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Isaac Newton

Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, PRS ( – ) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist and philosopher associated with the scientific revolution and the advancement of heliocentrism. He was one of the most influential scientists in history. Among his scientific accomplishments, Newton wrote the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, wherein he described universal gravitation and, via his laws of motion, laid the groundwork for classical mechanics. With Gottfried Leibniz he shares credit for the development of calculus. Newton was the first to promulgate a set of natural laws that could govern both terrestrial motion and celestial motion, and is credited with providing mathematical substantiation for Kepler's laws of planetary motion, which he expanded by arguing that orbits (such as those of comets) could include all conic sections (such as the ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola). Newton realised that the spectrum of colours observed when white light passed through a prism is inherent in the white light and not added by the prism (as Roger Bacon had claimed in the 13th century), and also notably argued that light is composed of particles. Newton additionally developed a law of cooling, proved the binomial theorem, and discovered the principles of conservation of momentum and angular momentum. Newton is regarded by many as having "unrivalled mathematical genius" [see Dampier & Dampier]. The mathematician Joseph Louis Lagrange (1736-1813), Director of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, said this about Newton: ::"Newton was the greatest genius that ever existed and the most fortunate, for we cannot find more than once a system of the world to establish." [See Shapley.]

Biography

Early years

Newton was born in Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth (at Woolsthorpe Manor), a hamlet in the county of Lincolnshire. Newton was prematurely born and no one expected him to live; indeed, his mother, Hannah Ayscough Newton, is reported to have said that his body at that time could have fit inside a quart mug (Bell, 1937). His father, Isaac, had died three months before Newton's birth. When Newton was two years old, his mother went to live with her new husband, leaving her son in the care of his grandmother. According to E.T. Bell (1937, Simon and Schuster) and H. Eves: :Newton began his schooling in the village schools and was later sent to Grantham Grammar School where he became the top boy in the school. At Grantham he lodged with the local apothecary, William Clarke and eventually became engaged to the apothecary's stepdaughter, Anne Storer, before he went off to Cambridge University at the age of 19. As Newton became engrossed in his studies, the romance cooled and Miss Storer married someone else. It is said he kept a warm memory of this love, but Newton had no other recorded 'sweethearts' and never married. Cambridge University From the age of twelve until he was seventeen, Newton was educated at Grantham Grammar School. His family then removed him from school and attempted to make a farmer of him. However he was thoroughly unhappy with the work and eventually with the help of his uncle and of his schoolteacher, he managed to persuade his mother to send him back to school so that he might complete his schooling. This he did at the age of eighteen, achieving an admirable final report. His teacher said: :His genius now begins to mount upwards apace and shine out with more strength. He excels particularly in making verses. In everything he undertakes, he discovers an application equal to the pregnancy of his parts and exceeds even the most sanguine expectations I have conceived of him. In 1661 he joined Trinity College, Cambridge, where his uncle William Ayscough had studied. At that time, the college's teachings were based on those of Aristotle, but Newton preferred to read the more advanced ideas of modern philosophers such as Descartes, Galileo, Copernicus and Kepler. In 1665 he discovered the binomial theorem and began to develop a mathematical theory that would later become calculus. Soon after Newton had obtained his degree in 1665, the University closed down as a precaution against the Great Plague. For the next two years Newton worked at home on calculus, optics and gravitation. He later continued his studies at Woolsthorpe Manor. The popular tradition has it that Newton was sitting under an apple tree when an apple fell on his head, and that this made him understand that earthly and celestial gravitation are the same. A contemporary writer, William Stukeley, recorded in his Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton's Life a conversation with Newton in Kensington on 15 April 1726, in which Newton recalled "when formerly, the notion of gravitation came into his mind. It was occasioned by the fall of an apple, as he sat in contemplative mood. Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground, thought he to himself. Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth's centre." In similar terms, Voltaire wrote in his Essay on Epic Poetry (1727), "Sir Isaac Newton walking in his gardens, had the first thought of his system of gravitation, upon seeing an apple falling from a tree." These accounts are exaggerations of Newton's own tale about sitting by a window in his home (Woolsthorpe Manor) and watching an apple fall from a tree. It is now generally considered probable that even this story was invented by Newton in later life, to illustrate how he drew inspiration from everyday events.

Middle years

Mathematical research

Woolsthorpe Manor.]] Newton became a fellow of Trinity College in 1669. In the same year he circulated his findings in De Analysi per Aequationes Numeri Terminorum Infinitas (On Analysis by Infinite Series), and later in De methodis serierum et fluxionum (On the Methods of Series and Fluxions), whose title gave the name to his "method of fluxions". Newton is generally credited as the discoverer of the binomial theorem, an essential step toward the development of modern analysis. Newton and Gottfried Leibniz developed the theory of calculus independently, using different notations. Although Newton had worked out his own method before Leibniz, the latter's notation and "Differential Method" were superior, and were generally adopted throughout the world. Though Newton belongs among the brightest scientists of his era, the last twenty-five years of his life were marred by a bitter dispute with Leibniz, whom he accused of plagiarism. The dispute created a divide between British and Continental mathematicians that persisted even after Newton's death. He was elected Lucasian professor of mathematics in 1669. Any fellow of Cambridge or Oxford had to be ordained at the time. However the terms of the Lucasian professorship required that the holder not be active in the church (presumably so as to have more time for science). Newton argued that this should exempt him from the normal ordination requirement, and Charles II, whose permission was needed, accepted this argument. This prevented the conflict that would have occurred between his religious views and the orthodoxy of the church.

Optics

From 1670 to 1672 he lectured on optics. During this period he investigated the refraction of light, demonstrating that a prism could decompose white light into a spectrum of colours, and that a lens and a second prism could recompose the multicoloured spectrum into white light. He also showed that the coloured light does not change its properties, by separating out a coloured beam and shining it on various objects. Newton noted that regardless of whether it was reflected or scattered or transmitted, it stayed the same colour. Thus the colours we observe are the result of how objects interact with the incident already-coloured light, not the result of objects generating the colour. For more details, see Newton's theory of colour. Many of his findings in this field were critized by later theorists, the most well-known being Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who postulated his own colour theories. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe From this work he concluded that any refracting telescope would suffer from the dispersion of light into colours, and invented a reflecting telescope (today, known as a Newtonian telescope) to bypass that problem. By grinding his own mirrors, using Newton's rings to judge the quality of the optics for his telescopes, he was able to produce a superior instrument to the refracting telescope, due primarily to the wider diameter of the mirror. (Only later, as glasses with a variety of refractive properties became available, did achromatic lenses for refractors become feasible.) In 1671 the Royal Society asked for a demonstration of his reflecting telescope. Their interest encouraged him to publish his notes On Colour, which he later expanded into his Opticks. When Robert Hooke criticised some of Newton's ideas, Newton was so offended that he withdrew from public debate. The two men remained enemies until Hooke's death. In one experiment, to prove that colour perception is caused by pressure on the eye, Newton slid a darning needle around the side of his eye until he could poke at its rear side, dispassionately noting "white, darke & coloured circles" so long as he kept stirring with "ye bodkin." Newton argued that light is composed of particles; thus he could not explain the diffraction of light. Later physicists instead favoured a wave explanation of light to account for diffraction. Today's quantum mechanics recognises a "wave-particle duality"; however photons bear very little semblance to Newton's corpuscles (e.g., corpuscles refracted by accelerating toward the denser medium). Newton is believed to have been the first to explain precisely the formation of the rainbow from water droplets dispersed in the atmosphere in a rain shower. Figure 15 of Part II of Book One of the Opticks shows a perfect illustration of how this occurs. In his Hypothesis of Light of 1675, Newton posited the existence of the ether to transmit forces between particles. Newton was in contact with Henry More, the Cambridge Platonist who was born in Grantham, on alchemy, and now his interest in the subject revived. He replaced the ether with occult forces based on Hermetic ideas of attraction and repulsion between particles. John Maynard Keynes, who acquired many of Newton's writings on alchemy, stated that "Newton was not the first of the age of reason: he was the last of the magicians." Newton's interest in alchemy cannot be isolated from his contributions to science.2 (This was at a time when there was no clear distinction between alchemy and science.) Had he not relied on the occult idea of action at a distance, across a vacuum, he might not have developed his theory of gravity. (See also Isaac Newton's occult studies.) In 1704 Newton wrote Opticks, in which he expounded his corpuscular theory of light. The book is also known for the first exposure of the idea of the interchangeability of mass and energy: "Gross bodies and light are convertible into one another...". Newton also constructed a primitive form of a frictional electrostatic generator, using a glass globe (Optics, 8th Query).

Gravity and motion

glass In 1679, Newton returned to his work on mechanics, i.e., gravitation and its effect on the orbits of planets, with reference to Kepler's laws of motion, and consulting with Hooke and Flamsteed on the subject. He published his results in De Motu Corporum (1684). This contained the beginnings of the laws of motion that would inform the Principia. The Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (now known as the Principia) was published on 5 July 16871) with encouragement and financial help from Edmond Halley. In this work Newton stated the three universal laws of motion that were not to be improved upon for more than two hundred years. He used the Latin word gravitas (weight) for the force that would become known as gravity, and defined the law of universal gravitation. In the same work he presented the first analytical determination, based on Boyle's law, of the speed of sound in air. With the Principia, Newton became internationally recognised. He acquired a circle of admirers, including the Swiss-born mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, with whom he formed an intense relationship that lasted until 1693. The end of this friendship led Newton to a nervous breakdown.

Later life

nervous breakdown In the 1690s Newton wrote a number of religious tracts dealing with the literal interpretation of the Bible. Henry More's belief in the infinity of the universe and rejection of Cartesian dualism may have influenced Newton's religious ideas. A manuscript he sent to John Locke in which he disputed the existence of the Trinity was never published. Later works — The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended (1728) and Observations Upon the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John (1733) — were published after his death. He also devoted a great deal of time to alchemy (see above)2. Newton was also a member of the Parliament of England from 1689 to 1690 and in 1701, but his only recorded comments were to complain about a cold draft in the chamber and request that the window be closed. Newton moved to London to take up the post of warden of the Royal Mint in 1696, a position that he had obtained through the patronage of Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, then Chancellor of the Exchequer. He took charge of England's great recoining, somewhat treading on the toes of Master Lucas (and finagling Edmond Halley into deputy comptroller of the temporary Chester branch). Newton became Master of the Mint upon Lucas' death in 1699. These appointments were intended as sinecures, but Newton took them seriously, exercising his power to reform the currency and punish clippers and counterfeiters. He retired from his Cambridge duties in 1701. Ironically, it was his work at the Mint, rather than his contributions to science, which earned him a knighthood. Newton was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705. Newton was made President of the Royal Society in 1703 and an associate of the French Académie des Sciences. In his position at the Royal Society, Newton made an enemy of John Flamsteed, the Astronomer Royal, by attempting to steal his catalogue of observations. Newton died in London and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It is believed Newton never had a romantic relationship, and he is said to have died a virgin. There is some speculation that Newton had Asperger syndrome, a form of autism. See People speculated to have been autistic. His niece, Catherine Barton Conduitt3, served as his hostess in social affairs at his house on Jermyn Street in London; he was her "very loving Uncle"4, according to his letter to her when she was recovering from smallpox.

Religious views

4 The law of gravity became Newton's best-known discovery. He warned against using it to view the universe as a mere machine, like a great clock. He said, "Gravity explains the motions of the planets, but it cannot explain who set the planets in motion. God governs all things and knows all that is or can be done." His scientific fame notwithstanding, the Bible was Newton's greatest passion. He devoted more time to the study of Scripture and Alchemy than to science, and said, "I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily." Newton himself wrote works on textual criticism, most notably An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture. He also attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden messages within the Bible (See Bible code). Despite his focus in theology and alchemy, Newton tested and investigated these myths with the scientific method, observing, hypothesizing, and testing his theories. To Newton, his scientific and mythical experiments were one in the same, observing and understanding how the world functioned. Newton is often accused of being a Unitarian and Arian, and not believing in the church's doctrine of divine trinity. However, T.C. Pfizenmaier argued that he more likely held the Eastern Orthodox view of the Trinity rather than the Western one held by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and most Protestants.7 In his own day, he was also accused of being a Rosicrucian (as were many in the Royal Society and in the court of Charles II). In his own lifetime, Newton wrote more on religion than he did on natural science. He believed in a rationally emanent world, but he rejected the hylozoism implicit in Leibniz and Baruch Spinoza. Thus, the ordered and dynamically informed universe could be understood, and must be understood, by an active reason, but this universe, to be perfect and ordained, had to be regular.

Newton's effect on religious thought

Newton and Robert Boyle’s mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians. Thus, the clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious enthusiasm and the threat of atheism, and, at the same time, the second wave of English deists used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion." The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking," and the mystical elements of Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle’s mechanical conception of the universe. Newton gave Boyle’s ideas their completion through mathematical proofs, and more importantly was very successful in popularizing them. Newton refashioned the world governed by an interventionist God into a world crafted by a God that designs along rational and universal principles. These principles were available for all people to discover, allowed man to pursue his own aims fruitfully in this life, not the next, and to perfect himself with his own rational powers. The perceived ability of Newtonians to explain the world, both physical and social, through logical calculations alone is the crucial idea in the disenchantment of Christianity. Newton saw God as the masterful creator whose existence could not be denied in the face of the grandeur of all creation.5'6' But the unforeseen theological consequence of his conception of God, as Leibniz pointed out, was that God was now entirely removed from the world’s affairs, since the need for intervention would only evidence some imperfection in God’s creation, something impossible for a perfect and omnipotent creator. Leibniz's theodicy cleared God from the responsibility for "l'origine du mal" by making God removed from participation in his creation. The understanding of the world was now brought down to the level of simple human reason, and humans, as Odo Marquard argued, became responsible for the correction and elimination of evil. On the other hand, latitudinarian and Newtonian ideas taken too far resulted in the millenarians, a religious faction dedicated to the concept of a mechanical universe, but finding in it the same enthusiasm and mysticism that the Enlightenment had fought so hard to extinguish.

Newton versus the counterfeiters

Newton estimated that 20% of the coins taken in during The Great Recoinage were counterfeit. Counterfeiting was treason, punishable by death by drawing and quartering. As gruesome as the penalties were, the courts were not arbitrary or capricious. The rights of free men had a long tradition in England and the crown had to prove its case to a jury. The law also allowed for plea bargaining. Convictions of the most flagrant criminals could be maddeningly impossible to achieve; however, Newton proved to be equal to the task. He assembled facts and proved his theories with the same brilliance in law that he had shown in science. He gathered much of that evidence himself, disguised, while he hung out at bars and taverns. For all the barriers placed to prosecution, and separating the branches of government, English law still had ancient and formidable customs of authority. Newton was made a justice of the peace and between June 1698 and Christmas 1699 conducted some 200 cross-examinations of witnesses, informers and suspects. During this time he obtained the confessions he needed and while he could not resort to open torture, whatever means he did use must have been fearsome because Newton himself later ordered all records of these interrogations to be destroyed. However he did it, Newton won his convictions and in February 1699, he had ten prisoners waiting to be executed. Newton's greatest triumph as the king's attorney was against William Chaloner. Chaloner was a rogue with a devious intelligence. He set up phony conspiracies of Catholics and then turned in the hapless conspirators whom he entrapped. Chaloner made himself rich enough to posture as a gentleman. Petitioning Parliament, Chaloner accused the Mint of providing tools to counterfeiters. (This charge was made also by others.) He proposed that he be allowed to inspect the Mint's processes in order to improve them. He petitioned Parliament to adopt his plans for a coinage that could not be counterfeited. All the time, he struck false coins, or so Newton eventually proved to a court of competent jurisdiction. On March 23, 1699, Chaloner was hanged, drawn and quartered.

Enlightenment philosophers

Enlightenment philosophers chose a short history of scientific predecessors—Galileo, Boyle, and Newton principally—as the guides and guarantors of their applications of the singular concept of Nature and Natural Law to every physical and social field of the day. In this respect, the lessons of history and the social structures built upon it could be discarded. It was Newton’s conception of the universe based upon Natural and rationally understandable laws that became the seed for Enlightenment ideology. Locke and Voltaire applied concepts of Natural Law to political systems advocating intrinsic rights; the physiocrats and Adam Smith applied Natural conceptions of psychology and self-interest to economic systems, and sociologists critiquing the current social order fit history into Natural models of progress.

Newton's legacy

progress]] Newton's laws of motion and gravity provided a basis for predicting a wide variety of different scientific or engineering situations, especially the motion of celestial bodies. His calculus proved vitally important to the development of further scientific theories. Finally, he unified many of the isolated physics facts that had been discovered earlier into a satisfying system of laws. Newton's conceptions of gravity and mechanics, though not entirely correct in light of Einstein's Theory of Relativity, still represent an enormous step in the evolution of human understanding of the universe. For this reason, he is generally considered one of history's greatest scientists, ranking alongside such figures as Einstein and Carl Friedrich Gauss. In 1717, the Kingdom of Great Britain went on to an unofficial gold standard when Newton, then Master of the Mint, established a fixed price of £3.17.10 ½d per standard (22 carat) troy ounce, equal to £4.4.11 ½d per fine ounce. Under the gold standard the value of the pound (measured in gold weight) remained largely constant until the beginning of the 20th century. Newton is reputed to have invented the cat flap. This was said to be done so that he would not have to disrupt his optical experiments, conducted in a darkened room, to let his cat in or out. Newtonmas is a holiday celebrated by some scientists as an alternative to Christmas, taking advantage of the fact that Newton's birthday falls on December 25. In July 1992, the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences was opened at Cambridge University - it is regarded as the United Kingdom's national institute for mathematical research.

Fictional appearances

Isaac Newton appears in many works of fiction. He is a recurring figure in Rubrique-à-brac, a French comic strip by Marcel Gotlieb. An ongoing gag involves various depictions of the legend that he discovered the law of gravity due to an apple falling on his head. Newton also figures as a major character in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle and in Philip Kerr's novel, Dark Matter. Newton has a cameo role, along with Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, in a poker game in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation during season 6. Newton is notable in that scene for being the only scientist without a sense of humour. He also takes offence at the notion that the story of the apple would be fictitious. He also appears in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager where it is claimed that a member of the Q Continuum shook the tree he was sitting under, causing the apple to fall. "Isaac Newton's College" is one of the "Wonders of the World" bonus achievements in the classic computer strategy game by Sid Meier, Civilization. One of the more bizarre fictional apperances have been made in a Japanese animated show Vision of Escaflowne, where the main antagonist, Dornkirk, is revealed to be a 200+ year-old Isaac Newton.

Writings by Newton


- Method of Fluxions (1671)
- De Motu Corporum in Gyrum (1684)
- Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687)
- Opticks (1704)
- [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/ed/newton-intro.html Reports as Master of the Mint] (1701-1725)
- Arithmetica Universalis (1707)
- An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (1754) Short Chronicle, The System of the World, Optical Lectures, Universal Arithmetic, The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms, Amended and De mundi systemate were published posthumously in 1728.

Notes


- Note 1: The remainder of the dates in this article follow the Gregorian calendar.
- Note 2: Westfall (pp. 530–531) notes that Newton apparently abandoned his alchemical researches.
- Note 3: Westfall, p. 44.
- Note 4: Westfall, p. 595.
- Note 5: Principia, Book III; cited in; Newton’s Philosophy of Nature: Selections from his writings, p. 42, ed. H.S. Thayer, Hafner Library of Classics, NY, 1953.
- Note 6: A Short Scheme of the True Religion, manuscript quoted in Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton by Sir David Brewster, Edinburgh, 1850; cited in; ibid, p. 65.
- Note 7: Pfizenmaier, T.C., "Was Isaac Newton an Arian?" Journal of the History of Ideas 68(1):57–80, 1997.
- Yates, Frances A. The Rosicrucian Enlightenment. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1972.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p28.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p37 and p44.
- Westfall, Richard S. Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. Yale University Press, New Haven: 1958. p200.
- Fitzpatrick, Martin. ed. Knud Haakonssen. “The Enlightenment, politics and providence: some Scottish and English comparisons.” Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1996. p64.
- Frankel, Charles. The Faith of Reason: The Idea of Progress in the French Enlightenment. King’s Crown Press, New York: 1948. p1.
- Germain, Gilbert G. A Discourse on Disenchantment: Reflections on Politics and Technology. p28.
- Webb, R.K. ed. Knud Haakonssen. “The emergence of Rational Dissent.” Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in eighteenth-century Britain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 1996. p19.
- Westfall, Richard S. Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. p201.
- Marquard, Odo. "Burdened and Disemburdened Man and the Flight into Unindictability," in Farewell to Matters of Principle. Robert M. Wallace trans. London: Oxford UP, 1989.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p100-101.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Newtonians and the English Revolution: 1689-1720. p61.
- Cassels, Alan. Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World. p2.

See also


- World Almanac's Ten Most Influential People of the Second Millennium
- History of calculus
- "Standing on the shoulders of giants"

Resources

References


- [http://scidiv.bcc.ctc.edu/Math/Newton.html Excerpt]
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Further reading


- John Maynard Keynes, Essays in Biography, W W Norton & Co, 1963, paperback, ISBN 039300189X. Keynes had taken a close interest in Newton and owned many of Newton's private papers.
- Isaac Newton, Papers and Letters in Natural Philosophy, edited by I. Bernard Cohen ISBN 0-674-46853-8 Harvard 1958,1978
- Michael H. Hart, The 100, Carol Publishing Group, July 1992, paperback, 576 pages, ISBN 0806513500
- Simmons, J, The giant book of scientists -- The 100 greatest minds of all time, Sydney: The Book Company, (1996)
- Isaac Newton (1642-1727), The Principia: a new Translation, Guide by I. Bernard Cohen ISBN 0-520-08817-4 University of California 1999 Warning: common mistranslations exposed!
- Berlinski, David, Newton's Gift:How Sir Isaac Newton Unlocked the System of our World, ISBN 0684843927 (hardback), also in paperback, Simon & Schuster, 2000
- Stephen Hawking, ed. On the Shoulders of Giants, ISBN 0-7624-1348-5 Places selections from Newton's Principia in the context of selected writings by Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo and Einstein.
- James Gleick, Isaac Newton, Knopf, 2003, hardcover, 288 pages, ISBN 0375422331
- Gale E. Christianson, In the Presence of the Creator: Isaac Newton and His Times Collier MacMillan, 1984, 608 pages
- Harlow Shapley, S. Rapport, H. Wright, A Treasury of Science; "Newtonia" pp. 147-9; "Discoveries" pp. 150-4. Harper & Bros., New York, 1946.
- William C. Dampier & M. Dampier, Readings in the Literature of Science, Harper & Row, New York, 1959.

External links


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- [http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95dec/newton.html Sir Isaac Newton Scientist and Mathematician by Lucidcafé]
- [http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Physics/History/People/Newton,_Isaac/ Isaac Newton Directory]
- [http://www.newtonproject.ic.ac.uk/ Newton Research Project]
- [http://www.skepticreport.com/astrology/newton.htm Rebuttal of Newton as an astrologer]
- [http://www.galilean-library.org/snobelen.html Newton Reconsidered], an interview with Newton scholar Stephen D. Snobelen at the Galilean Library
- [http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/Newton/Newtonexhibit.htm March 5-June 12, 2005 Isaac Newton's personal copy of Principia on display at] Huntington Library
- [http://www.pierre-marteau.com/currency/ed/newton-intro.html Newton's Reports as Master of the Royal Mint]
- [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/newton/ Newton's Dark Secrets] NOVA television program.
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- [http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/newton-stm/ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Newton's views on space, time, and motion]
- [http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2005/09/sir-isaac-newton.html Sir Isaac Newton] an article that traces his life and achievements.
- [http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC051308/index.htm Newton's Castle] Educational material about Newton
- [http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/newton The Chymistry of Isaac Newton] Research about Isaac Newton's Alchemical writings
- [http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/ The Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences] Newton, Issac Newton, Issac Newton, Issac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton,Isaac Newton,Isaac Newton, Isaac Newton, Isaac ko:아이작 뉴턴 ms:Isaac Newton ja:アイザック・ニュートン simple:Isaac Newton th:ไอแซก นิวตัน

Knighthood

.]] :For the chess piece, see knight (chess). The term knight from the High Middle Ages referred to armed equestrians of royalty and high nobility, in particular heavy cavalry. From the 13th century, the rank of some knights became hereditary. Concurrently, Militant monastic orders were established during the time of the crusades, and from the 14th century imitated by numerous chivalric orders. The British honours system originates with the chivalric Order of the Garter, and has diversified into various other orders since the 17th century.

History

The word knight derives from Old English cniht, meaning page boy, or servant (as is still the case in the cognate Dutch and German knecht), or simply boy. Knighthood, as Old English cnihthad, had the meaning of adolescence, i.e. the period between childhood and manhood. The sense of (adult) lieutenant of a king or other superior dates to ca. 1100. From the time of Henry III, a knight bachelor was a member of the lower nobility, preceded by the knight banneret, a commander of ten or more lances who could lead his men under his own banner, but who didn't have the rank of baron or earl. The knights bachelor did not wear any insignia until 1296. The verb "to knight", i.e. to bestow knighthood, dates to that time (the late 13th century). 1296 (Codex Manesse).]] During the 14th century, the concept became tied to cavalry, mounted and armoured soldiers, and thus to the earlier class of noble Roman warriors known as equites (see esquire). Because of the cost of equipping oneself in the cavalry, the term became associated with wealth and social status, and eventually knighthood became a formal title. The concept, together with the notion of chivalry came to full bloom during the Hundred Years' War. During the same period, however, the importance of heavy cavalry was rendered obsolete by improved pikemen and Longbow tactics (a bitter lesson for the nobility, learned throughout the 14th century at battles like those of Crécy, Bannockburn and Laupen), so that during the 14th century, the notion of chivalry became a nostalgic reconstruction almost as soon as it came into fashion. The "knights in shining armour" of the 15th and 16th centuries, by that time in full plate armour, were mostly confined to the jousting grounds, and the romantic Pas d'Armes. The chess piece was named in this period, around 1440. Via the transitional Cuirassiers of the 16th century, cavalry resurfaced once again in light, unarmoured form, in the 17th century, but by now useless for attacking entrenched infantry, and not any longer associated with knighthood. Knighthood as a purely formal title bestowed by the British monarch unrelated to military service was established in the 16th century.

Early heavy cavalry

Cuirassier, Iran (4th century)]] The origin of heavily armoured cavalry (Cataphractes) lies in Sassanid Persia, and medieval chivalry absorbed many Persian traditions in the course of the Perso-Byzantine wars. For example, Ammianus Marcellinus, a Roman general and historian, who served in the army of Constantius II in Gaul and Persia, fought against the Persians under Julian the Apostate and took part in the retreat of his successor, Jovian. He describes the Persian knight as: ::"All their companies clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff joints conformed with those of their limbs; and forms of the human faces were so skillfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire bodies were covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tips of their noses they were able to get a little breath." ::"The Persians opposed us serried bands of mail-clad horsemen in such close order that the gleam of moving bodies covered with closely fitting plates of iron dazzled the eyes of those who looked upon them, while the whole throng of horses was protected by coverings of leather. " An Equestrian (Latin eques, plural equites) was a member of one of the two upper social classes in the Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. This class is often translated as Knight or Chevalier. The social position of knights and equestrians, however, was extremely similar, equestrians being the nearest Roman equivalent to Medieval nobility, the tax farming system closely approaching feudalism without actually being identical due to inherent differences in the social structure. Up to the 5th century, Sarmatian cavalry units were stationed in Britain as part of the Roman army (see Roman departure from Britain), allowing for a direct influence of Roman Cataphractes on Migration Age Europe. According to a theory of Littleton and Thomas (1978), the legend of King Arthur, the prototypical knight of High Medieval literature, was directly inspired by these Sarmatian troops (however, it is most likely that the only reason we view Arthur and his retainers as knights was simply because the Arthurian Cycle became popular in a time in which knighthood was predominant).

Becoming a Knight

notDuring the High Middle Ages, it was technically possible for every free man to become a knight, but the process of becoming (and the equipping of) a knight was very expensive; thus it was more likely that a knight would come from a noble (or wealthy) family. The process of being knighted began before adolescence, inside the prospective knight’s own home, where he was taught courtesy and appropriate manners. Around the age of 7 years, he would be sent away to train and serve at a grander household as a page. Here, he would serve as a kind of waiter and personal servant, entertaining and serving food to his elders. He would learn basic hunting and falconry, and also various battle skills such as taking care of, preparing, and riding horses, as well as use of weapons and armour. At about fourteen years of age, the page was assigned to a knight to serve as his personal companion and aide, as a squire. This allowed the squire to observe his master while he was in battle, in order to learn from his techniques. He also acted as a servant to the knight, taking care of his master’s equipment and horse. This was to uphold the knight’s code that promoted generosity, courtesy, compassion, and most importantly, loyalty. Once the squire had established sufficient mastery of the required skills, he was dubbed a knight. There was no set age for this, but it usually occurred between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one. In the early period, the procedure began with the squire praying into the night. He was then bathed, and in the morning he was dressed in a white shirt, gold tunic, purple cloak, and was knighted by his king or lord. As the Middle Ages progressed, the process changed. The squire was made to vow that he would obey the regulations of chivalry, and never flee from battle. Then women would buckle on his armour. A squire could also be knighted on the battlefield, in which a lord simply struck him on the shoulder and said, “Be thou a knight”. Later, as military technology and society evolved, knighthood became irrelevant to warfare (the Golden Spurs battle of 1302 was seen as a landmark: the largest knightly army in christendom, fielded by the French king, was destroyed by infantry; soon firearms would revolutionize war even more), while its theoretically irrelevant link with nobility (generally only nobles were knighted, and in noble families most males were expected to be) encouraged it to survive with an essentially civilian ethos of social stratification. In various traditions, knighthood was reserved for people with a minimum of noble quarters (as in many orders of chivalry), or knight became essentially a low degree of nobility, sometimes even conferred as a hereditary title below the peerage. Meanwhile monarchy strived, as an expression of Absolutism, to monopolize the right to confer knighthood, even as an individual honour. Not only was this often successful, once established, this prerogative of the Head of State was even transferred to the successors of dynasties in republican regimes, such as the British Lord Protector of the Commonwealth (his very title means Regent in stead of the abolished -Stuart- King) Cromwell.

Knighthood and the Feudal system

Knighthood was closely connected with the feudal system. Originating largely in what later became known as France, this was a social organisation in which warfare and the protection of the common people became the specialised skill of a select group. Instead of having them paid in cash — of which everyone, even the monarch, was short — they were paid in land. These rather extensive pieces of land were the fiefs. Though a fief did not have to be land — it could be any payment — it is generally thought of as the land that the knights were given as payment for service to the king. The knights were economically supported by peasants who worked to produce food and ideologically supported by the contemporary church. Sometimes these knights were the noble themselves and sometimes men they hired, because noblemen were disinclined or unable to fight. In times of war or national disorder the monarch would typically call all the knights together to do their annual service of fighting. This could be against internal threats to the nation or in defensive and offensive wars against other nations. As time went by, monarchs began to prefer standing (permanent) armies because they could be used for longer periods of time, were more professional and were generally more loyal; partly because those noblemen who were themselves knights, or who sent knights to fight, were prone to use the monarch's dependency on their resources to manipulate him. This move from knights to standing armies had two important outcomes: the regular payment of "scutage" to monarchs by noblemen (a money payment instead of actually going to fight as a knight) which would strengthen the concept and practice of taxation, and a general decrease in military discipline in knights, who became more interested in their country estates and chivalric pursuits, including killing Originally, knighthood could be bestowed on any man by a knight commander, but it was generally considered more prestigious to be dubbed a knight by the hand of a monarch or royalty; the monarch eventually acquired the exclusive right to confer knighthoods known as Fount of honour. By about the late 13th century, partly in conjunction with the focus on courtly behavior, a code of conduct and uniformity of dress for knights began to evolve. Knights were eligible to wear a white belt and golden spurs as signs of their status. Moreover, knights were also required to swear allegiance — either to a liege lord or to a military order. Knights had servants: pages and squires. squire In theory, knights were the Christian warrior class defending the people of Medieval Europe and followed a code of chivalry, which was a set of customs governed the knights behavior. Knights served mightier lords, usually as vassals, or were hired by them, some had their own castle, others joined a military order or a crusade. In reality, rules were often bended or blatently broken by knights as well as their masters, for power, goods or honor, some knights even turned to organised crime. They went through a long process to become a knight involving three stages: start as a page, moving on to be a personal squire, and after they have passed their training they could be knighted. The first stage in the process of becoming a knight is being a page. Training of a knight began at a very young age, the age of seven, serving as a "Page" until he was 14 years old (Hull). A Page was usually the son of a vassal, who sent him to his or another lord’s castle to become a page. For seven years a page was cared for by the women of the house, who instructed him in comportment, courtesy, cleanliness, and religion (Ross). The page served the lord, by working, serving, and doing chores. He also learned how to use a sword and ride a horse. A page became a squire when he turned 14 years of age. When he became a squire, the boy was assigned or picked by a knight to become his personal aid. The squire looked after the knight’s armor, horse and other belongings as well as served him at his meals and helped him with other tasks. The knight acted as a tutor and taught the squire all he needed to know to become a knight. As the squire grew older, he was expected to follow his master into battle, and protect his master if the knight fell in battle. Some squires became knights for performing an outstanding deed on the battlefield, but most were knighted at home by their lord or father when their training was judged to be complete (Gilberts). A squire became a knight when he was about 18 to 21 years old. The night before his knighting ceremony, the squire would take a cleansing bath, fast, make confession, and pray to God all night in the chapel, readying himself for his life as a knight. Then he would go through the knighting ceremony the following day. Knights followed the code of chivalry, which promoted honor, honesty, respect to God, and other knightly virtues. Knights served their lords and were paid in land, because money was scarce. Knights chose their squires, and trained and didnt teach them

Chivalric code

Military-monastic orders


- Knights Hospitaller, founded during the First Crusade
- Order of Saint Lazarus established ca. 1100, abolished 1830
- Knights Templar, founded 1118, disbanded 1307
- Teutonic knights, founded ca. 1190, ruling Prussia until 1525 Other orders were established in the Iberian peninsula in imitation of the orders in the Holy Land, in Avis in 1143, in Alcantara in 1156, in Calatrava in 1158, in Santiago in 1164.

Honorific orders

From roughly 1560, purely honorific orders were established, designed as a way to confer prestige and distinction, unrelated to military service or chivalry in the more narrow sense. Such orders were particularly popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, and knighthood continues to be conferred in various countries:
- The United Kingdom (see British honours system) and some Commonwealth countries;
- Most European countries, such as The Netherlands (see below).
- Malaysia — see Malay titles;
- Thailand;
- The Holy See — see [http://www.chivalricorders.org/vatican/main2.htm]. There are other monarchies and also republics that also follow the practice. Modern knighthoods are typically awarded in recognition for services rendered to society, services which are no longer necessarily martial in nature. The musician Elton John, for example, is entitled to call himself Sir Elton. The female equivalent is a Dame. Accompanying the title is the given name, and optionally the surname. So, Elton John may be called Sir Elton or Sir Elton John, but never Sir John. Similarly, actress Judi Dench D.B.E. may be addressed as Dame Judi or Dame Judi Dench, but never Dame Dench. Wives of knights, however, are entitled to the honorific "Lady" before their husband's surname. Thus Sir Paul McCartney's wife is styled Lady McCartney, not Lady Paul McCartney or Lady Heather McCartney. The style Dame Heather McCartney could be used; however, this style is largely archaic and is only used in the most formal of documents. State Knighthoods in the Netherlands are issued in three orders, the Order of William, the Order of the Dutch Lion, and the Order of Orange Nassau. Additionally there remain a few hereditary knights in The Netherlands.

External links


- [http://www.partow.com/sassan.html "Rock Carvings of the Sassanian Kings"]
-
- [http://www.almanachdechivalry.com/ Almanach de Chivalry]

Literature


- Boulton, D'Arcy Jonathan Dacre, The knights of the crown : the monarchical orders of knighthood in later medieval Europe, 1325-1520, Woodbridge, Suffolk : Boydell Press, 1987. Second revised edition (paperback): Woodbridge, Suffolk and Rochester, NY : Boydell Press, 2000.
- Forey, Alan John, The military orders : from the twelfth to the early fourteenth centuries, Basingstoke : Macmillan Education, 1992. Category:Feudalism Category:Positions of authority Category:Honorary titles Category:Medieval warfare Category:Warriors ja:騎士

Presidents of the Royal Society

The President of the Royal Society (PRS) is the elected head of the Royal Society of London. The position is now awarded to a member of the scientific community of the British Commonwealth for a period of five years, and is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed upon a scientist. The current President is The Lord Rees of Ludlow, the vice-president is Sir Patrick Bateson.

Presidents of the Royal Society

# 1662-1677 The Viscount Brouncker # 1677-1680 Sir Joseph Williamson # 1680-1682 Sir Christopher Wren # 1682-1683 John Hoskins # 1683-1684 Cyril Wyche # 1684-1686 Samuel Pepys # 1686-1689 The Earl of Carbery # 1689-1690 The Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery # 1690-1695 Robert Southwell # 1695-1698 The Earl of Halifax # 1698-1703 The Lord Somers # 1703-1727 Sir Isaac Newton # 1727-1741 Sir Hans Sloane # 1741-1752 Martin Folkes # 1752-1764 The Earl of Macclesfield # 1764-1768 The Earl of Morton # 1768-1768 James Burrow # 1768-1772 James West # 1772-1778 Sir John Pringle # 1778-1820 Sir Joseph Banks # 1820-1820 William Hyde Wollaston # 1820-1827 Sir Humphry Davy # 1827-1830 Davies Gilbert # 1830-1838 HRH The Duke of Sussex # 1838-1848 The Marquess of Northampton # 1848-1854 The Earl of Rosse # 1854-1858 The Lord Wrottesley # 1858-1861 Benjamin Collins Brodie # 1861-1871 Sir Edward Sabine # 1871-1873 Sir George Biddell Airy # 1873-1878 Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker # 1878-1883 William Spottiswoode # 1883-1885 Thomas Henry Huxley # 1885-1890 Sir George Gabriel Stokes # 1890-1895 The Lord Kelvin # 1895-1900 The Lord Lister # 1900-1905 William Huggins # 1905-1908 The Lord Rayleigh # 1908-1913 Sir Archibald Geikie # 1913-1915 Sir William Crookes # 1915-1920 Sir Joseph John Thomson # 1920-1925 Sir Charles Sherrington # 1925-1930 The Lord Rutherford of Nelson # 1930-1935 Sir Frederick Hopkins # 1935-1940 Sir William Henry Bragg # 1940-1945 Sir Henry Hallett Dale # 1945-1950 Robert Robinson # 1950-1955 Edgar Douglas Adrian # 1955-1960 Cyril Norman Hinshelwood # 1960-1965 Howard Florey # 1965-1970 The Lord Blackett # 1970-1975 Sir Alan Hodgkin # 1975-1980 The Lord Todd # 1980-1985 Sir Andrew Huxley # 1985-1990 Sir George Porter # 1990-1995 Sir Michael Atiyah # 1995-2000 Sir Aaron Klug # 2000-2005 The Lord May of Oxford # 2005- The Lord Rees of Ludlow

External links


- [http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/library/pastpres.htm Presidents of the Royal Society] Category:Royal Society
- Category:Lists of British people

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.
This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.
Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)
Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
  - Sir Thomas Browne
  - Geoffrey Chaucer
  - John Milton
  - William Shakespeare
  - Jane Austen
  - Mary Shelley
  - Charles Dickens
  - Thomas Hardy
  - George Orwell
  - J. R. R. Tolkien
  - C. S. Lewis
  - Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
  - English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the