33,532 research outputs found
English funding of the Scottish armies in England and Ireland 1640-1648
The rebellion against Charles I's authority that began in Edinburgh in 1637 involved the Scots in successive invasions of England and armed intervention in Ireland. Historians have almost universally taken a negative view of Scottish involvement in these wars, because it has been assumed that the Scottish political leadership sacrificed all other considerations in order to pursue an unrealistic religious crusade. This article suggests that aspects of the Anglo-Scottish relationship need to be reappraised. Using estimates of English payments to the Scots during the 1640s, it will be argued that the Scottish leadership made pragmatic political decisions based on a practical appreciation of the country's military and fiscal capacity. Substantial payouts from the English parliament enabled the Scottish parliamentary regime to engage in military and diplomatic activities that the country could not otherwise have afforded. The 1643 treaty that brought the Scots into the English Civil War on the side of parliament contrasts favourably with the 1647 Engagement in support of the king. It will be shown that, although the English parliament did not honour all of its obligations to the Scots, it does not automatically follow that the alliance was a failure in financial terms
Scotland and Ulster connections in the seventeenth century : Sir Robert Adair of Kinhilt and the Scottish Parliament under the covenanters
It has long been recognized that a culture of mobility has existed in Scottish society. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the main destinations for Scottish migrants were Poland, Scandinavia, and Ulster, although there were many other destinations too
John Lilburne and the Long Parliament
This piece reinterprets the career of the Leveller, John Lilburne, during the English Civil War, by re-examining the official sources pertaining to him, and the multitude of pamphlets written by himself and his enemies. The article recovers the chronology of Lilburne's story, by stripping away the layers of propaganda with which he later surrounded himself. It shows that he had powerful friends at Westminster, and that his tribulations were caused by political rivalries within Westminster rather than his development of a radical political theory. He is shown to have formed part of the Independent alliance during the mid-1640s, although his protected position was eventually imperilled by the fracturing of this group after the end of the first Civil War. The aim is to improve not just our understanding of Lilburne, but the complexity of parliamentarian politics during the 1640s
CRIRES-POP: A library of high resolution spectra in the near-infrared
New instrumental capabilities and the wealth of astrophysical information
extractable from the near-infrared wavelength region have led to a growing
interest in the field of high resolution spectroscopy at 1-5 mu. We aim to
provide a library of observed high-resolution and high signal-to-noise-ratio
near-infrared spectra of stars of various types throughout the
Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. This is needed for the exploration of spectral
features in this wavelength range and for comparison of reference targets with
observations and models.
High quality spectra were obtained using the CRIRES near-infrared
spectrograph at ESO's VLT covering the range from 0.97 to 5.3 mu at high
spectral resolution. Accurate wavelength calibration and correction for of
telluric lines were performed by fitting synthetic transmission spectra for the
Earth's atmosphere to each spectrum individually. We describe the observational
strategy and the current status and content of the library which includes 13
objects. The first examples of finally reduced spectra are presented. This
publication will serve as a reference paper to introduce the library to the
community and explore the extensive amount of material.Comment: accepted for publication in A&A; see also the project webpage
http://www.univie.ac.at/crirespo
Recommended from our members
Pieces of eight, pieces of eight: seafarers’ earnings and the venture economy of early modern seafaring
Historians have generally argued that between the medieval period and the eighteenth century seafarers transformed from collaborative adventurers with a share in their vessel to the first international wage-earning proletariat. This interpretation has drawn upon relatively limited statistical analysis of mariners’ wages, and underestimates the variety of seafarers’ remuneration and economic activities besides wages themselves. This article undertakes a more sustained analysis of seventeenth-century wage data drawn from the papers of the English High Court of Admiralty, and uses the same evidence to examine other forms of income, both customary payments as part of shipping, and small-scale trade. Seafarers of all ranks carried their own commodities on all shipping routes, offering an opportunity to considerably increase their income. This evidence confirms that the maritime labour market was hierarchical, and that very often seafarers were poor labourers facing economic insecurity of many kinds. However, it refines the previous interpretation by emphasizing the presence of skilled workers even amongst the lower levels of this labour market, and by introducing a new dimension to mariners’ economic agency: they were not simply wage-workers, but also independent participants in a venture economy
Remembering Leo Breiman
I published an interview of Leo Breiman in Statistical Science [Olshen
(2001)], and also the solution to a problem concerning almost sure convergence
of binary tree-structured estimators in regression [Olshen (2007)]. The former
summarized much of my thinking about Leo up to five years before his death. I
discussed the latter with Leo and dedicated that paper to his memory.
Therefore, this note is on other topics. In preparing it I am reminded how much
I miss this man of so many talents and interests. I miss him not because I
always agreed with him, but instead because his comments about statistics in
particular and life in general always elicited my substantial reflection.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/10-AOAS385 the Annals of
Applied Statistics (http://www.imstat.org/aoas/) by the Institute of
Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org
Recommended from our members
'All embarqued in one bottom': an introduction to sources for soldiers, administrators and civilians in civil war Britain and Ireland
The Office of Ordnance and the Parliamentarian land forces, 1642-1648
An investigation into the means by which the Parliament
carried on the War during the years 1642 to 1648 must take into
consideration the role of the Office of Ordnance at the Tower of
London. A study of the financial and administrative aspects of the
Civil Wars would be incomplete without an examination of the ways
in which the parties supplied their respective forces with arms,
ammunition, clothing and equipment of all kinds. The extent to which
they were successful in this sphere has a bearing on other aspects
of the conflict.
In monetary terms, the resources allocated by Parliament to
the procurement of munitions, clothing and equipment for its forces
on land appear small in comparison with some other items of military
expenditure such as soldiers' pay. Lack of pay had an adverse effect
on the strength and effectiveness of an army, and indeed it might
have political as well as military repercussions, yet the
consequences of a deficiency of munitions could obviously be
significant too.
The Ordnance Office had since the fifteenth century assumed
a central position in the procurement, storage and distribution of
munitions to English armies and garrisons, even though it had not
acquired a monopoly of those tasks. This fact alone makes it
worthwhile to investigate the effect of the outbreak of the Civil
Wars upon the personnel and routines of the Office and then
the way in which it functioned during the years of conflict that
ensued.
The Ordnance Office has been the subject of study during
the period of its history stretching from the time of its inception
to the early eighteenth century, but there has so far been no
account of the institution as it was maintained by the Parliament
during the Civil War years
Reassessing frontline medical practitioners of the British civil wars in the context of the seventeenth-century medical world
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Cambridge University Press via the DOI in this recordMedical provision in Civil War armies has generally suffered a poor reputation. Medical matters have been excluded from assessments of how far Civil War armies confirm evidence of the so-called ‘Military Revolution’, whilst Harold Cook argued that it was not until after the Glorious Revolution that the medical infrastructure of the armed forces was brought in line with continental practices, particularly those of the Dutch army. Despite the recent rehabilitation of early modern practitioners elsewhere, frontline military practitioners continue to be dismissed as uneducated, unskilful and incompetent. This is largely due to the lack of a fresh perspective since C. H. Firth published Cromwell's Army in 1902. This article argues that the English were well aware of current medical practice in European armies and endeavoured to implement similar procedures during the Civil Wars. Indeed, almost all the developments identified by Cook for the later seventeenth century can be found in Civil War armies. Whilst failures may have occurred, most of these can be attributed to administrative and financial miscarriages, rather than ignorance of contemporary medical developments. Moreover, there is little to suggest that medics mobilized for Civil War armies were any less capable than those who practised civilian medicine in this period.This article draws on research undertaken whilst a postdoctoral research associate on the Wellcome Trust-funded project ‘The Medical World of Early Modern England, Wales and Ireland, c. 1500–1715’ at the University of Exeter (grant reference number 097782/Z/11/Z)
- …