائل الوثنية. وكانت أهم موارد الملك مزارعه الخاصة التي كانت مساحتها تتسع من حين إلى حين نتيجة المصادرة، والهبات، وعودة بعض الأراضي إلى الملك ممن يموتون بغير ورثة، واستصلاح الأراضي البور. وقد أصدر للعناية بهذه الأراضي قانوناً زراعياً مفصلاً أعظم تفصيل يشهد بعنايته التامة في بحث جميع موارد الدولة ومصروفاتها. وكانت الغابات والأراضي البور، والطرق العامة، والمواني وجميع ما في الأرض من معادن ملكاً للدولة(28). وشجع ما بقي في البلاد من تجارة بكافة السبل ؛ فبسطت الدولة حمايتها على الأسواق، ووُضع نظام دقيق للموازين والمقاييس والأثمان، وجففت المكوس، ومُنعت المضاربات على المحاصيل قبل حصادها، وأنشئت الطرق والجسور أو أصلحت، وأنشئ جسر عظيم على نهر الرين عند مينز، وطهرت المسالك المائية لتبقى مفتوحة على الدوام، واختطت قناة تصل الرين بالدانوب حتى يتصل بحر الشمال بالبحر الأسود. وحافظت الدولة على ثبات النقد، ولكن قلة الذهب في فرنسا واضمحلال التجارة أدّيا إلى استبدال الجنيه الفضي بجنيه شارلمان المعروف باسم السوليدس Solidus.
وامتدت جهود الملك وعنايته إلى كل ناحية من نواحي الحياة، فأسمى الرياح الأربع بأسمائها التي تعرف بها الآن؛ ووضع نظاماً إعانة الفقراء، وفرض على النبلاء ورجال الدين ما يلزمه من المال لهذا المشروع، ثم حرم التسول وجعله جريمة يعاقب عليها القانون.

هال شارلمان انتشار الأمية في أيامه حتى لا يكاد أحد يعرف القراءة والكتابة غير رجال الدين، كما هاله انعدام التعليم بين الطبقات الدنيا من هذه الطائفة، فاستدعى علماء من الأجانب لإعادة مدارس فرنسا إلى سابق عهدها؛ فأغرى بولس الشماس على أن يأتي إليه من منتي كسينو، وألكوين من يورك (782)، ليعلما في المدرسة التي أنشأها شارلمان في القصر الملكي بآخن. وكان ألكوين هذا (735-804) رجلاً سكسونياً، ولد بالقرب من مدينة يورك، وتعلم في مدرسة الكتدرائية وهي المدرسة التي أنشأها الأسقف إجبرت في تلك المدينة، وقد كانت بريطانيا وأيرلندة في القرن الثامن متقدمتين من الناحية الثقافية عن فرنسا. ولما بعث أفا Offa ملك مرسية Mercia ألكوين في بعثة إلى شارلمان ألح شارلمان على ألكوين أن يبقى عنده، وسر ألكوين أن يخرج من إنجلترا حين كان "الدنمرقيون يتلفون أرضها، ويدنسون الأديرة بما يرتكبونه فيها من الزنى"(30)، فآثر البقاء، وبعث إلى إنجلترا وغيرها من البلاد في طلب الكتب والمعلمين، وسرعان ما أضحت مدرسة القصر مركزاً نشيطاً من مراكز الدرس، ومراجعة المخطوطات ونسخها، كما أضحت مركزاً لإصلاح نظم التربية إصلاحاً عم جميع المملكة. وكان من بين طلابها شارلمان نفسه، وزوجته ليوتجارد Liutgard، وأولاده وابنته جزيلا Gisela، وأمين سره اجنهارد Eginhard، وإحدى الراهبات، وكثيرون غيرهم، وكان أكثرهم شغفاً بالتعليم؛ فكان يحرص على العلم حرصه على تملك البلاد، يدرس البلاغة وعلوم الكلام، والهيئة؛ ويقول إجنهارد إنه بذل جهوداً جبارة ليتعلم الكتابة "وكان من عادته أن يحتفظ بالألواح تحت وسادته، حتى يستطيع في أوقات فراغه أن يمرن يده على رسم الحروف؛ ولكن جهوده هذه لم تلق إلا قليلاً من النجاح لأنه بدأ هذه الجهود في سني حياته". ودرس اللاتينية بنهم شديد، ولكنه ظل يتحدث بالألمانية مع أفراد حاشيته؛ وقد وضع كتاباً فينحو اللغة الألمانية وجمع نماذج من الشعر الألماني القديم.
ولما ألح ألكوين على شارلمان، وبعد أن قضي في مدرسة القصر ثمة سنين، أن ينقله إلى بيئة أكثر منها هدوءاً، عينه الملك على كره منه رئيساً لدير تور (796)؛ وهناك حشد ألكوين الرهبان لينقلوا نسخاً من الترجمة اللاتينية المتداولة للتوراة والإنجيل التي قام جيروم أحد آباء الكنيسة اللاتين، ومن الكتب اللاتينية القديمة، بحيث تكون أكثر دقة من النسخ المتداولة وقتئذ. وحذت الأديرة الأخرى حذو هذا الدير، وبفضل هذه الجهود كانت كثير من أحسن ما وصل إلينا من النصوص القديمة من مخطوطات هذه الأديرة في القرن التاسع الميلادي؛ وقد احتفظ لنا رهبان العصر الكارولنجي بما لدينا من الشعر اللاتيني كله تقريباً عدا شعر كاتلس Gatullus، وتيبلس Tibullus، وبروبرتيوس Poptrtius، وبما لدينا من النثر اللاتيني كله تقريباً ما عدا كتابات فارو Varro، وتاستس Tacitns وأبوليوس Apnleius(32). وكانت كثير من المخطوطات الكارولنجية جميلة الزخرفة يزينها فن الرهبان وصبرهم الطويل، وكان من آثار هذه الكتب المزخرفة التي أخرجتها مدرسة القصر أناجيل "فينا" التي كانت أباطرة ألمانيا المتأخرون يقسمون عليها أيمان تتويجهم.
وأصدر شارلمان في عام 787 إلى جميع أساقفة فرنسا ورؤساء أديرتها "توجيهات لدراسة الآداب"، يلوم فيها رجال الدين على ما يستخدمونه من "اللغة الفظة" و"الألسنة غير المهذبة" ويحث كل كنيسة ودير على إنشاء مدارس يتعلم فيها رجال الدين على السواء القراءة والكتابة. ثم أصدر توجيهات أخرى في عام 789 يدعو فيها مديري هذه المدارس أن "يحرصوا على ألا يفرقوا بين أبناء رقيق الأرض وأبناء الأحرار، حتى يمكنهم أن يأتوا ويجلسوا على المقاعد نفسها ليدرسوا النحو، والموسيقى، والحساب". وفي عام 805 صدرت تعليمات أخرى تهيئ لهذه المدارس تعليم الطب، وتعليمات غيرها تندد بالخرافات الطبية. ومما يدلنا على أن أوامره لم تذهب أدراج الرياح كثرة ما أنشئ في فرنسا وألمانيا الغربية من مدارس في الكنائس والأديرة؛ فلقد أنشأ ثيودولف Theodulf أسقف أورليان مدارس في كل أبرشية من أسقفيته، رحب فيها بجميع الأطفال على السواء، وحرم على القساوسة الذين يتولون التدريس أن يتناولوا أجوراً(33). ونشأت مدارس هامة، متصلة كلها تقريباً بالأديرة، في خلال القرن التاسع في تور، وأوكسير Auxer، وبافيا، وسانت جول St, Gall، وفلدا Fulda، وغنت Ghent وغيرها من المدن. وأراد شارلمان أن يوفر حاجة هذه المدارس إلى المعلمين، فاستقدم العلماء من أيرلندة، وبريطانيا، وإيطاليا، ومن هذه المدارس نشأت في المستقبل الجامعات الأوربية.
كان هذا البعث المدرسي أشبه بيقظة الأطفال منه بالنضوج الثقافي الذي كان قائماً وقتئذ في القسطنطينية، وبغداد، وقرطبة، فلم يثمر هذا البعث كتاباً كباراً من أي نوع كان. وكتابات ألكوين الشكلي مملة، مقبضة، خانقة؛ وليس فيها ما ينفي عنه تهمة التحذلق والتباهي بالعلم، وتدل على أنه إنسان لطيف يستطيع أن يوفق بين السعادة والتقي؛ وليس فيها ما يدل على هذا وينفي ذاك إلا بعض وسائله وأبيات من شعره. ولقد أنشأ كثير من الناس أشعاراً في أثناء هذه النهضة العلمية القصيرة الأجل، منها قصائد ثيودولف التي فيها قدر كاف من الجمال على طريقتها الضعيفة الخاصة بها. غير أن الأثر الأدبي الخالد الوحيد الذي خلفه ذلك العهد هو الترجمة المختصرة البسيطة لشارلمان التي كتبها اجنهارد. وهي تحذو حذو كتاب ستونيوس Seutonius حياة القياصرة Lives of the Caesars، بل الكتاب الأول ليقتطف بعض فقرات من الثاني يصف بها شارلمان. على أننا يجب أن نغفر كل شيء للمؤلف الذي يصف نفسه في تواضع جم بأنه "همجي، لا يعرف إلا قليلاً من لسان الرومان"، وما من شك رغم هذا الاعتراف في أنه رجل عظيم المواهب، لأن شارلمان عيّنَه أستاذاً اقصره، وخازناً لبيت ماله، واتخذه صديقاً مقرباً له، واختاره ليشرف على الكثير من العمائر في حكمه الإنساني العظيم، ولعله قد اختاره لتخطيطها.

قسم شارلمان إمبراطوريته الواسعة في عام 806 بين أولاده الثلاثة-بيبين، ولويس، وشارل. ولكن بيبن توفي عام 810، وشارل في عام 811، ولم يبق من هؤلاء الأبناء إلا لويس، وكان منهمكاً في العبادة انهماكا بدا معه أنه غير خليق بأن يحكم عالماً مليئاً بالاضطراب والغدر. غير أن لويس الأول رغم هذا قد رفع باحتفال مهيب في عام 813 من ملك إلى إمبراطور ونطق المليك الشيخ قائلاً: "حمداً لله يا إلهي إذ أنعمت عليَّ بأن أرى بعين ولدي يجلس على عرشي".
وبعد أربع سنين من ذلك الوقت أصيب الملك الشيخ وهو يقضي الشتاء في آخن بحمى شديدة نتج عنها التهاب البلورة، وحاول أن يداوي نفسه بالاقتصار على السوائل، ولكنه توفي بعد سبعة أيام من بداية المرض بعد أن حكم سبعاً وأربعين سنة وعاش اثنتين وسبعين (814)، ودفن تحت قبة كتدرائية آخن، مرتدياً أثوابه الإمبراطورية. وما لبث العالم كله أن أسماه كارولس ماجنس Carolus Magnus أو كارل در جروس Karl der Grosse أو شارلمان Charlemagne (أي شارل العظيم).
خلف شارلمان بعد موته إبنه لويس الورع والذي كان شارلمان قد سبق وتوجه على العرش.

Charlemagne (/ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn/ or /ˈʃɑrləmeɪn/; French pronunciation: [ʃaʁ.lə.maɲ]; c. 742 – 28 January 814), also known as Charles the Great (Latin: Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus), was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans (Imperator Romanorum) from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crownedImperator Augustus by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800 in Rome.
His rule is also associated with the Carolingian Renaissance, a revival of art, religion, and culture through the medium of the Catholic Church. Through his foreign conquests and internal reforms, Charlemagne helped define both Western Europe and the European Middle Ages. He is numbered as Charles I in the regnal lists of Germany, the Holy Roman Empire, and France.
The son of King Pepin the Short and Bertrada of Laon, a Frankish queen, he succeeded his father in 768 and was initially co-ruler with his brother Carloman I. It has often been suggested that the relationship between Charlemagne and Carloman was not good, but it has also been argued that tensions were exaggerated by Carolingian chroniclers.[2]
Nevertheless further conflict was prevented by the sudden death of Carloman in 771, in unexplained circumstances. Charlemagne continued the policy of his father towards the papacy and became its protector, removing the Lombards from power in Italy, and leading an incursion into Muslim Spain, to which he was invited by the Muslim governor of Barcelona. Charlemagne was promised several Iberian cities in return for giving military aid to the governor; however, the deal was withdrawn.
Subsequently, Charlemagne's retreating army experienced its worst defeat at the hands of the Basques, at the Battle of Roncesvalles (778) (memorialised, although heavily fictionalised, in the Song of Roland). He also campaigned against the peoples to his east, especially the Saxons, and after a protracted war subjected them to his rule. By forcibly Christianizing the Saxons and banning on penalty of death their native Germanic paganism, he integrated them into his realm and thus paved the way for the later Ottonian dynasty.
The French and German monarchies descending from the empire ruled by Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor cover most of Europe. In his acceptance speech of the Charlemagne PrizePope John Paul II referred to him as the Pater Europae ("father of Europe"):[3] his empire united most of Western Europe for the first time since the Romans, and the Carolingian renaissance encouraged the formation of a common European identity.[4]

By the 6th century, the West GermanicFranks had been Christianised and Francia, ruled by the Merovingians, was the most powerful of the kingdoms that succeeded the Western Roman Empire. But following the Battle of Tertry, the Merovingians declined into a state of powerlessness, for which they have been dubbed the do-nothing kings (rois fainéants). Almost all government powers of any consequence were exercised by their chief officer, the mayor of the palace or major domus.
In 687, Pippin of Herstal(or Heristal), mayor of the palace of Austrasia, ended the strife between various kings and their mayors with his victory at Tertry and became the sole governor of the entire Frankish kingdom. Pippin himself was the grandson of two of the most important figures of the Austrasian Kingdom, Saint Arnulf of Metz and Pippin of Landen. Pippin the Middle was eventually succeeded by his illegitimate son Charles, later known as Charles Martel (the Hammer).
After 737, Charles governed the Franks without a king on the throne but declined to call himself "king". Charles was succeeded in 741 by his sons Carloman and Pepin the Short, the father of Charlemagne. To curb separatism in the periphery of the realm, in 743 the brothers placed on the throne Childeric III, who was to be the last Merovingian king.
After Carloman resigned office in 746 to enter the church by preference as a monk, Pepin brought the question of the kingship before Pope Zachary, asking whether it was logical for a king to have no royal power. The pope handed down his decision in 749. He decreed (mandavit) that it was better for Pepin, who had the powers of high office as Mayor, to be called king, so as not to confuse the hierarchy (ordo). He therefore ordered him (iussit) to become "true king."
In 750, Pepin was elected by an assembly of the Franks, anointed by the archbishop and then raised (elevatus) to the office of king. Branding Childeric III as "the false king," the Pope ordered him into a monastery. Thus was the Merovingian dynasty replaced by the Carolingian dynasty, named after Pepin's father, Charles Martel.
In 753 Pope Stephen II fled from Italy to Francia appealing for assistance pro iustitiis sancti Petri ("for the rights of St. Peter") to Pepin. He was supported in this appeal by Carloman, Charles' brother. In return the pope could only provide legitimacy, which he did by again anointing and confirming Pepin, this time adding his young sons, Carolus and Carloman, to the royal patrimony, now heirs to the great realm that already covered most of western and central Europe. In 754 Pepin accepted the Pope's invitation to visit Italy on behalf of St. Peter's rights, dealing successfully with the Lombards.[5]
Under the Carolingians, the Frankish kingdom spread to encompass an area including most of Western Europe. The division of that kingdom formed France and Germany;[6] and the religious, political, and artistic evolutions originating from a centrally positioned Francia made a defining imprint on the whole of Europe.

Dubbed Charles le Magne, "Charles the Great," by subsequent Old French historians,becoming Charlemagne in English after the Norman conquest of England, he was named Karl (Carolus) after his grandfather, Charles Martel. Carolus Magnus was universal, leading to numerous translations in many languages of Europe: German Karl der Grosse, Dutch Karel de Grote, Danish Karl den Store, Italian Carlo Magno, Hungarian Nagy Károly, Polish Karol Wielki, Czech Karel Veliký, Russian Karl Velikij, and so on.
According to Julius Pokorny, the historical linguist and Indo-Europeanist, the root meaning of Karl is "old man", from Indo-European *ĝer-, where the ĝ is a palatal consonant, meaning "to rub; to be old; grain." An old man has been worn away and is now grey with age.
"Old man" descended into words with different senses. In all the reflex languages a husband is "the old man" or in feminine form "the old lady". He can be an "old fool" as in English churl or a "sad case" as in Persian zar, but in the Germanic languages he becomes something more exalted. Old Norse Karl, Old English Ceorl, Old High German karel is a free man, a citizen, not a slave or an alien. As far as the civilizations established in imitation of classical city-states are concerned, such as the Roman, which had its senatus, "the old men," Karl means respected senior, similar to the English vernacular for a commander, "the old man." The common Germanic was *karilaz, on which the Latin Carolus, English Charles, is based.[13]
Regardless of its previously understood meaning, Charles' achievements altered the meaning of the word. In many European languages, the very word for "king" derives from his name; e.g., Polish: król, Czech: král, Slovak: kráľ, Hungarian: király, Lithuanian: karalius, Latvian: karalis, Russian: король, Macedonian: крал, Bulgarian: крал, Serbian: краљ/kralj, Croatian: kralj, Turkish: kral. This development parallels that of the name of the Caesars in the original Roman Empire, which became Kaiser and Czar, among others.[14]

By Charlemagne's time the French vernacular had already diverged significantly from Latin. This is evidenced by one of the regulations of the Council of Tours (813), which required that the parish priests preach either in the "rusticam Romanam linguam" (Romance) or "Theotiscam" (the Germanic vernacular) rather than in Latin. The goal of this rule was to make the sermons comprehensible to the common people, who must therefore have been either Romance speakers or Germanic speakers.[15] Charlemagne himself probably spoke a Rhenish Franconian dialect of Old High German.[16]
Apart from his native language he also spoke Latin "as well as his native tongue" and understood a bit of Greek, according to his biographer Einhard (Grecam vero melius intellegere quam pronuntiare poterat, "he could understand Greek better than he could speak it").[17] Einhard also writes that Charlemagne started a "grammar of his native language" and "gave the months names in his own tongue".[18] All of his daughters received Old High German names.[citation needed]
The largely fictional account of Charlemagne’s Iberian campaigns by Pseudo-Turpin, written some three centuries after his death, gave rise to the legend that the king also spoke Arabic.[19]

Charlemagne's personal appearance is known from a good description by a personal associate, Einhard, author after his death of the biography Vita Karoli Magni. Einhard tells in his twenty-second chapter:[20]
"He was heavily built, sturdy, and of considerable stature, although not exceptionally so, since his height was seven times the length of his own foot. He had a round head, large and lively eyes, a slightly larger nose than usual, white but still attractive hair, a bright and cheerful expression, a short and fat neck, and he enjoyed good health, except for the fevers that affected him in the last few years of his life. Toward the end, he dragged one leg. Even then, he stubbornly did what he wanted and refused to listen to doctors, indeed he detested them, because they wanted to persuade him to stop eating roast meat, as was his wont, and to be content with boiled meat."
The physical portrait provided by Einhard is confirmed by contemporary depictions of the emperor, such as coins and his 8-inch (20 cm) bronze statue kept in the Louvre. In 1861, Charlemagne's tomb was opened by scientists who reconstructed his skeleton and estimated it to be measured 74.9 in (190 cm).[21] An estimate of his height from an X-ray and CT Scan of his tibia performed in 2010 is 1.84 m (72 in). This puts him in the 99th percentile of tall people of his period, given that average male height of his time was 1.69 m (67 in). The width of the bone suggested he was gracile but not robust in body build.[22]

Einhard says of the early life of Charles:]
"It would be folly, I think, to write a word concerning Charles' birth and infancy, or even his boyhood, for nothing has ever been written on the subject, and there is no one alive now who can give information on it. Accordingly, I determined to pass that by as unknown, and to proceed at once to treat of his character, his deed, and such other facts of his life as are worth telling and setting forth, and shall first give an account of his deed at home and abroad, then of his character and pursuits, and lastly of his administration and death, omitting nothing worth knowing or necessary to know."

The most powerful officers of the Frankish people, the Mayor of the Palace (Maior Domus) and one or more kings (rex, reges) were appointed by election of the people; that is, no regular elections were held, but they were held as required to elect officers ad quos summa imperii pertinebat, "to whom the highest matters of state pertained." Evidently interim decisions could be made by the Pope, which ultimately needed to be ratified by an assembly of the people, which met once a year.[25]
Before Pepin the Short, initially a Mayor, was elected king in 750, he held the high office "as though hereditary" (velut hereditario fungebatur). Einhard explains that "the honor" was usually "given by the people" to the distinguished, but Pepin the Great. and his brother Carloman the wise received it as though hereditary, as did their father, Charles Martel. There was, however, a certain ambiguity about quasi-inheritance. The office was treated as joint property: one Mayorship held by two brothers jointly.[26] Each, however, had his own geographic jurisdiction. When Carloman decided to resign, becoming ultimately a Benedictine at Monte Cassino,[27] the question of the disposition of his quasi-share was settled by the pope. He converted the Mayorship into a Kingship and awarded the joint property to Pepin, who now had the full right to pass it on by inheritance.[28]
This decision was not accepted by all members of the family. Carloman had consented to the temporary tenancy of his own share, which he intended to pass on to his own son, Drogo, when the inheritance should be settled at someone's death. By the Pope's decision, in which Pepin had a hand, Drogo was to be disqualified as an heir in favor of his cousin Charles. He took up arms in opposition to the decision and was joined by Grifo, a half-brother of Pepin and Carloman, who had been given a share by Charles Martel, but was stripped of it and held under loose arrest by his half-brothers after an attempt to seize their shares by military action. By 753 all was over. Grifo perished in combat in the Battle of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne while Drogo was hunted down and taken into custody.[29]
On the death of Pepin, September 24, 768, the kingship passed jointly to his sons, "with divine assent" (divino nutu).[28] According to the Life, Pepin died in Paris. The Franks "in general assembly" (generali conventu) gave them both the rank of king (reges) but "partitioned the whole body of the kingdom equally" (totum regni corpus ex aequo partirentur). The annals[30] tell a slightly different version. The king died at St. Denis, which is, however, still in Paris. The two "lords" (domni) were "elevated to kingship" (elevati sunt in regnum), Carolus on October 9 in Noyon, Carloman on an unspecified date in Soissons. If born in 742, Carolus was 26 years old, but he had been campaigning at his father's right hand for several years, which may help to account for his military skill and genius. Carloman was 17.
The language in either case suggests that there were not two inheritances, which would have created distinct kings ruling over distinct kingdoms, but a single joint inheritance and a joint kingship tenanted by two equal kings, Charles and his brother Carloman. As before, distinct jurisdictions were awarded. Charles received Pepin's original share as Mayor: the outer parts of the kingdom, bordering on the sea, namely Neustria, western Aquitaine, and the northern parts of Austrasia, while Carloman was awarded his uncle's former share: the inner parts: southern Austrasia, Septimania, eastern Aquitaine, Burgundy, Provence, and Swabia, lands bordering on Italy. The question of whether these jurisdictions were joint shares reverting to the other brother if one brother died or were inherited property passed on to the descendants of the brother who died was never definitely settled by the Frankish people. It came up repeatedly over the succeeding decades until the grandsons of Charlemagne created distinct sovereign kingdoms

21- الملك شولالون كورن الملقب راما الخامس

(بالتايلندية:พระบาทสมเด็จพระปรมินทรมหาจุฬาลงกรณ์ฯพระจุลจอมเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว) الحاكم الخامس لمملكة سيام والذي امتد فترة حكمة من 20 سبتمبر 1853م الي 23 أكتوبر 1910م ويعتبر واحد من أعظم ملوك سيام وتميز حكمة بتحديث شامل وواسع للمملكة وتحديث للحكومة وتنفيذ الكثير من الإصلاحات الاجتماعية ويعتبر شولالون كورن ملكا مثقفا حيث تلقي تعليما غربيا حيث إذ تولَّت تعليمه مربية بريطانية منذ الصغر.

تمكن الابن والملك الخامس من أسرة شاكريٍ من مواصلة الإصلاحات الاجتماعية التي بدأها والده، ففي فترة حكمه استطاع:
- إلغاء تجارة الرق في سيام،
- وإعادة تنظيم الدولة
- وإقامة نظام تعليمي جديد صُمّم لخدمة كل أطفال الشعب.

وفي عام 1909 وقعت بريطانيا مع تايلاند اتفاقًا يقضي باعتراف الأخيرة بأحقية بريطانيا في ولايتي كلانتانوبرليس مُقابل اعتراف بريطانيا بسيادة تايلاند على مملكة فطاني الإسلامية التي كانت قد احتلُّت في عهد فيرا شاكري "راما الأول"، والتي تطالب بالانفصال حتى يومنا هذا، وبذلك أصبحت محافظة فطاني محافظة تايلاندية بشرعية واعتراف دولي.

توفي شولالون كورن "راما الخامس" في 23 أكتوبر1910 من مرض في كليته.

King Chulalongkorn was born on 20 September 1853 to King Mongkut and Queen Debsirindra and given the name Chulalongkorn. In 1861, he was designated Krommameun Pikanesuarn Surasangkat. His father gave him a broad education, including instruction from European tutors such as Anna Leonowens. In 1866, he became a novice monk for six months in Wat Bawonniwet according to royal tradition.[2] Upon his return to his secular life in 1867, he was designated Krommakhun Pinit Prachanat (กรมขุนพินิตประชานาถ.)
In 1867, King Mongkut led an expedition to the Malay Peninsula south of Hua Hin,[3] to verify his calculations of the Solar eclipse of 18 August 1868. Both father and son fell ill of malaria and Mongkut died on 1 Oct. 1868. Supposing the 15-year-old Chulalongkorn also to be dying, King Mongkut on his deathbed had written, “My brother, my son, my grandson, whoever you all the senior officials think will be able to save our country will succeed my throne, choose at your own will.” Si Suriyawongse, the most powerful government official of the day, managed the succession of Chulalongkorn to the throne, and his own appointment as regent. The coronation was held on 11 November 1868. Chulalongkorn's health improved, and he was tutored in public affairs, traveled to India (then under the British Raj) and Java (then under Dutch colonial rule) to observe modern administration. He was crowned king in his own right as Rama V on 16 Nov. 1873.[1]
Si Suriyawongse then arranged the title of Front Palace of King Pinklao (who was his uncle) to be succeeded by King Pinklao’s son, Prince Yingyot (who was then Chulalongkorn’s cousin).
The young Chulalongkorn was an enthusiastic king craving for reforms. He visited Singapore and Java in 1870 and British India during 1870–1872 to see the administration of British colonies. He toured the administrative centres of Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay and back to Calcutta in early 1872. This journey was later the source of his ideas and methodology of the modernization of Siam.
As a regent, Si Suriyawongse wielded a great influence. Si Suriyawongse continued the works of King Mongkut. He supervised the digging of several important khlongs, such as Padung Krungkasem and Damneun Saduak, and the paving of roads such as Chareon Krung and Silom. He was also the patron of Thai literature and performing arts.

In 1873, the king became a monk again and returned. The second coronation was held in the same year to celebrate the king’s maturity.
At the end of his regency, Si Suriyawonse was raised to Somdet Chao Phraya, the highest title the nobility could attain. Si Suriyawongse himself was the most powerful noble of the 19th century. His family, Bunnag, was a powerful one of a Persian descent dominating the Siamese politics since the reign of Rama I. Chulalongkorn then married four of his half-sisters. They were all the daughters of Mongkut – Savang Vadhana, Saovabha, and Sunandha with Concubine Piam and Sukumalmarsri with Concubine Samli.
In the same year, Chulalongkorn’s first reform was to establish the Auditory Office (Th: หอรัษฎากรพิพัฒน์) – to replace the corrupted tax collectors as the only institution that collects taxes. As the tax collectors were under the patronage of various nobles and also provided the financial support to the patron, this caused a great disruption among the nobility, especially the Front Palace. Since the time of King Mongkut, the title of Front Palace had been as powerful as the “second king”, with one-third of national revenue devoted to it. Moreover, Prince Yingyot of the Front Palace was known to be acquainted with many British men, in a time when the British Empire was considered the enemy of Siam.
In 1874, Chulalongkorn chartered the Council of State – as a legislative body – and Privy Council – as his personal counsel based on the British privy council. The members of the councils were appointed by the monarch.

In 1874, the Grand Palace was bombed and a fire raged through it. The Front Palace gave no help in extinguishing the fire. This raised suspicions. Prince Yingyot hid himself in the British consulate so that Chulalongkorn could do him no harm. However, the king was waiting, ready to strike, and the tensions continued, until the retired Si Suriyawongse returned from Ratchaburi to calm the conflicts.
The "Front Palace Crisis" incident indicated how much power was wielded by the aristocrats and royal relatives, leaving the king little power. This would become one of his main motives to reform the feudal Siam politics, reducing the power held by the nobility.
When Prince Yingyot died in 1885, Chulalongkorn took that opportunity to abolish the titular Front Palace and created the title of "Crown Prince of Siam" in accordance with the Western style. Chulalongkorn's son, Prince Vajirunhis, was appointed the first Crown Prince of Siam, though he never reigned. In 1895, the Prince died of typhoid at age 17, he was succeeded by his half-brother Vajiravudh, who was then at boarding school in England.
After that, Sri Suriyawongse withdrew from politics, as did the Bunnak family.

Freed from the Front Palace and Chinese rebellions, Chulalongkorn initiated his reforms. He established the Royal Military Academy in 1887 to train the troops in Western fashion. The modernized forces provided the king much more power to centralize the country.
The government of Siam had remained rather unchanged since the fifteenth century. The central government was headed by the Samuha Nayak (i.e. Prime Minister), who controlled the northern parts of Siam, and the Samuha Kalahom (i.e. Grand Commander), who controlled the southern Siam in both civil and military affairs. The Samuha Nayak presided over the Chatu Sadombh (i.e. Four Pillars). The responsibilities of each pillar were rather overlapping and uncertain. In 1888, Chulalongkorn tried the new ministerial government. The ministers were, in the beginning, the members of royal family. The official establishment of ministries was promulgated in 1892, with all ministries in equal status.
The Council of State proved unable to veto the legal drafts or to give Chulalongkorn advices because the members still respected Chulalongkorn as an absolutist monarch. Chulalongkorn then dissolved the Council altogether and transferred the duty to give advices to the cabinet in 1894.
Chulalongkorn also abolished the traditional Nakorn Bala methods of tortures in judiciary process, which was seen as inhumane and barbaric by Western and Modern views, and introduced the Western code. His Belgian advisor, Rolin-Jaequemyns, played a great role in the development of modern Siamese law and judicial system.

Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese king to send the royal princes to Europe to be educated. In nineteenth century Europe, nationalism flourished and there was a call for liberty. The princes, of course, had been influenced by the liberal ideas of democracy and elections. They encountered republics like France and constitutional monarchies like the United Kingdom.
In 1884 (103 of Rattakosin Era), Siamese officials in London and Paris arranged a request to Chulalongkorn, citing the threats from European colonialism were coming and Siam should be reformed like Meiji Japan and Siam should became a constitutional monarchy. However, Chulalongkorn stated that it was not yet time and he himself was urging reforms.
Throughout Chulalongkorn's reign, writers with radical ideas had their works published for the first time. The most notable ones included Tianwan, who had been imprisoned for 17 years and from prison he produced many works criticizing the old Siamese society.

In 1863, King Norodom of Cambodia was forced to put his own country under the French Protectorate. The cession of Cambodia was officially formulated in 1867. However, Inner Cambodia (as called in Siam) consisting of Battambang, Siemreap, and Srisopon, remained a Siamese possession. This was the first of many territorial cessions.
In 1887, French Indochina was formed from Vietnam and Cambodia. In 1888, French troops invaded Northern Laos to subjugate the Heo insurgents. However, the French troops never left, and the French demanded more Laotian lands. In 1893 Auguste Pavie, the French vice-consul of Luang Prabang, requested the cession of all Laotian lands east of the Mekong River. Siam resented the demand, leading to the Franco-Siamese War of 1893.
The French gunboat Le Lutin entered the Chao Phraya and anchored near the French consulate ready to attack. Fighting was observed in Laos. Inconstant and Comete were attacked in Chao Phraya, and the French sent an ultimatum: an indemnity of three million francs, as well as the cession of and withdrawal from Laos. Siam did not accept the ultimatum. French troops then blockaded the Gulf of Siam and occupied Chantaburi and Trat. Chulalongkorn sent Rolin-Jacquemyns to negotiate. The issue was eventually settled with the cession of Laos in 1893, but the French troops in Chantaburi and Trat refused to leave.
The cession of vast Laotian lands had a major impact on Chulalongkorn’s spirit. Prince Vajirunhis died in 1894. Prince Vajiravudh was created crown prince to replace him. Chulalongkorn realised the importance of maintaining the navy and established the Royal Thai Naval Academy in 1898.
Despite Siamese concessions, French armies continued the occupation of Chantaburi and Trat for another 10 years. An agreement was reached in 1903 that French troops would leave Chantaburi but hold the coast land from Trat to Koh Kong. In 1906, the final agreement was reached. Trat was returned to Siam but the French kept Koh Kong and received Inner Cambodia.
Seeing the seriousness of foreign affairs, Chulalongkorn visited Europe in 1897; he was the first Siamese monarch to do so, and he desired European recognition of Siam as a fully independent and honorable power. He appointed his queen, Saovabha, as regent in Siam during his travel to Europe.

With his experiences during the travel to British colonies and the suggestion of Prince Damrong, Chulalongkorn instigated the hierarchical system of Monthons in 1897, composing of Province, City, Amphoe, Tambon, and Mhu Ban (village) in the descending order. (Though a whole monthon – the Eastern Province – e.g. Inner Cambodia – was given off to the French in 1906) Each monthon was overseen by an intendant of the Ministry of Interior. This had a major impact, ending the power of all local dynasties. The central authority now spread all over the country through the administration of intendants. For example, the Lanna states in the north (including the Kingdom of Chiangmai, Principalities of Lampang, Lampoon, Nan, and Prae) owing tributaries to Bangkok, were made into two monthons, neglecting the existence of the Lanna kings.
Local rulers did not give up easily, as three rebellions sprang up in 1901 – the Ngeaw rebellion in Prae, the Phi Buns in Isan, and the Rebellion of Seven Sultans in the south. All these insurgents were crushed in 1902 with the city rulers were stripped off their power, and imprisoned.

Ayutthaya King Ramathibodi II established a system of corvée in 1581 after which the lives of Siamese commoners and slaves were closely regulated by the government. All Siamese common men (phrai ไพร่) were subject to the Siamese corvée system. Each man at the time of his majority had to register with a government bureau, department or leading member of the royalty called krom (กรม) as a Phrai Luang (ไพร่หลวง) or under a nobleman's master (Moon Nai or Chao Khun Moon Nai มูลนาย หรือเจ้าขุนมูลนาย) as a Phrai Som (ไพร่สม). Phrai owed service to sovereign or master for three months of the year. Phrai Suay (ไพร่ส่วย) were those who could make payment in kind (cattle) in lieu of service. Those conscripted into military service were called Phrai Tahan (ไพร่ทหาร).
The corvée system declined after the Bowring Treaty, which gave rise to a new class of employed labourers not regulated by the government, while many noblemen continued to hold sway over large numbers of Phrai Som. Chulalongkorn needed more effective control of manpower to undo the power of nobility. After the establishment of a provincial system, Chulalongkorn began the census to get the statistics of all men available to the government. The Employment Act of 1900 required that all workers be paid, not forced to work. The Conscription Act of 1905 established military conscription in Siam, thus ending the traditional corvée system.
Chulalongkorn was best known for his abolition of Siamese slavery (ทาส.) He associated the abolition of slavery in the United States with the bloodshed of the American Civil War. Chulalongkorn, to prevent such a bloodbath in Siam, provided several steps towards the abolition of slavery, not an extreme turning point from servitude to total freedom. Those who found themselves unable to live on their own sold themselves into slavery by rich noblemen. Likewise, when a debt was defaulted, the borrower would became a slave of the lender. If the debt was redeemed, the slave regained freedom.
However, those whose parents were household slaves (ทาสในเรือนเบี้ย), were bound to be slaves forever because their redemption price was extremely high.
Because of economic conditions, people sold themselves into slavery in great numbers and in turn they produced a large number of household slaves. In 1867 they accounted for one-third of Siamese population. In 1874, Chulalongkorn enacted a law that lowered the redemption price of household slaves born in 1867 (his ascension year) and freed all of them when they had reached 21.
The newly freed slaves would have time to settle themselves as farmers or merchants so they would not become unemployed. In 1905, the Slave Abolition Act ended Siamese slavery in all forms. The reverse of 100-baht notes in circulation since the 2005 centennial depict Chulalongkorn in navy uniform abolishing the slave tradition.

The Royal Equestrian Statue of Chulalongkorn was finished in 1908 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the king’s reign. It was cast in bronze by a Parisian metallurgist, and then placed on the marble. Chulalongkorn had visited Europe two times in 1897 and 1907; the latter time was to cure his kidney disease. His last accomplishment was the establishment of a plumbing system in 1908. He died on 23 October 1910 of his kidney disease in Dusit Palace, and was succeeded by his son Vajiravudh.
Chulalongkorn University, founded in 1917 as the first university in Thailand, was named in his honour.
In 1997 a memorial pavilion was raised in honor of King Chulalongkorn in Ragunda, Sweden. This was done to commemorate King Chulalongkorn's visit to Sweden in 1897 where he visited the World Fair. During the time when Swedish-Norwegian king Oscar II travelled to Norway for a council, Chulalongkorn went up north to study forestry. Beginning in Härnösand and travelling via Sollefteå and Ragunda he mounted a boat in the small village of Utanede in order to take him back through Sundsvall to Stockholm. His passage through Utanede left a mark on the village as one street was named after the king. The pavilion is erected right next to that road.
In 2003, the Thai baht 100-baht note was revised to depict King Chulalongkorn in navy uniform and, in the background, abolishing the slave tradition.

تابع،،،

21- الملك شولالون كورن الملقب راما الخامس


الملك المذكور تربي لدى مربية اجنبية وماتت والدته وهو في سن الثامنة ( 1861 ) مرض وهو في سن الرابعة عشرة بالملاريا هو ووالدته فمات والده على اثر ذلك وهو في سن الـ 15 وكان والده يظن كما اظهرت وصيته ان ابنه الذي اصبح (راما الخامس) سيموت هو ايضا لكنه نجا من الموت وتولى الحكم في ظل وصي وهو ابن 15 سنة .

فهو اذا يتيم الام ويتم الاب. ...يعني مش بس يتيم بل لطيم.

Chlothar II (or Chlotar, Clothar, Clotaire, Chlotochar, or Hlothar, giving rise to Lothair; 584–629), called the Great (le Grand) or the Young (le Jeune), King of Neustria, and, from 613 to 629, King of all the Franks, was not yet born when his father, King Chilperic I died in 584.
His mother, Fredegund, was regent until her death in 597, at which time the thirteen-year-old Chlothar began to rule for himself.
As king, he continued his mother's feud with Brunhilda, queen of Austrasia, with equal viciousness and bloodshed.

In 599, he made war with his nephews, Theuderic II of Burgundy and Theudebert II of Austrasia, who defeated him at Dormelles (near Montereau). At this point, however, the two brothers took up arms against each other.
In 605, he invaded Theuderic's kingdom, but did not subdue it. He remained often at war with Theuderic until the latter died in Metz in late 613 while preparing a campaign against him.
At that time, Warnachar, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and Rado, mayor of the palace of Burgundy, abandoned the cause of Brunhilda and her great-grandson, Sigebert II, and the entire realm was delivered into Chlothar's hands.
Brunhilda and Sigebert met Chlothar's army on the Aisne, but the Patrician Aletheus, Duke Rocco, and Duke Sigvald deserted the host and the grand old woman and her king had to flee. They got as far as the Orbe, but Chlothar's minions caught up with them by the lake Neuchâtel. Both of them and Sigebert's younger brother Corbo were executed by Chlothar's orders.
In that year, Chlothar II became the first king of all the Franks since his grandfather Chlothar I died in 561 by ordering the murder of the infant Sigebert II (son of Theuderic), whom the aging Brunhilda had attempted to set on the thrones of Austrasia and Burgundy, causing a rebellion among the nobility.
This led to the delivery of Brunhilda into Chlothar's hands, his thirst for vengeance leading to his formidable old aunt enduring the agony of the rack for three whole days, before suffering a horrific death, dragged to death by an unbroken horse.
In 614/615, Chlothar II promulgated the Edict of Paris, a sort of Frankish Magna Carta that reserved many rights to the Frankish nobles. The ban effectively placed all literacy in the Merovingian monarchy squarely under ecclesiastical control and also greatly pleased the nobles, from whose ranks the bishops were ordinarily exclusively drawn. Chlothar was induced by Warnachar and Rado to make the mayoralty of the palace a lifetime appointment at Bonneuil-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 617. By these actions, Chlothar lost his own legislative abilities and the great number of laws enacted in his reign are probably the result of the nobles' petitions, which the king had no authority not to heed.
In 623, he gave the kingdom of Austrasia to his young son Dagobert I. This was a political move as repayment for the support of Bishop Arnulf of Metz and Pepin I, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, the two leading Austrasian nobles, who were effectively granted semi-autonomy.
Chlothar II died in 629 after 45 years on the throne, longer than any other Merovingian dynast save for his grandfather Chlotar I, who ruled from 511 to 561. He left the crown greatly reduced in power and prepared the way for the rise of the mayors and the rois fainéants.

Conrad the Great (ca. 1097 – 5 February 1157) was the Margrave of Meissen from 1123 until his retirement in 1156. He was the son of Thimo, Count of Brehna, of the House of Wettin and Ida, daughter of Otto of Nordheim.
والده
) Thimo (ca. 1010 – 9 March 1090/1091 or c. 1100), was count of Wettin and Brehna.
He was the son of Dietrich II, Margrave of Lower Lusatia, and Mathilde, daughter of Eckard I, Margrave of Meissen, and married Ida, daughter of Otto of Northeim. Thimo is buried at Niemegk Monastery, which he had founded.
The exact year of Thimo's death is unclear; since his son Conrad was born in approximately 1098, Thiemo cannot have died long before this year. Alternatively, some researchers assume that Thimo was in fact Conrad's grandfather, and that Conrad's father was an unknown son of Thimo's with the same name, making a death year of 1090/91 possible, as given in a chronicle. However, since Thimo II is not otherwise attested, this is considered unlikely.(

He was also Count of Wettin, Brehna, and Camburg from before 1116.
In 1123, he became Count of Eilenburg. That same year, Lothair of Supplinburg, Duke of Saxony, appointed him Margrave of Meissen in opposition to Wiprecht von Groitzsch, the appointee of the Emperor Henry V. Lothair also named Albert the BearMargrave of Lusatia, while Henry named Wiprecht to that march also. Wiprecht was unable to hold his own against his two opponents and in 1124 Conrad was securely in power in Meissen. In 1136, Lothair, then emperor, appointed him to Lusatia as well. Thereafter, Upper Lusatia remained a part of Meissen and the march of Lusatia was reduced to Lower Lusatia alone.
In 1143, Conrad became Count of Groitzsch and Rochlitz and Vogt of Chemnitz and Naumburg. In 1147, while Conrad III of Germany was away on the Second Crusade, Conrad the Great joined Henry the Lion, Adalbert of Salzwedel, Albert the Bear, and the Archbishops of Magdeburg and Bremen to organise a Crusade against the Obodrites and Wagri. In August, Conrad and Albert, with the bishops of Magdeburg, Havelburg, and Brandenburg, massed their forces at Magdeburg. The Obodrite prince Niklot and his fortressess of Dubin and Dimin were besieged. Both he and Pribislav, another Obodrite prince, were forced to accept Christianity and make peace.
In the following years, he founded the monastery of St Peter auf dem Lauterberg (Petersberg), to which he retired on 30 November 1156. He died and was buried there next to his wife, Luitgard (Lucarda) von Elchingen-Ravenstein, daughter of Adalbert, Count of Elchingen-Ravenstein and Bertha of Hohenstaufen, daughter of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia and Agnes of Germany.

Luitgard of Elchingen-Ravenstein, whom he had married before 1119, had blessed him with many children. His eldest surviving son, Otto II, Margrave of Meissen, succeeded him in Meissen, while his second surviving son, Dietrich I, succeeded in Lusatia. His son Henry I, Count of Wettin married Sophia of Sommerschenburg, Countess Palatine of Saxony, daughter of Count Fredrick II of Sommerschenburg and Countess Liutgard of Stade, queen dowager of Denmark.
· Heinrich (i.e. Henry; died young)
· Otto II
· Dietrich I
· Dedo V. der Feiste
· Henry I, Count of Wettin, married (1) Sophia of Sommerschenburg (d. 1189 or 1190), daughter of Count Fredrick II of Sommerschenburg, Count Palatine of Saxony and his wife Countess Liutgard of Stade (later queen of Denmark).
· Friedrich I von Brehna
· Oda
· Adela, Queen consort of Denmark
· Bertha
· Sophie
· Gertrud
· Agnes II, Princess-Abbess of Quedlinburg

· ولد قسطنطين في نايسوس (حيث تقع اليوم نيس في صربيا) عام 272 أو 273. والده كان الجنرال الروماني قسطنطين كلوروس ووالدته كانت هيلانة.
· الإمبراطور قسطنطين اعتبر حكمه نقطة تحول أساسية في مسار الإمبراطورية الرومانية إلى الإمبراطورية البيزنطية
· تربى قسطنطين في بلاط دقلديانوس وهرب إلي بريطانيا وهناك نودي به إمبراطورا علي غاليا وأسبانيا وبريطانيا في عام 306م خلفا لوالده. عبر جبال الألب وانتصر علي منافسه مكسنتيوس بن مكسيميانوس شريك دقلديانوس في حكم الغرب عند قنطرة ملفيا على بعد ميل واحد من روما، وقتل هو وجيشه في مياه نهر التيبر في أكتوبر عام 312م.[1] وهذا نص قصه حياته كما حفظتها لنا الكنيسه الفبطيه:- 28 شهر برمهات نياحة الملك قسطنطين الكبير (28 برمهات) في مثل هذا اليوم من سنة 53 ش (337 م) تنيح الإمبراطور قسطنطين الكبير. وكان اسم أبيه قونسطا (1) قسطنديوس خلورس (الأخضر) وأمه هيلانه وكان أبوه ملكا علي بيزنطية ومكسيميانوس علي روما ودقلديانوس علي إنطاكية ومصر وكان والده قونسطا وثنيا إلا أنه كان صالحا محبا للخير رحوما شفوقا. واتفق أنه مضي إلى الرها وهناك رأي هيلانة وأعجبته فتزوجها وكانت مسيحية فحملت منه بقسطنطين هذا. ثم تركها في الرها وعاد إلى بيزنطية فولدت قسطنطين وربته تربية حسنة وأدبته بكل أدب وكانت تبث في قلبه الرحمة والشفقة علي المسيحيين ولم تجسر أن تعمده ولا ان تعلمه أنها مسيحية إلى ان كبر وأصبح فارسا وذهب إلى أبيه ففرح به لما رأي فيه من الحكمة والمعرفة والفروسية وبعد وفاة أبيه تسلم المملكة ونشر العدل والأنصاف. ومنع المظالم فخضع الكل له وأحبوه وعم عدله سائر البلاد. فأرسل إليه أكابر روما طالبين أن ينقذهم من ظلم مكسيميانوس. فزحف بجنده إلى إنقاذهم في حرب دارت رحاها علي مكسيمانوس الذي ارتد هاربا وعند عبوره جسر نهر التيبر سقط به فهلك هو وأغلب جنوده. ودخل قسطنطين روما فاستقبله أهلها بالفرح والتهليل وكان شعراؤها يمدحون الصليب وينعتونه بمخلص مدينتهم. ثم عيدوا للصليب سبعة أيام وأصبح قسطنطين ملكا علي الشرق والغرب.

· Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman Emperor
Constantine the Great (Latin: Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus;[3] c. 27 February 272[2] – 22 May 337), also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all religions throughout the empire.
The foremost general of his time, Constantine defeated the emperors Maxentius and Licinius during civil wars. He also fought successfully against the Franks, Alamanni, Visigoths, and Sarmatians during his reign – even resettling parts of Dacia which had been abandoned during the previous century. Constantine built a new imperial residence in place of Byzantium, naming it New Rome. However, in Constantine's honour, people called it Constantinople, which would later be the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire for over one thousand years. Because of this, he is thought of as the founder of the Eastern Roman Empire.

As the emperor who used Christianity to empower his government throughout the Roman Empire and moved the capital to the banks of the Bosporus, Constantine was a ruler of major historical importance, but he has always been a controversial figure.
Early life
Flavius Valerius Constantinus, as he was originally named, was born in the city of Naissus, Moesia, in present-day Niš, Serbia, on the 27th of February of an uncertain year, probably near 272.
His father was Flavius Constantius, a native of Moesia (later Dacia Ripensis).
(Constantius I (Latin: Marcus Flavius Valerius Constantius Herculius Augustus; c. 31 March 250 – 25 July 306), commonly known as Constantius Chlorus, was Roman Emperor from 293 to 306).
Constantius was a tolerant and politically skilled man. Constantine probably spent little time with his father.
Constantius was an officer in the Roman army in 272, part of the Emperor Aurelian's imperial bodyguard. Constantius advanced through the ranks, earning the governorship of Dalmatia from Emperor Diocletian, another of Aurelian's companions from Illyricum, in 284 or 285.
Constantine's mother was Helena (a Bithynian Greek), It is uncertain whether she was legally married to Constantius or merely his concubine.
(Saint Helena (Latin: Flavia Iulia Helena Augusta) also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople (ca. 246/50 – 18 August 330) was the consort of Emperor Constantius, and the mother of Emperor Constantine I.
The precise legal nature of the relationship between Helena and Constantius is also unknown.
The sources are equivocal on the point, sometimes calling Helena Constantius' "wife", and sometimes, following the dismissive propaganda of Constantine's rival Maxentius, calling her his "concubine".
Helena gave birth to the future emperor Constantine I on 27 February of an uncertain year soon after 270 (probably around 272) At the time, she was in Naissus (Niš, Serbia). In order to obtain a wife more consonant with his rising status, Constantius divorced Helena some time before 289, when he married Theodora, Maximian's daughter.
(The narrative sources date the marriage to 293, but the Latin panegyric of 289 refers to the couple as already married). Helena and her son were dispatched to the court of Diocletian at Nicomedia, where Constantine grew to be a member of the inner circle. Helena never remarried and lived for a time in obscurity, though close to her only son, who had a deep regard and affection for her.
Constantine was proclaimed Augustus of the Roman Empire in 306 by Constantius' troops after the latter had died, and following his elevation his mother was brought back to the public life in 312, returning to the imperial court. She appears in the Eagle Cameo portraying Constantine's family, probably commemorating the birth of Constantine's son Constantine II in the summer of 316.[20] She received the title of Augusta in 325 and died in 330 with her son at her side

· Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire

Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: Kuruš (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC, commonly known as Cyrus the Great, also known as Cyrus the Elder, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire. Under his rule, the empire embraced all the previous civilized states of the ancient Near East, expanded vastly and eventually conquered most of Southwest Asia and much of Central Asia, parts of Europe and Caucasus. From the Mediterranean sea and Hellespont in the west to the Indus River in the east, Cyrus the Great created the largest empire the world had yet seen.

The best-known date for the birth of Cyrus the Great is either 600-599 BC or 576-575 BC. Little is known of his early years, as there are only a few sources known to detail that part of his life, and they have been damaged or lost.
Herodotus's story of Cyrus's early life belongs to a genre of legends in which abandoned children of noble birth, such as Oedipus and Romulus and Remus, return to claim their royal positions.
Similar to other culture's heroes and founders of great empires, folk traditions abound regarding his family background. According to Herodotus, he was the grandson of the Median king Astyages and was brought up by humble herding folk.
In another version, he was presented as the son of a poor family that worked in the Median court.
These folk stories are, however, contradicted by Cyrus's own testimony, according to which he was preceded as king of Persia by his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
After the birth of Cyrus the Great, Astyages had a dream that his Magi interpreted as a sign that his grandson would eventually overthrow him. He then ordered his steward Harpagus to kill the infant. Harpagus, morally unable to kill a newborn, summoned the Mardian Mitradates (which the historian Nicolaus of Damascus calls Atradates), a royal bandit herdsman from the mountainous region bordering the Saspires,] and ordered him to leave the baby to die in the mountains.
Luckily, the herdsman and his wife (whom Herodotus calls Cyno in Greek, and Spaca-o in Median) took pity and raised the child as their own, passing off their recently stillborn infant as the murdered Cyrus.
For the origin of Cyrus the Great's mother, Herodotus identifies Mandane of Media, and Ctesias insists that she is fully Persian but gives no name, while Nicolaus gives the name "Argoste" as Atradates's wife; whether this figure represents Cyno or Cambyses's unnamed Persian queen has yet to be determined. It is also noted that Strabo has said that Cyrus was originally named Agradates by his stepparents; therefore, it is probable that, when reuniting with his original family, following the naming customs, Cyrus's father, Cambyses I, names him Cyrus after his grandfather, who was Cyrus I.
Herodotus claims that when Cyrus the Great was ten years old, it was obvious that Cyrus was not a herdsman's son, stating that his behavior was too noble. Astyages interviewed the boy and noticed that they resembled each other. Astyages ordered Harpagus to explain what he had done with the baby, and, after Harpagus confessed that he had not killed the boy, Astyages tricked him into eating his own broiled and chopped up son.
Astyages was more lenient with Cyrus and allowed him to return to his biological parents, Cambyses and Mandane.
While Herodotus's description may be a legend, it does give insight into the figures surrounding Cyrus the Great's early life.

Cyrus The Great
Cyrus the Great (ca.600 - 529 BCE) was a towering figure in the history of mankind. As the "father of the Iranian nation", he was the first world leader to be referred to as "The Great". Cyrus founded the first world empire - and the second Iranian dynastic empire (the Achaemenids) - after defeating the Median dynasty and uniting the Medes with the other major Iranian tribe, the Persians.
Etymology and lineage
The name "Cyrus" (a transliteration of the Greek Kυρoς) is the Greek version of the Old-Persian kûruš or Khûrvaš meaning "sun-like": the noun khûr denotes "sun" and -vaš is a suffix of likeness. In the Cyrus cylinder (see below), the great king declares his ancestry as a Persian king. The first leader of the Achaemenid dynasty was king Achaemenes of Anshan (ca.700BCE). He was succeeded by his son Teispes of Anshan and inscriptions indicate that when the latter died, two of his sons shared the throne: Cyrus I of Anshan and Ariaramnes of Persia. They were succeeded by their respective sons: Cambyses I and Arsames. Arsames was the ancestor of Darius the Great, while Cambyses was the father of Cyrus the Great. Mandane, Cyrus' mother, was the daughter of king Astyages, who was the last emperor of the Median dynastic empire (728-550BCE). Cyrus became king of Anshan after his father's death in 559BCE, and initially reigned as Median vassal king of the Persian tribes. He established his residence at Pasargadae in Pars province, the centre of the Pasargadae tribe, to which the Achaemenid clan belonged. Little is known of Cyrus' early life as the few known sources have been damaged or lost. According to the ancient historians, Astyages was told in a dream that his grandson, the baby Cyrus, would overthrow him. To avoid this he ordered that the baby be killed. However the official delegated with the task gave the baby to a shepherd instead. When Cyrus was ten years old, the deception was discovered by Astyages, but because of the boy's outstanding qualities he was allowed to live in exile with his mother. Cyrus then revolted against Astyages in 554BCE and in 550BCE the prophecy came true when Cyrus entered Ecbatana (modern-day Hamadan), effectively conquering the Median Empire. Upon his victory over his grandfather he founded a government for his new kingdom, incorporating both Median and Persian nobles as civilian officials. He thus began to build the first world empire.

'Cyrus' Empire Building
As the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, one of Cyrus' objectives was to gain power over the Mediterranean coast and secure Asia Minor. Croesus of Lydia, Nabonidus of Babylonia and Amasis II of Egypt joined in alliance with Sparta to try and thwart Cyrus - but this was to no avail. Hyrcania, Parthia and Armenia were already part of the Median Kingdom. Cyrus moved further east to annex Drangiana, Arachosia, Margiana and Bactria to his territories. After crossing the Oxus, he reached the Jaxartes. There, he built fortified towns with the object of defending the farthest frontier of his kingdom against the Iranian nomadic tribes of Central Asia such as the Scythians. The exact limits of Cyrus' eastern conquests are not known, but it is possible that they extended as far as the Peshawar region in modern Pakistan. After his eastern victories, he repaired to the west and invaded Babylon. On 12 October 539BCE Cyrus, "without spilling a drop of blood", annexed the Chaldaean empire of Babylonia - and on October 29 he entered Babylon, arrested Nabonidus and assumed the title of "King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, King of the four corners of the world". Almost immediately he then extended his control over the Arabian peninsula and the Levant also quickly submitted to Persian rule. Although Cyrus did not conquer Egypt, by 535BCE all the lands up to the Egyptian borders had acceded to Persian dominance. Newly conquered territories had a measure of political independence, being ruled by satraps. These (usually local) governors took full responsibility for the administration, legislation and cultural activities of each province. According to Xenophon, Cyrus created the first postal system in the world, and this must have helped with intra-Empire communications. Babylon, Ecbatana, Pasargadae and Susa were used as Cyrus' command centres. Cyrus' spectacular conquests triggered the age of Empire Building, as carried out by his successors as well as by the later Greeks and Romans.
Cyrus' religion
Almost nothing is known about Cyrus' personal beliefs, but Xenophon reports to us that in religious matters he followed the guidance of the Magians at his court. Although this is not universally agreed, Mary Boyce has argued that Cyrus was indeed a Zoroastrian and that he thus followed in the footsteps of his ancestors, from when they were Median vassals in Anshan. She has pointed out that the fire altars and the mausoleum at Pasargadae demonstrate Zoroastrian practices, and has cited Greek texts as evidence that Zoroastrian priests held positions of authority at Cyrus' court.
Death
Cuneiform records from Babylon suggest that Cyrus died on 4 December 530BCE. However, according to Herodotus, Cyrus was killed near the Aral Sea in July or August 529BCE during a campaign to protect the north­eastern borders of his empire from incursions by the Massagetae. Tomyris, the queen of the Massagetae, had assumed control of her nation's forces after Cyrus had defeated and killed her son Spargapises. She led the attack on the Iranian forces, who suffered heavy casualties as well as losing their leader, Cyrus. After the battle, Tomyris apparently ordered the body of Cyrus to be found so that she could avenge the death of her son. She then dipped Cyrus' head in blood or by some accounts ordered his head to be put into a wine-skin filled with human blood. At Cyrus' death, his son Cambyses II succeeded him. He attacked the Massagetae to recover Cyrus's ravaged body, before burying it at Pasargadae.
The cylinder of Cyrus the Great
The Cyrus cylinder was discovered in 1878CE at the site of Babylon. It is inscribed in Akkadian cuneiform. Now housed in the British Museum, it includes a detailed account by Cyrus of his conquest of Babylon in 539BCE and his subsequent humane treatment of his conquered subjects. It has been hailed as the world's first declaration of human rights. The (incomplete) inscription on the cylinder starts by describing the criminal deeds of the Babylonian king Nabonidus; as well as how Marduk, the Babylonian god, had looked for a new king and chosen Cyrus. It continues with the famous: "I am Cyrus, king of the world, the great king, the powerful king, king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four quarters of the world" After a description of Cyrus' ancestry and of royal protocol, it goes on to explain how Cyrus established peace and abolished forced labour: "The people of Babylon . . . the shameful yoke was removed from them" The inscription continues by detailing reparative building activities in Babylon as well as asking for prayers for Cyrus. It makes specific reference to the Jews, who have been brought to Babylon - and who Cyrus supported in leaving for their homeland. Further demonstrating his religious tolerance, Cyrus restored the local cults by allowing the gods to return to their shrines. The cylinder describes the Great King not as a conqueror, but as a liberator and the legitimate successor to the crown of Mesopotamia. The same text has also been found, in a more complete version, in an inscription discovered in the ancient city of Ur, in Mesopotamia. Both documents corroborate many of the details in Ezra 1:1-5 describing Cyrus supporting the Jews in returning to Judea from captivity to rebuild the Temple in 537BCE. Isaiah 45:1-13 also backs up the idea of Cyrus as a benign and chosen ruler. Before the discovery of the cylinder, many sceptical historians believed that the idea of a Zoroastrian emperor like Cyrus the Great allowing a conquered people like the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild their Temple was simply not credible and could only be Persian propaganda. Nevertheless, the Cyrus Cylinder, alongside the Biblical and other historical statements, seems to substantiate the idea that Cyrus not only allowed many of the nations he conquered to practice their various religious beliefs - an unprecedented tolerance - but that he even actively assisted captive peoples, including the Jews, to return to their lands of origin. This support was not only political but even financial - as he gave grants both from the Imperial treasury and also from his own personal fortune. The Cylinder has especial resonance for the Iranian peoples and is an integral part of Iran's cultural heritage and national identity. Antedating the 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen by more than two millennia, it can also be considered as a world treasure - and the first international declaration of human rights. The text was translated into all the United Nations' official languages in 1971.
Cyrus' Legacy
Cyrus the Great is famed as a triumphant conqueror, a superb warrior, and the founder of the greatest empire the world has ever seen. However, with the Cyrus Cylinder and a range of Jewish texts, plus extensive writings by Xenophon, Cyrus is generally more admired as a liberator than a conqueror. Cyrus the Great was mentioned twenty-two times in the Old Testament, where he is unconditionally praised. This followed his active liberation of the Jews from Babylon in 539BCE and his support as more than 40,000 Jews then chose to return to their homeland. Cyrus then funded the subsequent rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus was also eulogized by many other writers and his actual or legendary exploits were used as moral instruction or as a source of inspiration for political philosophies. For example, the Greek author and soldier Xenophon believed him to be the ideal ruler, and in the Cyropedia - often considered Xenophon's masterpiece - he offers a fictionalised biography of the great man. This is more "a treatise on political virtue and social organisation" than a history. It was influential in ancient times and then again in the Renaissance. It may have been composed in response to Plato's The Republic, and Plato's Laws seems to refer back to it. Scipio Africanus is said to have always carried a copy of the Cyropedia with him.[1] Later on, in the Renaissance, Spenser, in his The Faerie Queene (1596), says: "For this cause is Xenophon preferred before Plato, for that the one, in the exquisite depth of his judgment, formed a Commune wealth, such as it should be; but the other in the person of Cyrus, and the Persians, fashioned a government, such as might best be: So much more profitable and gracious is doctrine by ensample, then by rule."[2] The English philosopher Sir Thomas Browne named his 1658 discourse The Garden of Cyrus after the benevolent ruler. This dense treatise of hermetic philosophy may be a Royalist criticism upon the autocratic rule of Cromwell. Cyrus' name and his doctrine is still cited and celebrated into modern times. On 12th October 1971 Iran marked the 2500th anniversary of Cyrus' founding of the Persian Empire . The then Shah of Iran, in his speech opening the celebrations, said: "O Cyrus, great King, King of Kings, Achaemenian King, King of the land of Iran. I, the Shahanshah of Iran, offer thee salutations from myself and from my nation. Rest in peace, for we are awake, and we will always stay awake." In 1994, a replica of a bas relief depicting Cyrus the Great was erected in a park in Sydney, Australia . This monument is intended as a symbol for multiculturalism, and to express the coexistence and peaceful cohabitation of people from different cultures and backgrounds.
By pursuing a policy of generosity, instead of repression, Cyrus demonstrated his Greatness. So successful were his policies of conquest, mercifulness and assimilation that the empire continued to thrive for some 200 years after his death. Cyrus' compassionate principles continue to resonate today: his religious and cultural tolerance and commitment to the liberation of enslaved peoples remain an aspiration in our troubled modern world.

تابع ...25- سيروس العظيم

لا يكاد يعرف شيء عن طفولة هذا الملك العظيم لكن من المعلومات المتوفرة على الأغلب ولد عام 576 ,وتولى الحكم عام 559 بعد موت والده أي انه تيتم وهو في سن الـ 17
لكن بعض الروايات تقول بأن جده حلم بأن ابن ابنه سوف ينقلب عليه فأمر بقتله لكن من كلف بقتله سلمه لراعي حيث عاش حتى صار في سن العاشرة وهناك انكشف السر فعاد إلى أهله وتولى الحكم.
في كلا الحالتين واضح ان طفولته كانت خارجه عن المألوف او انه يتيم في سن الـ 17. ولغرض هذه الدراسة سنعتبره يتيم في سن الـ 17 خاصة وان ذلك ينسجم مع الاستنتاجات السابقة والتي تظهر ان الكثير من القادة العظام كانوا ايتام في سنوات 14 + 15+ 16+ 17 .

يتيم في سن الـ 17.

دارا الأول، داريوس الأول Δαρεῖος، داريوش الأول، ثلاثة أسماء لشخص واحد، كما يسميه الفرس بداريوش الكبير، الاسم الأول بالعربية والثاني باللغة اليونانية أما الثالث فهو بالفارسية وهو الأصح.
الملك الأخميني الثالث أخمينيفارسي حكم 521 ق.م–486 ق.م صهر سميردس، وابن ويشتاسب، وحفيد أرساميس.
اقترن تأسيس الإمبراطورية الأخمينية باسمه، فاستطاع أن يتغلب على الملك الميدي (كاوماتا) وكان ذلك عام 522 ق.م، ومنذ ذلك التاريخ بدأ عصر الأخمينيون وتوالي العديد من الملوك على حكم الإمبراطورية وخلفه ابنه خشایارشا الأول. في فترة حكمه أصدر داريوش أمر ببناء مجموعة قصور فارس برسيبوليس في شمال مدينة شيراز.[1]
تولى داريوس الشاب ذو العشرين ربيعا مقاليد الحكم لفترة تزيد على جيل كامل، بدأها بتسجيل تاريخ بلاده على عمود ضخم، وتلى ذلك زواجه من أتوسا ابنة كيروس وأرملة قمبيزيس. وكان إنجازه الثالث هو إعادة تنظيم الإمبراطورية مثل شق الطرق ورصفها لتسهيل المراسلات البريدية وتلقى الأخبار من جواسيسه بشكل سريع. ومن أهم أعماله التقسيم الإداري لولاياته التي وصلت إلى 20 ولاية بحيث ضم المستوطنات الأيونية إلى ولاية ليديابآسيا الصغرى.
مات إثر مرض عام 486 ق.م ودفن في مكان يعرف ب نقش رستم قرب بلدة مرودشت في محافظة فارس والتي مركزها مدينة شيراز.[3].
قبل أن يتوجة داريوش إلى مصر قضى ثلاث سنوات في التعرف على عادات المصريين ليتقرب منهم.

داريوش الأول، ويسميه الفرس داريوش الكبير، (ويسميه العرب: دارا الأول، واليونان: داريوس الأول Δαρεῖος) أعظم ملوك الامبراطورية الفارسية الأخمينية، اشتهر بعبقريته الإدارية ومشروعات البناء العظيمة. حكم 521–486 ق.م. صهر سميردس، وابن ويشتاسب ،وحفيد أرساميس.

هو ابن هيستابس، وينتسب إلى أحد فروع السلالة الأخمينية، اتصف بالحكمة والعقل منذ شبابه، تولى بعض المناصب، واشترك في الحملة على مصر، وعهد إليه بعد موت قمبيز بإعادة الجيش إلى العاصمة الفارسية، وهناك نجح مع أصدقائه وبعض رجال الدين من الكهنة الزرادشتيين في التغلب على ثورة الكاهن جوماثا (سمرديس المزعوم). ثم قتل أخوه أرتفرنيس ملك الفرس بارديا. بعد ذلك استولى داريوس على العرش.
اندلعت الثورات في كل أنحاء الامبراطورية بعد موت قمبيز، وكان عليه إخضاعها الواحدة تلو الأخرى. بدأ بإخضاع الثورة في عيلام، بعد تمرد أترين قريب حاكمها السابق، فأرسل داريوس جيشاً إلى الشوش، فقبض على المتمرد وقتله.
أما في بابل فقد أعلن أحد أبناء نابونيد الثورة، وأعلن نفسه ملكاً عليها باسم نبوخذ نصر الثالث، فتوجه داريوس على رأس جيش إلى بابل، وقد لاقى الجيش مصاعب كبيرة في عبور نهر دجلة نظراً لقوة الأسطول البابلي، لكن داريوس قام بهجوم مباغت، فعبر النهر وهزم البابليين الذين لجؤوا إلى داخل مدينتهم وتحصنوا بها، ويشير هيرودوت أن حصار بابل استمر عشرين شهراً، ولم يستطع داريوس أن يدخلها إلا بخدعة. وربما يبالغ هيرودوت في مدة حصارها، لأن داريوس كان يعلم جيداً، أن السيطرة على بابل هي المفتاح للقضاء على كل الثورات الأخرى، ولذلك ركز اهتمامه لإخضاع المدينة، التي استسلمت في شباط 521ق.م.
وبعد ذلك هاجم داريوس مادي (ميديا)، وهزم جيشها، وقبض على ملكها وأعدمه شنقاً في همذان، كما عهد لبعض قادته في إخماد ثورة بارثيا (خراسان) وكركان، وتم له ذلك.
وهكذا أخمد داريوس كل الثورات، وتمكن بما اتصف به من إرادة حديدية وقوة في التغلب على كل المشكلات التي واجهته، وأعاد توحيد الامبراطورية من جديد، وقد سجل داريوس انتصاراته هذه بالتفصيل في نقش « بهستون » الشهير الذي دون بثلاث لغات، الفارسية القديمة، والبابلية، والعيلامية، فيقول: «خلال سنة واحدة، بعد أن أصبحت ملكاً خضت غمار تسعة عشر معركة، وبإرادة أهورامزدا انتصرت فيها جميعاً وأسرت تسعة ملوك».
واستطاعت جيوش داريوس أن تخمد ثورة بمصر سنة 519 ق.م. وأن تحتل تراقيا بجنوب شرقي أوروبا سنة 513 ق.م. بعدها بسنوات، احتلت القوات الفارسية ما يسمى الآن بجنوبي باكستان. حكم داريوس إمبراطوريته الشاسعة بنجاح عن طريق تقسيمها إلى أقاليم كبيرة. من بين الأعمال التي قام بها العمال الذين اختارهم داريوس لإدارة هذه الأقاليم، الزيادة في الضرائب المحلية من أجل الخزائن الملكية، ومد داريوس بالجند.
استطاع ان يتغلب على الملك الميدي (كاوماتا) وكان ذلك عام 522 قبل الميلاد ومنذ ذلك التاريخ بدأ العصر الأخمينيون وتوالي العديد من الملوك على حكم الامبراطورية و خلفه ابنه خشایارشا الأول. في فترة حكمه أصدر داريوش أمر بيناء مجموعة قصور فارس تخت جمشيد في شمال مدينة شيراز. [1]

Darius I (558-486 BC), called "the Great," was a Persian king. A great conqueror and the chief organizer of the Persian Empire, he is best known for the unsuccessful attack on Greece which ended at Marathon.
A member of a collateral branch of the Achaemenidian royal family, Darius apparently was not close to the throne when Cambyses died in 522 B.C. The story of Darius's accession is told most fully by the Greek Herodotus, whose version clearly reflects the official account set up by Darius's own order in the famous rock inscription at Behistun.
According to Herodotus, Cambyses had had his brother Smerdis (Bardiya) executed, but while Cambyses was absent in Egypt, a Magian priest named Gaumata, trusting in a chance resemblance, put himself forward as Smerdis and seized the throne. Cambyses started back but died en route, and the false Smerdis was generally accepted. Darius, with the aid of a few who knew that Smerdis was dead, murdered Gaumata and in his own person restored the royal line.
Organization of the Empire
Though Darius was an excellent soldier and extended his empire east, north, and into Europe, he saw himself as an organizer and lawgiver rather than as a mere conqueror. Little of his work was startlingly original, but the blending of the old and new and the interlocked ordering of the whole gave his work importance. He divided the empire into 20 huge provinces called satrapies, each under a royally appointed governor called a satrap who had administrative, military, financial, and judicial control in his province. To check on such powerful subordinates, Darius also appointed the satrap's second-in-command, having him report to the King separately. Standing garrisons under commanders independent of the satrap were stationed strategically. However, since all these officials were more or less permanent, there remained the possibility that all three might conspire to plot revolt. Accordingly, a further set of royal officials--inspectors called the King's "eyes" or "ears"--were frequently sent out.
Since in so huge an empire--it covered some 1 million square miles--there was always the problem of communication and transportation, Darius established a system of well-maintained all-weather roads and a royal courier system with posthouses and regular relays of horses and riders. The trip from Sardis in western Asia Minor to Susa in Persia normally took 3 months; a royal message could cover it in a week.
Darius also regulated the tribute, hitherto collected irregularly as needed, on a fixed annual basis according to the wealth of each satrapy. Though hardly low, this tribute does not appear to have been burdensome. He also instituted the first official Persian coinage.
Military Organization
Militarily the empire was organized on the satrap system, but the results were less happy. Aside from the resident garrisons and the royal bodyguard there was no standing army. At need, satraps involved were ordered to raise a quota of men and bring them, armed and ready, to an appointed assembly point. Inescapably, a Persian army was thus long on numbers but short on uniformity; each contingent was armed and trained in its local fashion and spoke its native tongue. Persian infantry was usually of very poor quality; the cavalry, provided by the Persians themselves, the Medes, and the eastern steppe dwellers, was generally quite good. The Persian fleet was levied in the same manner as the army, but since the Mediterranean maritime peoples all copied from each other, there was little problem of diversity. The fleet's weakness was that, being raised entirely from among subject peoples, it had no real loyalty.
Darius's Religion
Darius, himself a firm supporter of Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian god, said in the Behistun inscription that Ahura Mazda "gave" him his kingdoms, and with him Zoroastrianism became something like the national religion of the Persians. For the empire, however, he continued Cyrus's policy of toleration of local cults, and this mildness became and remained, except perhaps under Xerxes, a distinctive feature of Persian rule.
War with the Greeks
Darius's first European campaign, about 513 B.C., was aimed not at Greece but north toward the Danube. Herodotus recorded that Darius intended to conquer the complete circuit of the Black Sea and that he was turned back north of the Danube by the native Scythians' scorched-earth policy. This may be, or it may be that Darius never intended any permanent conquest north of the Danube and that Herodotus turned a limited success into a grandiose failure in order to make all Persian operations in Europe at least partly unsuccessful. Darius did secure the approaches to Greece and the control of the grain route through the Bosporus.
The next act in the Greco-Persian drama was the so-called lonian Revolt (499-494B.C.), an uprising against Persia of most of the Greeks of Asia Minor headed by the Ionians, and particularly by the city of Miletus. Though the revolt was put down by Darius's generals, its seriousness is indicated by its length and by the fact that the Ionians' appeal to the Greek homeland was answered, at least in part, by Athens and Eretria.
Darius had to take the Greek matter seriously. Not only did he have the duty of avenging the burning of his city of Sardis during the revolt, but he must have become convinced that to ensure the quiet of his Greek subjects in Asia Minor he would have to extend his rule also over their brothers across the Aegean. After the collapse of the revolt, the attempt of Darius's son-in-law, Mandonius, to carry the war into Greece itself ended when the Persian fleet was wrecked in a storm off Mt. Athos (492 B.C.).
Battle of Marathon
Perhaps Mardonius's ill-fated venture was really an attempt to conquer all Greece; the next effort certainly was not. Darius sent a naval expedition--he himself never set eyes on Greece--against only Athens and Eretria (490 B.C.). The attack was perfectly well known to be coming, but the Greeks had their customary difficulties of cooperation, and Eretria, unsupported, fell and was burned in revenge for Sardis. Athens appealed to the Grecian states, but only 1,000 men from little Plataea reached Athens.
The Persians landed on the small plain of Marathon northeast of Athens, and the Greeks took up station in easily defendable nearby hills out of reach of the Persian cavalry. After some days' waiting, the Persians began to reembark, perhaps for a dash on Athens. The Greeks, led by Miltiades, were forced to attack, which they did with a lengthened front to avoid encirclement by the more numerous Persians. In this first major encounter between European and Asian infantry, the Greek closely knit, heavily armed phalanx won decisively. The Persian survivors sailed at once for Athens, but Miltiades rushed his forces back, and the Persians arrived to see the Greeks lined up before the city. Abandoning action, they sailed home, and the campaign of Marathon was over.
Though to the Western world Marathon was a victory of enormous significance, to the Persians it was only a moderately serious border setback. Yet this defeat and peace in Asia Minor called for the conquest of all Greece, and Darius began the mighty preparations. A revolt in Egypt, however, distracted him, and he died in 486 B.C., leaving the next attack for his son Xerxes.