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Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band formed in London in 1967 by guitarist and singer Peter Green. Green recruited drummer Mick Fleetwood, guitarist and singer Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning, with John McVie replacing Brunning a few weeks after the band's first public appearance at the 1967 National Jazz & Blues Festival in Windsor. Guitarist and singer Danny Kirwan joined in 1968. Christine Perfect, who initially contributed as a session musician, married McVie and became an official member in July 1970 on vocals and keyboards, two months after Green left; she became known as Christine McVie.

Primarily a British blues band in their early years, Fleetwood Mac achieved a UK number-one single in 1968 with the instrumental "Albatross", and had other UK top ten hits with "Man of the World", "Oh Well" (both 1969), and "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" (1970). After Green's departure, Spencer and Kirwan also left in 1971 and 1972 respectively, with Bob Welch replacing Spencer, and Bob Weston and Dave Walker replacing Kirwan. By the end of 1974, Weston and Walker had been dismissed and Welch had left, leaving the band without a guitarist or male vocalist. While Fleetwood was scouting studios in Los Angeles, he heard the American folk-rock duo Buckingham Nicks, consisting of guitarist and singer Lindsey Buckingham and singer Stevie Nicks. In December 1974, he asked Buckingham to join Fleetwood Mac. Buckingham agreed on the condition that Nicks could also join.

The addition of Buckingham and Nicks gave the band a more pop rock sound and their 1975 album Fleetwood Mac topped the Billboard 200 chart in the United States. Their album Rumours (1977) produced four U.S. Top 10 singles and remained at number one on the Billboard 200 for 31 weeks. It also reached the top spot in countries around the world and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1978. Rumours has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums in history. Although each member of the band went through a breakup (John and Christine McVie, Buckingham and Nicks, and Fleetwood and his wife Jenny Boyd) while recording the album, they continued to write and record together.

The line-up remained stable through three more studio albums, but by the late 1980s began to disintegrate. After Buckingham left in 1987, he was replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, although Vito left in 1991 along with Nicks. A 1993 one-off performance for the first inauguration of President Bill Clinton reunited the classic 1974–1987 line-up for the first time in six years. A full reunion took place four years later, and Fleetwood Mac released their fourth U.S. No. 1 album, The Dance (1997), a live album marking the 20th anniversary of Rumours and the band's 30th anniversary. Christine McVie left in 1998 after the completion of The Dance tour. Fleetwood Mac released their final studio album, Say You Will, in 2003. Christine McVie rejoined in 2014 and joined them for their On With the Show Tour. In 2018, Buckingham was fired and replaced by Mike Campbell, formerly of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and Neil Finn of Split Enz and Crowded House. After Christine McVie's death in 2022, Nicks said in 2024 that the band would not continue without her.

Fleetwood Mac have sold more than 120 million records worldwide, making them one of the world's best-selling bands. In 1979, they were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1998, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2018, Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the Recording Academy in recognition of their artistic achievement in the music industry and dedication to philanthropy.

1967–1970: Formation and early years
Fleetwood Mac were formed in July 1967 in London, England, by Peter Green after he left the British blues band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Green had previously replaced guitarist Eric Clapton in the Bluesbreakers and had received critical acclaim for his work on their album A Hard Road. Green had been in two bands with Mick Fleetwood, Peter B's Looners and the subsequent Shotgun Express (which featured a young Rod Stewart as vocalist), and suggested Fleetwood as a replacement for drummer Aynsley Dunbar when Dunbar left the Bluesbreakers to join the Jeff Beck Group. John Mayall agreed and Fleetwood joined the Bluesbreakers.

The Bluesbreakers then consisted of Green, Fleetwood, John McVie and Mayall. Mayall gave Green free recording time as a gift, which Fleetwood, McVie and Green used to record five songs. The fifth song was an instrumental that Green named after the rhythm section, "Fleetwood Mac" ("Mac" being short for McVie).

Soon after this, Green suggested to Fleetwood that they form a new band. The pair wanted McVie on bass guitar and named the band "Fleetwood Mac" to entice him, but McVie opted to keep his steady income with Mayall rather than take a risk with a new band. In the meantime, Green and Fleetwood teamed up with slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer and bassist Bob Brunning. Brunning was in the band on the understanding that he would leave if McVie agreed to join. The band made its debut on Sunday 13 August 1967 at the National Jazz and Blues Festival (a forerunner of the Reading Festival), billed as "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer". Brunning played only a few gigs with Fleetwood Mac. Within a few weeks of their first show, John McVie agreed to join the band as permanent bassist.

Fleetwood Mac's self-titled debut album was released by the Blue Horizon label in February 1968. The song "Long Grey Mare" was recorded earlier with Brunning on bass, while the rest of the album was recorded with McVie. The album was successful in the UK and reached no. 4, although no tracks were released as singles. Later in the year, the singles "Black Magic Woman" (later a big hit when covered by Santana) and "Need Your Love So Bad" were released, both going top-forty in the UK.

The band's second studio album, Mr. Wonderful, was released in August 1968. The album was recorded live in the studio with miked amplifiers and a PA system, rather than being plugged into the board. The sessions featured a horn section as well as friend of the band, Christine Perfect of Chicken Shack, on keyboards. Later that year, Chicken Shack would score a British hit with a cover of the Etta James classic "I'd Rather Go Blind", with Perfect on lead vocal. Perfect would also be twice voted female artist of the year in England.

Shortly after the release of Mr. Wonderful, 18-year-old guitarist Danny Kirwan joined the band, making Fleetwood Mac a five-piece band with three guitarists. Kirwan was in the South London blues trio Boilerhouse with Trevor Stevens (bass) and Dave Terrey (drums). Green and Fleetwood had watched Boilerhouse rehearse in a basement boiler-room, and Green had been so impressed that he invited the band to play support slots for Fleetwood Mac. Green wanted Boilerhouse to become a professional band, but Stevens and Terrey were not prepared to turn professional, so Green tried to find another rhythm section for Kirwan by placing an ad in Melody Maker. There were over 300 applicants, but when Green and Fleetwood ran auditions at the Nag's Head in Battersea (home of the Mike Vernon Blue Horizon Club) the hard-to-please Green could not find anyone good enough. Fleetwood invited Kirwan to join Fleetwood Mac as a third guitarist.

Green was frustrated that Jeremy Spencer did not contribute to his songs. Kirwan, a talented self-taught guitarist, had a signature vibrato and a unique style that added a new dimension to the band's sound. In November 1968, with Kirwan in the band, they released their first number-one single in Europe, "Albatross", an instrumental with lead guitar by both Green and Kirwan. Green said later that the success of "Albatross" was thanks to Kirwan: "If it wasn't for Danny, I would never have had a number one hit record." In January 1969, they released their first compilation album English Rose, which contained half of Mr. Wonderful plus new songs from Kirwan. Their next and more successful compilation album The Pious Bird of Good Omen was released in August and contained various singles, B-sides and tracks the band had recorded as back-up for Eddie Boyd.

On tour in the US in January 1969, the band recorded Fleetwood Mac in Chicago (released in December as a double album) at the soon-to-close Chess Records Studio with some of the blues legends of Chicago, including Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy and Otis Spann. These were Fleetwood Mac's last all-blues recordings, with the band moving more towards rock. Along with the change of style, the band was also going through label changes. Until that point, they had been on the Blue Horizon label, but with Kirwan in the band the musical possibilities had become too diverse for a blues-only label. The band signed with Immediate Records and released the single "Man of the World", which became another British and European hit. For the B-side, Spencer fronted Fleetwood Mac as "Earl Vince and the Valiants" and recorded "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonite", typifying the more raucous rock 'n' roll side of the band. Immediate Records was in bad shape however, so the band shopped around for a new deal. The Beatles wanted the band on Apple Records (Mick Fleetwood and George Harrison were brothers-in-law), but the band's manager Clifford Davis decided to go with Warner Bros. Records (through Reprise Records, a Frank Sinatra-founded label), the label they have stayed with ever since.

Under the wing of Reprise, Fleetwood Mac released their third studio album, Then Play On, in September 1969. Although the initial pressing of the American release of this album was the same as the British version, it was altered to contain the song "Oh Well", which featured consistently in live performances from the time of its release through 1997 and again starting in 2009. Then Play On, which saw the band broaden their style away from straight blues, was written by Kirwan and Green, plus a track each by Fleetwood and McVie. Jeremy Spencer, meanwhile, had recorded a solo album of 1950s-style rock and roll songs, backed by the rest of the band except Green.

By 1969, Green was using LSD. During a European tour towards the end of that year, he experienced a bad acid trip at a hippie commune in Munich. Clifford Davis, the band's manager, singled out this incident as the crucial point in Green's mental decline. He said: "The truth about Peter Green and how he ended up how he did is very simple. We were touring Europe in late 1969. When we were in Germany, Peter told me he had been invited to a party. I knew there were going to be a lot of drugs around and I suggested that he didn't go. But he went anyway and I understand from him that he took what turned out to be very bad, impure LSD. He was never the same again." German author and filmmaker Rainer Langhans stated in his autobiography that he and his then-girlfriend, model Uschi Obermaier, met Green in Munich and invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune, where the drinks were spiked with acid. Langhans and Obermaier were planning to organise an open-air "Bavarian Woodstock", for which they wanted Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones to be the main acts. Already in contact with Hendrix, they hoped Green would help them to get in contact with The Rolling Stones.

Green's last studio recording with Fleetwood Mac was "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" and its B-side, "World in Harmony". The tracks were recorded at Warner-Reprise's studios in Hollywood on the band's third US tour in April 1970, a few weeks before Green left the band. Released as a single the following month, it made No. 10 in the UK. Prior to its studio recording, the band had played the song live at the Boston Tea Party in February 1970. Some recordings of the three Boston Tea Party gigs (5–7 February 1970) were eventually released in the 1980s as the Live in Boston album. A more complete remastered three-volume compilation of these shows was released by Snapper Music in the late 1990s. "Green Manalishi" was released as Green's mental stability deteriorated. He wanted the band to give all their money to charity, but the other members of the band disagreed. In 1978, Judas Priest recorded a cover of "Green Manalishi" for their Hell Bent for Leather album, with a live version appearing on their Unleashed in the East album the following year.

In April 1970, Green decided to quit the band after the completion of their European tour. His last show with Fleetwood Mac was on 20 May 1970. During that show, the band went past their allotted time and the power was shut off, although Mick Fleetwood kept drumming.

1970–1974: Transitional era
The remaining four members, Fleetwood, McVie, Spencer and Kirwan, set about work on their next album. In September 1970, Fleetwood Mac released their fourth studio album, Kiln House, to generally positive reviews. Kirwan's songs on the album moved the band in a melodic rock direction, while Spencer's contributions focused on re-creating the country-tinged "Sun Sound" of the late 1950s. Christine Perfect, now Christine McVie following her marriage to John McVie, had retired from the music business after one unsuccessful solo album, though she contributed (uncredited) to Kiln House, singing backup vocals and playing keyboards. She also drew the album cover. After Kiln House, Fleetwood Mac were progressing and developing a new sound, and she was invited to join the band to help fill in the rhythm section. The first time she had played live with the band had been a guest appearance at Bristol University, England, in May 1969, just as she was leaving Chicken Shack, while her first gig as an official member of the band was on 1 August 1970 in New Orleans, Louisiana. In early 1971, the band released a non-album single, Danny Kirwan's "Dragonfly" b/w "The Purple Dancer" in the UK and certain European countries, but despite good notices in the press, it was not a success. In 1971, CBS Records, which now owned Fleetwood Mac's original record company Blue Horizon (except in the US and Canada), released the band's third compilation album, The Original Fleetwood Mac, containing previously unreleased material from 1967 and 1968.

While on a US tour in February 1971, Jeremy Spencer said he was going out to "get a magazine" but never returned. After several days of frantic searching, the band discovered that Spencer had joined a religious group, the Children of God. The band were liable for the remaining shows on the tour and asked Peter Green to step in as a replacement. Green brought along his friend Nigel Watson, who played the congas (twenty-five years later Green and Watson collaborated again to form the Peter Green Splinter Group), and insisted on playing only new material and none he had written. Green and Watson played the last week of the tour, with a show in San Bernardino on 20 February 1971 being recorded. Green did not want to re-join the band permanently and a search for a guitarist to replace Spencer began after the tour was completed.

In the summer of 1971, the band held auditions for a replacement guitarist at their large country home, "Benifold", which they had jointly bought with their manager Davis for £23,000 prior to the Kiln House tour. A friend of the band, Judy Wong, recommended her high school friend Bob Welch, who was living in Paris, France, at the time. The band held a few meetings with Welch and decided to hire him, without actually playing with him, after they heard a tape of his songs.

In September 1971, the band released their fifth studio album, Future Games. As a result of Welch's arrival and Spencer's departure, the album was different from anything they had done previously, with the band moving further away from their blues rock roots towards a more melodic rock style, and vocal harmonies starting to become a key part of their sound. While it became the band's first studio album to miss the charts in the UK, it helped to expand the band's appeal in the United States. In Europe, CBS released Fleetwood Mac's first Greatest Hits album in late 1971.

In 1972, six months after the release of Future Games, the band released their sixth studio album, Bare Trees. Mostly composed by Kirwan, Bare Trees featured the Welch-penned single "Sentimental Lady", which would be a much bigger hit for Welch five years later when he re-recorded it for his solo album French Kiss, backed by Mick Fleetwood and Christine McVie. Bare Trees also featured "Spare Me a Little of Your Love", a Christine McVie song that became a staple of the band's live act throughout the early to mid-1970s.

While the band was doing well in the studio, their tours started to be problematic. By 1972, Kirwan had developed an alcohol dependency and was becoming alienated from Welch and the McVies. In August 1972, before a concert on a US tour, Kirwan smashed his Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar and refused to go on stage. The band played the show as a quartet, after which Kirwan criticised their performance, and he was subsequently fired from the band. Fleetwood said later that the pressure had become too much for Kirwan, and he had suffered a breakdown.

Following Kirwan's departure, the band recruited guitarist Bob Weston and vocalist Dave Walker, the latter formerly of Savoy Brown and Idle Race. Bob Weston was well known as a slide guitarist and had known the band from his touring period with Long John Baldry. Fleetwood Mac also hired Savoy Brown's road manager, John Courage. Fleetwood, the McVies, Welch, Weston and Walker recorded the band's seventh studio album, Penguin, which was released in January 1973. After the subsequent tour the band fired Walker because they felt his vocal and performance style did not fit well with the rest of the band.

The remaining five members carried on and recorded the band's eighth studio album, Mystery to Me, six months later. This album contained Welch's song "Hypnotized", which received airplay on the radio. While Mystery to Me eventually received a Gold certification from the RIAA, personal problems within the band emerged. The McVies' marriage was under a lot of stress, which was aggravated by their constant working with each other and by John McVie's considerable alcohol abuse.

In 1973, Weston had an affair with Fleetwood's wife Jenny Boyd, sister of George Harrison's first wife Pattie Boyd. Fleetwood found out two weeks into a US tour. His devastation lead to the band firing Weston and cancelling the remaining 26 dates of the tour. The last date played was Lincoln, Nebraska, on 20 October 1973. In a late-night meeting after that show, the band told their sound engineer that the tour was over and Fleetwood Mac was splitting up.

1974: Name dispute and "fake Fleetwood Mac"
In late 1973, after the collapse of the US tour, the band's manager, Clifford Davis, was left with major touring commitments to fulfill and no band. Fleetwood Mac had "temporarily disbanded" in Nebraska and its members had gone their separate ways. Davis was concerned that failing to complete the tour would destroy his reputation with bookers and promoters. He sent the band a letter in which he said he "hadn't slaved for years to be brought down by the whims of irresponsible musicians". Davis claimed that he owned the name 'Fleetwood Mac' and the right to choose the band members. He recruited members of the band Legs, which had recently issued one single under Davis's management, to tour the US in early 1974 under the name "The New Fleetwood Mac" and perform the rescheduled dates. This band—who former vocalist Dave Walker said were "very good" —consisted of Elmer Gantry (Dave Terry, formerly of Velvet Opera: vocals, guitar), Kirby Gregory (formerly of Curved Air: guitar), Paul Martinez (formerly of the Downliners Sect: bass), John Wilkinson (also known as Dave Wilkinson: keyboards) and Australian drummer Craig Collinge (formerly of Manfred Mann Chapter Three, The Librettos, Procession and Third World War). The members of this group were told that Mick Fleetwood would join them on the tour to validate the use of the name. Fleetwood said later that he had not agreed to be part of the tour.

The "New Fleetwood Mac" tour began on 16 January 1974 at the Syria Mosque in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was initially successful. One of the band members said the first concert "went down a storm". The promoter was dubious at first but said later that the crowd had loved the band and they were "actually really good". More successful gigs followed, but then word got around that this was not the real Fleetwood Mac and audiences became hostile. The band was turned away from several gigs and the next six shows were pulled by promoters. The band struggled on and played further dates in the face of increasing hostility and heckling. The tour collapsed further, with more dates pulled, Wilkinson quitting, and a concert in Edmonton where bottles were thrown at the stage. The band dissolved and the remainder of the tour was cancelled.

The lawsuit that followed regarding who owned the rights to the name "Fleetwood Mac" put the real Fleetwood Mac on hiatus for almost a year. Although the band was named after Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, they had apparently signed contracts in which they had forfeited the rights to the name. Their record company, Warner Bros. Records, when appealed to, said they did not know who owned it. The dispute was eventually settled out of court, four years later, in what was described as "a reasonable settlement not unfair to either party". In later years Fleetwood said that, in the end, he was grateful to Davis because the lawsuit was the reason the band moved to California.

Nobody from the alternative line-up was ever made a part of the real Fleetwood Mac, although some of them later played in Danny Kirwan's studio band. Gantry and Gregory went on to become members of Stretch, whose 1975 UK hit single "Why Did You Do It?" was written about the touring debacle. Gantry later collaborated with the Alan Parsons Project. Martinez went on to play with the Deep Purple offshoot Paice Ashton Lord, as well as Robert Plant's backing band.

1974: Return of the authentic Fleetwood Mac
While the fake Fleetwood Mac were on tour, Welch stayed in Los Angeles and connected with entertainment attorneys. He realised that Fleetwood Mac was being neglected by Warner Bros and that they would need to change their base of operation from England to America, to which the rest of the band agreed. The presence of a false Fleetwood Mac had also confused matters. Rock promoter Bill Graham wrote a letter to Warner Bros to convince them that the real Fleetwood Mac was Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, and Bob Welch. This did not end the legal battle, but the band was able to record as Fleetwood Mac again. Instead of hiring another manager, Fleetwood Mac, having re-formed, became the only major rock band managed by the artists themselves.

In September 1974, Fleetwood Mac signed a new recording contract with Warner Bros, but remained on the Reprise label. In the same month, the band released their ninth studio album, Heroes Are Hard to Find. This was the first time Fleetwood Mac had only one guitarist. While on tour, they briefly added a second keyboardist, Doug Graves, who had been an engineer on Heroes Are Hard to Find. In 1980, Christine McVie said Graves had been there to back her up, but after the first two or three concerts it was decided that she was better off without him: "The band wanted me to expand my role and have a little more freedom, but he didn't play the same way I did." Keyboard player Robert ("Bobby") Hunt, who had been in the band Head West with Bob Welch in 1970, replaced Graves for the remaining dates on the tour but was not invited to join the band full time. By the time the tour ended (on 5 December 1974 at Cal State University), the Heroes album had reached a higher position on the American charts than any of the band's previous records.

1975–1987: Addition of Buckingham and Nicks, and global success
In Bob Welch's words, following the Heroes are Hard to Find tour, "the buzz that the Mystery to Me band had started to create...[was] gone. I [was] totally exhausted by writing, singing, touring, negotiating, moving, and frankly so [were] Mick, John and Chris. We were all discouraged that Heroes [hadn't] done better. Something needs to change, but what? … There was also a kind of fatigue, anger and bitterness that all the work we had done hadn't really paid off and we were just all sort of shaking our heads saying 'what do we do now' … Everybody knew that we had to find some new creative juice." Welch himself had grown tired of the constant struggles to keep Fleetwood Mac functioning and was openly considering leaving the band.

Whilst Fleetwood was checking out Sound City Studios in Los Angeles during the autumn of 1974, the house engineer, Keith Olsen, played him a track he had recorded, "Frozen Love", from the album Buckingham Nicks (1973). Fleetwood liked it and was introduced to the guitarist from the band, Lindsey Buckingham, who was at Sound City that day recording demos. Fleetwood asked him to join Fleetwood Mac, and Buckingham agreed, on the condition that his music partner and girlfriend, Stevie Nicks, be included. Welch considered remaining as part of this extended lineup but opted to depart for a solo career. Buckingham and Nicks joined the band on New Year's Eve 1974.

In 1975, the new line-up released their first album together, the self-titled Fleetwood Mac, the band's tenth studio album overall. The album was a breakthrough for the band and became a huge hit, reaching No. 1 in the US and selling over 7 million copies. Among the hit singles from this album were Christine McVie's "Over My Head" and "Say You Love Me" and Stevie Nicks' "Rhiannon", as well as the much-played album track "Landslide", a live rendition of which became a hit twenty years later on The Dance album.

In 1976, the band was suffering from severe stress. With success came the end of John and Christine McVie's marriage, as well as Buckingham and Nicks's long-term romantic relationship. Fleetwood, meanwhile, was in the midst of divorce proceedings from his wife, Jenny, and had also begun an affair with Nicks. The pressure on Fleetwood Mac to release a successful follow-up album, combined with their new-found wealth, led to creative and personal tensions which were allegedly fuelled by high consumption of drugs and alcohol.

The band's eleventh studio album, Rumours (the band's first release on the main Warner label after Reprise was retired and all of its acts were reassigned to the parent label), was released in February 1977. In this album, the band members laid bare the emotional turmoil they were experiencing at the time. Rumours was critically acclaimed and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1977. The album generated four top-ten singles: Buckingham's "Go Your Own Way", Nicks' US No. 1 "Dreams", and Christine McVie's "Don't Stop" and "You Make Loving Fun". Buckingham's "Second Hand News", Nicks' "Gold Dust Woman", and "The Chain" (the only song written by all five band members) also received significant radio airplay. By 2003, Rumours had sold over 19 million copies in the US alone (certified as a diamond album by the RIAA) and a total of 40 million copies worldwide, bringing it to eighth on the list of best-selling albums. Fleetwood Mac supported the album with a lucrative tour.

On 10 October 1979, Fleetwood Mac were honoured for their contributions to the music industry with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6608 Hollywood Boulevard.

Buckingham convinced Fleetwood to let his work on their next album be more experimental and to be allowed to work on tracks at home before bringing them to the rest of the band in the studio. The result of this, the band's twelfth studio album Tusk, was a 20-track double album released in 1979. It produced three hit singles: Buckingham's "Tusk" (US No. 8), which featured the USC Trojan Marching Band; Christine McVie's "Think About Me" (US No. 20); and Nicks' six-and-a-half minute opus "Sara" (US No. 7). "Sara" was cut to four-and-a-half minutes for both the single and the first CD release of the album in the 1980s, but the full version has since been restored on the 1988 Greatest Hits, the 1992 25 Years – The Chain box set, 2002's The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, and the 2004 remaster of Tusk. Original guitarist Peter Green also took part in the sessions of Tusk, although his playing on the Christine McVie track "Brown Eyes", is not credited on the album. In an interview in 2019, Fleetwood described Tusk as his "personal favourite" and said, "Kudos to Lindsey … for us not doing a replica of Rumours."

Tusk sold four million copies worldwide. Fleetwood blamed the album's relative lack of commercial success on the RKO radio chain having played the album in its entirety prior to release, thereby allowing mass home taping.

The band embarked on an 11-month tour to support and promote Tusk. They travelled around the world, including the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. In Germany, they shared the bill with reggae superstar Bob Marley. On this world tour, the band recorded music for their first live album, which was released at the end of 1980.

The band's thirteenth studio album, Mirage, was released in 1982. Following 1981 solo albums by Nicks (Bella Donna), Fleetwood (The Visitor), and Buckingham (Law and Order), there was a return to a more conventional approach. Buckingham had been chided by critics, fellow band members, and music business managers for the lesser commercial success of Tusk. Recorded at Château d'Hérouville in France and produced by Richard Dashut, Mirage was an attempt to recapture the huge success of Rumours. Its hits included Christine McVie's "Hold Me" and "Love in Store" (co-written by Robbie Patton and Jim Recor, respectively), Nicks' "Gypsy", and Buckingham's "Oh Diane", which made the Top 10 in the UK. A minor hit was also scored by Buckingham's "Can't Go Back".

In contrast to the Tusk Tour, the band embarked on only a short tour of 18 American cities, with the Los Angeles show being recorded and released on video. They also headlined the first US Festival, on 5 September 1982, for which the band was paid $500,000 (equivalent to $ in 2024). Mirage was certified double platinum in the US.

Following Mirage the band went on hiatus, which allowed members to pursue solo careers. Nicks released two more solo albums (1983's The Wild Heart and 1985's Rock a Little). Buckingham issued Go Insane in 1984, the same year that Christine McVie made an eponymous album (yielding the Top 10 hit "Got a Hold on Me" and the Top 40 hit "Love Will Show Us How"). All three became successful in their solo efforts, with Nicks being the most popular. During this period, Fleetwood had filed for bankruptcy, Nicks was admitted to the Betty Ford Clinic for addiction problems, and John McVie had suffered an addiction-related seizure – all of which were attributed to the lifestyle of excess afforded to them by their worldwide success. It was rumoured that Fleetwood Mac had disbanded, but Buckingham commented that he was unhappy at allowing Mirage to remain the band's last effort.

The lineup featuring Fleetwood, the McVies, Buckingham, and Nicks recorded one more album, their fourteenth studio album, Tango in the Night, in 1987. The recording started off as a Buckingham solo album before becoming a full group project. The album went on to become their best-selling release since Rumours, especially in the UK where it hit No. 1 three times in the following year. The album sold three million copies in the US and contained four hits: Christine McVie's "Little Lies" and "Everywhere" ("Little Lies" being co-written with her new husband, Eddy Quintela), Sandy Stewart and Nicks' "Seven Wonders", and Buckingham's "Big Love". "Family Man" (Buckingham and Richard Dashut) and "Isn't It Midnight" (Christine McVie) were also released as singles.

1987–1995: Departures of Buckingham and Nicks
With a ten-week tour scheduled, Buckingham held back at the last minute, saying he felt his creativity was being stifled. A group meeting at Christine McVie's house on 7 August 1987 resulted in turmoil. Tensions were coming to a head. Fleetwood said in his autobiography that there was a physical altercation between Buckingham and Nicks. Buckingham left the band the following day. After Buckingham's departure, Fleetwood Mac added two new guitarists to the band, Billy Burnette and Rick Vito, again without auditions.

Burnette was the son of Dorsey Burnette and nephew of Johnny Burnette, both of The Rock and Roll Trio. He had already worked with Fleetwood in Zoo, with Christine McVie as part of her solo band, had done some session work with Nicks, and backed Buckingham on Saturday Night Live. Fleetwood and Christine McVie had played on his Try Me album in 1985. Vito, a Peter Green admirer, had played with many artists from Bonnie Raitt to John Mayall, to Roger McGuinn in Thunderbyrd and worked with John McVie on two Mayall albums.

The 1987–88 "Shake the Cage" tour was the first outing for this line-up. It was successful enough to warrant the release of a concert video, also titled Tango in the Night, which was filmed at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena in December 1987.

Capitalising on the success of the Tango in the Night album, the band released a Greatest Hits album in 1988. It featured singles from the 1975–1988 era and included two new compositions, "No Questions Asked" written by Nicks and Kelly Johnston, and "As Long as You Follow", written by Christine McVie and Quintela. 'As Long as You Follow' was released as a single in 1988 but only made No. 43 in the US and No. 66 in the UK, although it reached No.1 on the US Adult Contemporary charts. The Greatest Hits album, which peaked at No. 3 in the UK and No. 14 in the US (though it has since sold over 8 million copies there) was dedicated by the band to Buckingham, with whom they were now reconciled.

In 1990, Fleetwood Mac released their fifteenth studio album, Behind the Mask. With this album, the band veered away from the stylised sound that Buckingham had evolved during his tenure (which was also evident in his solo work) and developed a more adult contemporary style with producer Greg Ladanyi. The album yielded only one Top 40 hit, Christine McVie's "Save Me". Behind the Mask only achieved Gold album status in the US, peaking at No. 18 on the Billboard album chart, though it entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 1. It received mixed reviews and was seen by some music critics as a low point for the band in the absence of Buckingham (who had actually made a guest appearance playing on the title track). But Rolling Stone magazine said that Vito and Burnette were "the best thing to ever happen to Fleetwood Mac". The subsequent "Behind the Mask" tour saw the band play sold-out shows at London's Wembley Stadium. In the final show in Los Angeles, Buckingham joined the band onstage. The two women of the band, McVie and Nicks, had decided that the tour would be their last (McVie's father had died during the tour), although both stated that they would still record with the band. In 1991, however, Nicks and Rick Vito left Fleetwood Mac altogether.

In 1992, Fleetwood arranged a 4-CD box set, spanning highlights from the band's 25-year history, entitled 25 Years – The Chain (a cut-down 2-CD box set, Selections from 25 Years – The Chain, was also released). A notable inclusion in the box set was "Silver Springs", a Nicks composition that was recorded during the Rumours sessions but was omitted from the album and used as the B-side of "Go Your Own Way". Nicks had requested use of this track for her 1991 best-of compilation TimeSpace, but Fleetwood had refused as he had planned to include it in this collection as a rarity. The disagreement between Nicks and Fleetwood garnered press coverage and was believed to have been the main reason for Nicks leaving the band in 1991. The box set also included a new Nicks/Vito composition, "Paper Doll", which was released in the US as a single and produced by Buckingham and Richard Dashut. There were also two new Christine McVie compositions, "Heart of Stone" and "Love Shines". "Love Shines" was released as a single in the UK and elsewhere. Buckingham also contributed a new song, "Make Me a Mask". Fleetwood also released a deluxe hardcover companion book to coincide with the release of the box set, titled My 25 Years in Fleetwood Mac. The volume featured notes written by Fleetwood detailing the band's 25-year history and many rare photographs.

The classic 1974–1987 line-up reunited in 1993 at the request of US President Bill Clinton for his first Inaugural Ball. Clinton had made Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" his campaign theme song. His request for it to be performed at the Inauguration Ball was met with enthusiasm by the band, although this line-up had no intention of reuniting permanently.

Inspired by the new interest in the band, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, and Billy Burnette recorded another album as Fleetwood Mac, with Bekka Bramlett, who had worked a year earlier with Fleetwood's Zoo, joining the band. Solo singer-songwriter/guitarist and original Traffic member Dave Mason, who had worked with Bekka's parents Delaney & Bonnie twenty-five years earlier, was also added.

Although she remained an official band member and would be part of the next studio album, Christine McVie chose to take a break from touring around this time. The other five members (Fleetwood, J. McVie, Burnette, Bramlett and Mason) toured in 1994, opening for Crosby, Stills, & Nash, and in 1995 as part of a package with REO Speedwagon and Pat Benatar. This tour saw the band perform classic Fleetwood Mac songs spanning the band's whole history to that point. In 1995, at a concert in Tokyo, the band was greeted by former member Jeremy Spencer, who performed a few songs with them.

On 10 October 1995, Fleetwood Mac released their sixteenth studio album, Time, which was not a success. Although it hit the UK Top 50 for one week, the album had zero impact in the US. It failed to graze the Billboard Top 200 albums chart, a reversal for a band that had been a mainstay on that chart for most of the previous two decades. Shortly after the album's release, Christine McVie informed the band that the album would be her last. Bramlett and Burnette subsequently formed a country music duo, Bekka & Billy.

1995–2007: Reformation, reunion, and Christine McVie's departure
Just weeks after disbanding Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood started working with Lindsey Buckingham again. John McVie was added to the sessions, and later Christine McVie. Stevie Nicks also enlisted Buckingham to produce a song for a soundtrack. In May 1996, Fleetwood, John McVie, Christine McVie, and Nicks performed together at a private party in Louisville, Kentucky, prior to the Kentucky Derby, with Steve Winwood filling in for Buckingham. A week later, the Twister film soundtrack was released, which featured the Nicks-Buckingham duet "Twisted", with Fleetwood on drums. This eventually led to a full reunion of the Rumours line-up, which officially reformed in March 1997.

The regrouped Fleetwood Mac performed a live concert on a soundstage at Warner Bros. Burbank, California, on 22 May 1997. The concert was recorded and filmed, and from this performance came the 1997 live album and video The Dance, which brought the band back to the top of the US album charts for the first time in 10 years. The Dance returned Fleetwood Mac to a superstar status they had not enjoyed since Tango in the Night. The album was certified 5 million units by the RIAA. An arena tour followed the MTV premiere of The Dance video and kept the reunited Fleetwood Mac on the road throughout much of 1997, the 20th anniversary of Rumours. With additional musicians Neale Heywood on guitar, Brett Tuggle on keyboards, Lenny Castro on percussion and Sharon Celani (who had toured with the band in the late 1980s) and Mindy Stein on backing vocals, this would be the final appearance of the classic line-up including Christine McVie for 16 years. Neale Heywood and Sharon Celani remain touring members to this day.

In 1998 Fleetwood Mac were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Members inducted included the 1968–1970 band, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer, and Danny Kirwan, and Rumours-era members Christine McVie, Stevie Nicks, and Lindsey Buckingham. Bob Welch was not included, despite his key role in keeping the band alive during the early 1970s. The Rumours-era version of the band performed both at the induction ceremony and at the Grammy Awards programme that year. Peter Green attended the induction ceremony but did not perform with his former bandmates, opting instead to perform his composition "Black Magic Woman" with Santana, who were inducted the same night. Neither Jeremy Spencer nor Danny Kirwan attended. Fleetwood Mac also received the "Outstanding Contribution to Music" award at the Brit Awards (British Phonographic Industry Awards) the same year. Shortly after this, Christine McVie officially left the band.

2002 saw the release of The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, issued as a 21-track single CD in the UK and a 40-track double CD in the US. Christine McVie's departure left Buckingham and Nicks as the two singer-songwriters on the band's seventeenth studio album, Say You Will, released in 2003 (although Christine contributed some backing vocals and keyboards as a guest). The album debuted at No.3 on the Billboard 200 chart (No. 6 in the UK) and yielded chart hits with "Peacekeeper" and the title track, and a successful world arena tour which lasted through 2004. The tour grossed $27,711,129 and was ranked No. 21 in the top 25 grossing tours of 2004.

Around 2004–05 there were rumours of a reunion of the early line-up of Fleetwood Mac involving Peter Green and Jeremy Spencer. While these two apparently remained unconvinced, in April 2006 bassist John McVie, during a question-and-answer session on the Penguin Fleetwood Mac fan website, said of the reunion idea:

"If we could get Peter and Jeremy to do it, I'd probably, maybe, do it. I know Mick would do it in a flash. Unfortunately, I don't think there's much chance of Danny doing it. Bless his heart."

In interviews given in November 2006 to support his solo album Under the Skin, Buckingham stated that plans for the band to reunite once more for a 2008 tour were still in the cards. Recording plans had been put on hold for the foreseeable future. In an interview Nicks gave to the UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph in September 2007, she stated that she was unwilling to carry on with the band unless Christine McVie returned.

2008–2013: Touring activity
In March 2008, it was mooted that Sheryl Crow might work with Fleetwood Mac in 2009. Crow and Stevie Nicks had collaborated in the past and Crow had stated that Nicks had been a great teacher and inspiration to her. Later, Buckingham said that the potential collaboration with Crow had "lost its momentum" and the idea was abandoned.

In March 2009, Fleetwood Mac started their "Unleashed" tour, again without Christine McVie. It was a greatest hits show, although album tracks such as "Storms" and "I Know I'm Not Wrong" were also played. During their show on 20 June 2009 in New Orleans, Louisiana, Stevie Nicks premiered part of a new song that she had written about Hurricane Katrina. The song was later released as "New Orleans" on Nicks's 2011 album In Your Dreams with Mick Fleetwood on drums. In October 2009 and November, the band toured Europe, followed by Australia and New Zealand in December. In October, 2002's The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac was re-released in the UK, this time using the US 2-CD track listing, entering at number six on the UK Albums Chart. On 1 November 2009 a one-hour documentary, Fleetwood Mac: Don't Stop, was broadcast in the UK on BBC One, featuring recent interviews with all four current band members. During the documentary, Nicks gave a candid summary of the current state of her relationship with Buckingham, saying, "Maybe when we're 75 and Fleetwood Mac is a distant memory, we might be friends."

On 6 November 2009, Fleetwood Mac played the last show of the European leg of their Unleashed tour at London's Wembley Arena. Christine McVie was in the audience. Nicks paid tribute to her from the stage to a standing ovation from the audience, saying that she thought about her former bandmate "every day", and dedicated that night's performance of "Landslide" to her. On 19 December 2009, Fleetwood Mac played the second-to-last show of their Unleashed tour to a sell-out crowd in New Zealand, at what was intended to be a one-off event at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands in New Plymouth. Tickets, after pre-sales, sold out within twelve minutes of public release. Another date, Sunday 20 December, was added and also sold out. The tour grossed $84,900,000 and was ranked No. 13 in the highest grossing worldwide tours of 2009. On 19 October 2010, Fleetwood Mac played a private show at the Phoenician Hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona for TPG (Texas Pacific Group).

On 3 May 2011, the Fox Network broadcast an episode of Glee entitled "Rumours" that featured six songs from the band's 1977 album. The show sparked renewed interest in the band and its most commercially successful album, and Rumours re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at No.11 in the same week that Nicks's solo album In Your Dreams debuted at No.6. (She was quoted by Billboard saying that her new album was "my own little Rumours." ) The two recordings sold about 30,000 and 52,000 units respectively. Music downloads accounted for 91 per cent of the Rumours sales. The spike in sales for Rumours represented an increase of 1,951%. It was the highest chart entry by a previously issued album since The Rolling Stones' reissue of Exile On Main St. re-entered the chart at No. 2 on 5 June 2010. In an interview in July 2012 Nicks confirmed that the band would reunite for a tour in 2013.

Original Fleetwood Mac bassist Bob Brunning died on 18 October 2011 at the age of 68. Former guitarist and singer Bob Weston was found dead on 3 January 2012 at the age of 64. Former singer and guitarist Bob Welch was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound on 7 June 2012 at the age of 66. Don Aaron, a spokesman at the scene, stated, "He died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest." A suicide note was found. Welch had been struggling with health issues and was dealing with depression. His wife discovered his body.

The band's 2013 tour, which took place in 34 cities, started on 4 April in Columbus, Ohio. The band performed two new songs ("Sad Angel" and "Without You"), which Buckingham described as some of the most "Fleetwood Mac-ey"-sounding songs since Mirage. "Without You" was rerecorded from the Buckingham-Nicks era. The band released their first new studio material in ten years, Extended Play, on 30 April 2013. The EP debuted and peaked at No. 48 in the US and produced one single, "Sad Angel".

On 25 and 27 September 2013, the second and third nights of the band's London O2 shows, Christine McVie joined them on stage for "Don't Stop". "[Buckingham's] words to us were, 'She can't just come and go,'" Nicks recalled. "That's important to him, but it's not so important to me... Much as Lindsey adores her – and he does; she's the only one in Fleetwood Mac he was ever really willing to listen to – he doesn't want the first-night reviews to be all about Christine's one song, rather than the set we rehearsed for two months. But it will be wonderful to have her back up there – and, from there, who knows?"

On 27 October 2013, the band cancelled their New Zealand and Australian performances after John McVie had been diagnosed with cancer so that he could undergo treatment. They said: "We are sorry not to be able to play these Australian and New Zealand dates. We hope our Australian and New Zealand fans as well as Fleetwood Mac fans everywhere will join us in wishing John and his family all the best." Also in October 2013, Stevie Nicks appeared in American Horror Story: Coven with Fleetwood Mac's song "Seven Wonders" playing in the background. In November 2013, Christine McVie expressed interest in a return to Fleetwood Mac, and also affirmed that John McVie's prognosis was "really good".

2014–present: Final years
On 11 January 2014, Mick Fleetwood confirmed that Christine McVie would be rejoining Fleetwood Mac. On with the Show, a 33-city North American tour, opened in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 30 September 2014. A series of May–June 2015 arena dates in the United Kingdom went on sale on 14 November, selling out in minutes. High demand caused additional dates to be added to the tour, including an Australian leg.

In January 2015, Buckingham suggested that the new album and tour might be Fleetwood Mac's last, and that the band would cease operations in 2015 or soon afterwards. He said work would continue on the new album, and solo work would "take a back seat for a year or two". Fleetwood said the new album might take a few years to complete and that they were waiting for contributions from Nicks, who had been ambivalent about committing to a new record.

In August 2016, Fleetwood said that while the band had "a huge amount of recorded music", virtually none of it featured Nicks. Buckingham and Christine McVie, however, had contributed many songs to the new project. He told Ultimate Classic Rock: "[McVie] wrote up a storm. She and Lindsey could probably have a mighty strong duet album if they want... I hope it will come to more than that." Nicks explained her reluctance to record another album with Fleetwood Mac. "Do you want to take a chance on [spending a year recording an album with] a bunch of arguing people? And then not wanting to go on tour because you just spent a year arguing?"

On 9 June 2017, Buckingham and Christine McVie released a new album, titled Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie, which included contributions from Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. The album was preceded by the single "In My World". A 38-date tour to support the album began on 21 June and concluded 16 November. Fleetwood Mac also planned to embark on another tour in 2018. The band headlined the second night of the Classic West concert on 16 July 2017 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, and the second night of the Classic East concert at New York City's Citi Field on 30 July 2017.

In January 2018, Fleetwood Mac received the MusiCares Person of the Year award and reunited to perform several songs at the Grammy-hosted gala honouring them. In April 2018, the song "Dreams" re-entered the Hot Rock Songs chart at No. 16 after a viral meme had featured it. This chart re-entry came 40 years after the song had topped the Hot 100. The song's streaming totals also translated into 7,000 "equivalent album units", a jump of 12 per cent, which helped Rumours to go from No. 21 to No. 13 on the Top Rock Albums chart.

In April 2018 Buckingham departed from the group a second time, having reportedly been dismissed. The reason was said to have been a disagreement about the nature of the tour, and in particular the question of whether newer or less well-known material would be included, as Buckingham wanted. Fleetwood stated on CBS This Morning on 25 April 2018 that Buckingham would not sign off on a tour that the group had been planning for a year and a half and they had reached a "huge impasse". When asked if Buckingham had been fired, he said, "We don't use that word because I think it's ugly." He said Buckingham's work in Fleetwood Mac was, and always would be, hugely respected.

In October 2018, Buckingham filed a lawsuit against Fleetwood Mac for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of oral contract, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, among other claims. He said later that a settlement had been reached and he was happy with it. Buckingham also provided his version of what had led to his departure from the band. He said that after their performance at the MusiCares event, the band's manager, Irving Azoff, had told him that, among other things, Nicks was not happy about his reaction to the intro music for their acceptance speech being "Rhiannon"; and about the way he had allegedly "smirked" during her thank-you speech. Buckingham conceded the first point. "It wasn't about it being 'Rhiannon'. It just undermined the impact of our entrance." Azoff subsequently told him that Nicks had given the rest of the band an ultimatum: either Buckingham went or she would.

Former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Neil Finn of Crowded House were named to replace Buckingham. On CBS This Morning, Fleetwood said that Fleetwood Mac had been reborn and that "This is the new lineup of Fleetwood Mac." Aside from touring, the band planned to record new music with Campbell and Finn in the future. The band's "An Evening with Fleetwood Mac" tour started in October 2018. The band launched the tour at the iHeartRadio Music Festival on 21 September 2018 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

On 8 June 2018, former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Danny Kirwan died at the age of 68 in a hostel for homeless alcoholics in London, after contracting pneumonia earlier in the year. Mojo quoted Christine McVie as saying: "Nobody else could play like him. He was a one-off. Danny was a perfectionist; a fantastic musician and a fantastic writer." One of Kirwan's songs, "Tell Me All the Things You Do" from Kiln House, was included in the set of the "An Evening with Fleetwood Mac" tour.

On 28 May 2020, Neil Finn, featuring Nicks and McVie with Campbell on guitar, released the song "Find Your Way Back Home" for the Auckland homeless shelter Auckland City Mission.

Founding member Peter Green died on 25 July 2020 at the age of 73.

In October 2020, Rumours again entered the Billboard top 10. The album received 30.6 million streams on streaming platforms the week of 15 October, which was in part due to a viral video featuring the song "Dreams".

On 30 November 2022, Christine McVie died at the age of 79. In February 2023, when asked about further activity from the band, Fleetwood replied, "I think right now, I truly think the line in the sand has been drawn with the loss of Chris. I'd say we're done, but then we've all said that before. It's sort of unthinkable right now." He said the other surviving members were keeping themselves busy with musical pursuits outside the band and that he intended to do the same.

In an October 2023 interview, Nicks stated that she saw no reason to continue the band after McVie's death. Upon the release of Crowded House's album Gravity Stairs in 2024, Finn expressed surprise that the online encyclopedia Wikipedia still listed him as a member of Fleetwood Mac. In a 2024 interview with Mojo, Nicks reiterated that the band would not continue without Christine McVie.

Tours

 * Early gigs (1967)
 * First Tour (1968)
 * Mr. Wonderful Tour (1968–1969)
 * Then Play On Tour (1969–1970)
 * Kiln House Tour (1970–1971)
 * Future Games Tour (1971)
 * British Are Coming Tour (1972)
 * Bare Trees Tour (1972)
 * Penguin Tour (1973)
 * Mystery to Me Tour (1973)
 * Heroes Are Hard to Find Tour (1974)
 * Fleetwood Mac Tour/Summer Tour '76 (1975–1976)
 * Rumours Tour (1977–1978)
 * Tusk Tour (1979–1980)
 * Mirage Tour (1982)
 * Shake the Cage Tour (1987–1988)
 * Behind the Mask Tour (1990)
 * Another Link in the Chain Tour (1994–1995)
 * The Dance Tour (1997)
 * Say You Will Tour (2003–2004)
 * Unleashed Tour (2009)
 * Fleetwood Mac Live Tour (2013)
 * On with the Show Tour (2014–2015)
 * An Evening with Fleetwood Mac Tour (2018–2019)

Final lineup

 * Mick Fleetwood – drums, percussion (1967–1995, 1997–2022)
 * John McVie – bass (1967–1995, 1997–2022)
 * Christine McVie – keyboards, vocals (1970–1995, 1997–1998, 2014–2022; her death)
 * Stevie Nicks – vocals (1975–1991, 1997–2022)
 * Mike Campbell – lead guitar, vocals (2018–2022)
 * Neil Finn – vocals, rhythm guitar (2018–2022)

Discography
Studio albums
 * Fleetwood Mac (1968, also known as Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac)
 * Mr. Wonderful (1968)
 * Then Play On (1969)
 * Kiln House (1970)
 * Future Games (1971)
 * Bare Trees (1972)
 * Penguin (1973)
 * Mystery to Me (1973)
 * Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974)
 * Fleetwood Mac (1975)
 * Rumours (1977)
 * Tusk (1979)
 * Mirage (1982)
 * Tango in the Night (1987)
 * Behind the Mask (1990)
 * Time (1995)
 * Say You Will (2003)

title: Fleetwood Mac


text:
Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach

Frederick I of Ansbach and Bayreuth (also known as Frederick V; Friedrich V. von Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach or Friedrich der Ältere; 8 May 1460 – 4 April 1536) was born at Ansbach as the eldest son of Albert III, Margrave of Brandenburg by his second wife Anna, daughter of Frederick II, Elector of Saxony. His elder half-brother was the Elector John Cicero of Brandenburg. Friedrich succeeded his father as Margrave of Ansbach in 1486 and his younger brother Siegmund as Margrave of Bayreuth in 1495.

After depleting the finances of the margraviate with his lavish lifestyle, Frederick I was deposed by his two elder sons, Casimir and George, in 1515. He was then locked up at Plassenburg Castle by his eldest son Casimir in a tower room from which he could not escape for 12 years. Thereupon, his son Casimir took up the rule of the Margraviate of Bayreuth (Kulmbach) and his son George took up the rule of the Margraviate of Ansbach. However, the overthrow of Frederick did outrage his other younger sons and led to far-reaching political countermeasures. When Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg visited Kulmbach during his journey to Augsburg, and wanted to plead for Frederick's release, he was nevertheless denied entry to Plassenburg Castle. The dispute was finally cleared when an agreement was reached in 1522, in which the demands of the younger sons of Frederick were met.

Family and children
On 14 February 1479, at Frankfurt (Oder), Frederick I was married to Princess Sophia of Poland (6 April 1464 – 5 October 1512), daughter of King Casimir IV of Poland by his wife Elisabeth of Austria, and sister of King Sigismund I of Poland. They had seventeen children:
 * 1) Casimir, Margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach (27 September 1481, Ansbach – 21 September 1527, Buda).
 * 2) Elisabeth, died young.
 * 3) Margarete of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (10 January 1483, Ansbach – 10 July 1532).
 * 4) George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach (4 March 1484, Ansbach – 27 December 1543, Ansbach).
 * 5) Sophie of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (10 March 1485, Ansbach – 24 May 1537, Liegnitz), married on 14 November 1518 to Duke Frederick II of Legnica.
 * 6) Anna of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (5 May 1487, Ansbach – 7 February 1539), married on 1 December 1518 to Duke Wenceslaus II of Cieszyn.
 * 7) Barbara, died young.
 * 8) Albert, 1st Duke of Prussia (17 May 1490, Ansbach – 20 March 1568, Castle Tapiau), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order from 1511 to 1525, and first Duke of Prussia from 1525.
 * 9) Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (13 June 1491, Ansbach – ca. 1497).
 * 10) Johann, Viceroy of Valencia (9 January 1493, Plassenburg – 5 July 1525, Valencia)
 * 11) Elisabeth of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (25 March 1494, Ansbach – 31 May 1518, Pforzheim), married in Pforzheim on 29 September 1510 to Margrave Ernest of Baden-Durlach.
 * 12) Barbara of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (24 September 1495, Ansbach – 23 September 1552), married in Plassenburg on 26 July 1528 to Landgrave George III of Leuchtenberg.
 * 13) Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (17 January 1497, Ansbach – 20 August 1536, Genoa), a canon in Würzburg and Salzburg.
 * 14) Wilhelm, Archbishop of Riga (30 June 1498, Ansbach – 4 February 1563, Riga)
 * 15) John Albert, Archbishop of Magdeburg (20 September 1499, Ansbach – 17 May 1550, Halle)
 * 16) Frederick Albert, died young.
 * 17) Gumprecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach (16 July 1503, Ansbach – 25 June 1528, Naples), a canon in Bamberg.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity

F-Zero: Maximum Velocity is a futuristic racing game developed by NDcube and published by Nintendo as a launch game for the Game Boy Advance. It was released in Japan, North America and Europe in 2001. It was the first F-Zero game released on a handheld game console.

Maximum Velocity takes place 25 years after F-Zero, in another F-Zero Grand Prix. The past generations of F-Zero had "piloted their way to fame", so it is the second F-Zero game without Captain Falcon, Samurai Goroh, Pico, or Dr. Stewart after BS F-Zero Grand Prix 2. Players control fast hovering crafts and use their speed-boosting abilities to navigate through the courses as quickly as possible.

Gameplay
Every race consists of five laps around a race track. Players lose the race if their machine explodes due to taking too much damage, or if they land outside of the track, get ejected from the race due to falling to 20th place, complete a lap with a rank outside of the rank limit of that lap, or forfeit. In the single player Grand Prix mode, all of these conditions require the player to possess and use an extra machine to try again.

For each lap completed the player is rewarded with a speed boost, to be used once any time; one of the "SSS" marks will be shaded green to indicate that it can be used. A boost will dramatically increase a player's speed, but will decrease their ability to turn. A boost used before a jump will make the player jump farther, which could allow the player to use a shortcut with the right vehicle. Boost time and speed varies according to the machine, and is usually tuned for proper balance. For example, one machine boasts a boost time of twelve seconds, yet has the slowest boost speed of the entire game. Players can also take advantage of the varying deceleration of each vehicle. Some vehicles, such as the Jet Vermilion, take longer than others to decelerate from top boost speed to normal speed, once the boost has been used up. Players can also take advantage of this effect on boost pads.

The Grand Prix is the main single player component of Maximum Velocity. It consists of four series named after chess pieces: "Pawn", "Knight", "Bishop" and "Queen". The latter of these can be unlocked by winning the others on "Expert" mode. They have five races in four difficulty settings, "Master" mode is unlocked by winning expert mode in each series, the player unlocks a new machine after completing it. The player needs to be in the top three at the end of the last lap in order to continue to the next race. If the player is unable to continue, the player will lose a machine and can try the race again. If the player runs out of machines, then the game ends, and the player has to start the series from the beginning.

Championship is another single player component. It is basically the same as a "Time Attack" mode, except the player can only race on one, special course: the Synobazz Championship Circuit. This special course is not selectable in any other modes.

Multiplayer
Maximum Velocity can be played in two multiplayer modes using the Game Boy Advance link cable, with one cartridge, or one cartridge per player. Two to four players can play in both modes. In single cart, only one player needs to have a cartridge. All players drive a generic craft, and the game can only be played on one level, Silence. Silence, along with Fire Field, are the only areas to return from previous games. Aptly, Silence in Maximum Velocity has no background music, unlike in most other F-Zero games. In multi cart, each player needs to have a cartridge to play. This has many advantages over single cart: All players can use any machine in this game that has been unlocked by another player. Players can select any course in this game. After the race is finished, all of the players' ranking data are mixed and shared ("Mixed ranking" stored in each cart).

Development
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity was one of the first games developed by NDcube. Like the original F-Zero for SNES, Maximum Velocity implements a pseudo-3D visual technique based on the scaling and rotation effects of bitmap graphics. In this game, this technique consists of a double layer, one of which gives the illusion of depth.

Release
iQue released it to the Chinese market in August 2007.

Maximum Velocity is one of ten Game Boy Advance games released on December 16, 2011, to Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors, a program to give free downloadable games to early adopters who bought a Nintendo 3DS before its price drop. It was also released on the Wii U Virtual Console on April 3, 2014, in Japan and April 17 in North America and Europe.

A February 2023 teaser trailer showing future releases for the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service mentioned the game. It was released on March 29, 2024.

Reception
The game received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. NextGen, however, called it "A classic SNES racer that ports well, although the look is definitely dated." In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of 31 out of 40. Uncle Dust of GamePro said that the game was "every bit as good, if not better, than the amazing SNES version—it's a must-buy in the launch lineup."

The game went on to sell 334,145 units in Japan and 273,229 units in the U.S. as of 2005. The game has total sales of over 1 million units worldwide.

title: F-Zero: Maximum Velocity


text:
Talk:Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach

Untitled
HJ, please don't use German abbreviations in wikipedia articles. Sophie v. Polen should be "Sophie of Poland". And once again, please proofread. There was yet another [space],[word] occurrence. I get tired of proofreading for you. --MichaelTinkler


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Frederick William I of Prussia

Frederick William I (Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the Soldier King (Soldatenkönig ), was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 till his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.

Born in Berlin, he was raised by the Huguenot governess Marthe de Roucoulle. His political awakening occurred during the Great Northern War's plague outbreak in Prussia, leading to his challenge against corruption and inefficiency in government. He initiated reforms, especially in the military, growing the Prussian Army significantly. A believer in absolute monarchy, he focused on state development and financial reorganization, imposing taxes and stringent regulations on public servants. He made efforts to reduce crime and centralized his authority during his 27 years' reign, cementing Prussia as a regional power.

Despite his effective rule, he had a harsh nature, exacerbated by his health issues. He engaged in colonial affairs, but prioritized military expansion over colonial investments. His notable decisions included selling Prussian overseas colonies and the foundation of the Canton system, as well as the conquest of the port of Stettin.

His death in 1740 marked the end of a reign characterized by military and administrative reform. He was succeeded by his son, Frederick the Great.

Early years
Frederick William was born in Berlin to King Frederick I of Prussia and Princess Sophia Charlotte of Hanover. During his first years, he was raised by the Huguenot governess Marthe de Roucoulle. When the Great Northern War plague outbreak devastated Prussia, the inefficiency and corruption of the king's favorite ministers and senior officials were highlighted. Frederick William with a party that formed at the court brought down the leading minister Johann Kasimir Kolbe von Wartenberg and his cronies, following an official investigation that exposed Wartenberg's huge-scale misappropriation and embezzlement. His close associate August David zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was imprisoned at Spandau Citadel, fined 70,000 thalers and banished subsequently. The incident exerted great influence on Frederick William, making him resent crime, corruption, wastage and inefficiency and realize the necessity of institutional reform. It also became the first time he actively participated in politics. From then on, Frederick I began to let his son take more power.

Reign
His father had successfully acquired the title of king for the margraves of Brandenburg for which he had paid the high price of 2 million ducats to Emperor Leopold I, 600,000 ducats to the German clergy and 20,000 thalers to the Jesuit order. In addition, Frederick was obligated to provide Leopold with 8,000 soldiers for the War of the Spanish Succession. To demonstrate his new status, he had the Berlin Palace, Charlottenburg Palace, and Königsberg Castle doubled in size and furnished at considerable expense. However, in doing so, he had largely ruined the state's finances.

On ascending the throne in 1713, Frederick William therefore dismissed his father's corrupt "Cabinet of Three Counts". He worked persistently to reorganize the finances that had been shattered by his father, furthermore to enhance the economic development of his far-flung countries and to build up one of the largest and best equipped and trained armies in Europe. He would expand the Prussian Army from 38,000 men in 1713 to 80,000 in 1740, with an average of 1 out of every 25 Prussian men serving in the military. He expanded military obligations for the peasant class while replacing mandatory military service among the middle class with an annual tax, and he established schools and hospitals. The king encouraged farming, reclaimed marshes, stored grain in good times and sold it in bad times.

Frederick would also work to expand state income. He increased excise taxes, both on domestic and foreign goods, as well as subjecting the Prussian nobility to a land tax. He dictated the manual of Regulations for State Officials, containing 35 chapters and 297 paragraphs in which every public servant in Prussia could find his duties precisely set out: a minister or councillor failing to attend a committee meeting, for example, would lose six months' pay; if he absented himself a second time, he would be discharged from the royal service. In short, Frederick William I concerned himself with every aspect of his country, ruling an absolute monarchy with great energy and skill.

The king also took an interest in Prussian colonial affairs. In 1717, he revoked the charter of the Brandenburg Africa Company (BAC), which had been granted said charter by his father to establish a colony in West Africa known as the Brandenburg Gold Coast (and used it to transport between 17,000 and 30,000 enslaved Africans to the Americas). The king was unwilling to spend money on maintaining either the colony or the Prussian Navy, preferring to utilise state revenues on enlarging the Royal Prussian Army. In 1721, Frederick William sold the Brandenburg Gold Coast to the Dutch West India Company in exchange for 7,200 ducats and 12 enslaved African boys wearing gold chains.

In 1732, the king invited the Salzburg Protestants to settle in East Prussia, which had been depopulated by plague in 1709. Under the terms of the Peace of Augsburg, the prince-archbishop of Salzburg could require his subjects to practice the Catholic faith, but Protestants had the right to emigrate to a Protestant state. Prussian commissioners accompanied 20,000 Protestants to their new homes on the other side of Germany. Frederick William I personally welcomed the first group of migrants and sang Protestant hymns with them.

In 1733 he began building the Dutch Quarter in Potsdam, where he invited talented Dutch craftsmen to settle.

Frederick William intervened briefly in the Great Northern War, allied with Peter the Great of Russia, in order to gain a small portion of Swedish Pomerania; this gave Prussia new ports on the Baltic Sea coast. More significantly, aided by his close friend Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau, the "Soldier-King" made considerable reforms to the Prussian army's training, tactics and conscription program—introducing the canton system, and greatly increasing the Prussian infantry's rate of fire through the introduction of the iron ramrod. Frederick William's reforms left his son Frederick with the most formidable army in Europe, which Frederick used to increase Prussia's power.

Although a highly effective ruler, Frederick William had a perpetually short temper which sometimes drove him to physically attack servants (or even his own children) with a cane at the slightest perceived provocation. His violent, harsh nature was further exacerbated by his inherited porphyritic disease, which gave him gout, obesity and frequent crippling stomach pains. He also had a notable contempt for France, and would sometimes fly into a rage at the mere mention of that country, although this did not stop him from encouraging the immigration of French Huguenot refugees to Prussia.

Burial and reburials
Frederick William died in 1740 at age 51 and was interred at the Garrison Church in Potsdam. During World War II, in order to protect it from advancing allied forces, Hitler ordered the king's coffin, as well as those of Frederick the Great and Paul von Hindenburg, into hiding, first to Berlin and later to a salt mine outside of Bernterode. The coffins were later discovered by occupying American forces, who re-interred the bodies in St. Elizabeth's Church, Marburg in 1946. In 1953 the coffin was moved to Hohenzollern Castle, where it remained until 1991, when it was finally laid to rest on the steps of the altar in the Kaiser Friedrich Mausoleum in the Church of Peace on the palace grounds of Sanssouci. The original black marble sarcophagus collapsed at Burg Hohenzollern—the current one is a copper copy.

Relationship with Frederick II
His eldest surviving son was Frederick II (Fritz), born in 1712. Frederick William wanted him to become a fine soldier. As a small child, Fritz was awakened each morning by the firing of a cannon. At the age of 6, he was given his own regiment of children to drill as cadets, and a year later, he was given a miniature arsenal.

The love and affection Frederick William had for his heir initially was soon soured due to their increasingly different personalities. Frederick William ordered Fritz to undergo a minimal education, live a simple Protestant lifestyle, and focus on the Army and statesmanship as he had. However, the intellectual Fritz was more interested in music, books and French culture, which were forbidden by his father as decadent and unmanly. As Fritz's defiance for his father's rules increased, Frederick William would frequently beat or humiliate Fritz (he preferred his younger sibling Augustus William). Fritz was beaten for being thrown off a bolting horse and wearing gloves in cold weather.

At age 16, Frederick seems to have embarked upon a youthful affair with Peter Karl Christoph von Keith, a 17-year-old page of his father. Rumors of the liaison spread in the court, and the "intimacy" between the two boys provoked the comments of his sister, Wilhelmine, who wrote, "Though I had noticed that he was on more familiar terms with this page than was proper in his position, I did not know how intimate the friendship was." Rumors finally reached King Frederick William, who cultivated an ideal of ultramasculinity in his court, and derided his son's supposedly effeminate tendencies. As a result, Keith was dismissed from his service to the king and sent away to a regiment by the Dutch border, while Frederick was sent to the king's hunting lodge at Königs Wusterhausen in order to "repent of his sin".

After the prince attempted to flee to England with his tutor, Hans Hermann von Katte, the enraged king had Katte beheaded before the eyes of the prince, who himself was court-martialled. The king may have thought that Frederick's relationship with Katte was also romantic, a suspicion which may have played a role in Katte receiving a death sentence. In any case, the court declared itself not competent in the case of the crown prince. Whether it was the king's intention to have his son executed as well (as Voltaire claims) is not clear. However, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI intervened, claiming that a prince could only be tried by the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire itself. Frederick was imprisoned in the Fortress of Küstrin from 2 September to 19 November 1731 and exiled from court until February 1732, during which time he was rigorously schooled in matters of state. After achieving a measure of reconciliation, Frederick William had his son married to Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, whom Frederick despised, but then grudgingly allowed him to indulge in his musical and literary interests again. He also gifted him a stud farm in East Prussia, and Rheinsberg Palace. By the time of Frederick William's death in 1740, he and Frederick were on at least reasonable terms with each other.

Although the relationship between Frederick William and Frederick was clearly hostile, Frederick himself later wrote that his father "penetrated and understood great objectives, and knew the best interests of his country better than any minister or general."

Marriage and family
Frederick William married his first cousin Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, George II's younger sister (daughter of his uncle, King George I of Great Britain and Sophia Dorothea of Celle) on 28 November 1706. Frederick William was faithful and loving to his wife but they did not have a happy relationship: Sophia Dorothea feared his unpredictable temper and resented him, both for allowing her no influence or independence at court, and for refusing to marry her children to their English cousins. She also abhorred his cruelty towards their son and heir Frederick (with whom she was close), although rather than trying to mend the relationship between father and son she frequently spurred Frederick on in his defiance. They had fourteen children, including:

He was the godfather of the Prussian envoy Friedrich Wilhelm von Thulemeyer and of his grand-nephew, Prince Edward Augustus of Great Britain.

Memorial site and exhibition

Königs Wusterhausen Castle, the king's hunting lodge and garden, were his favourite place to stay and to indulge in hunting when he wanted to relax from his state duties, which he performed at the Berlin Palace and the City Palace, Potsdam. His children also had to spend their holidays here regularly. Frederick the Great had a strong dislike for the place, but the two youngest sons, in old age, after Frederick's death, returned together a few times out of sentimental memories to where they spent so much time growing up.

Today the castle, southeast of the Berlin city limits not far from Berlin Airport, is a museum of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg. Numerous valuable objects of baroque paintings and handicrafts are on display, mostly with connections to Frederick William and his family, many pieces of the original interior, as well as a large collection of portraits, mainly of officers, which the "soldier king" painted himself.

title: Frederick William I of Prussia


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Felsic

In geology, felsic is a modifier describing igneous rocks that are relatively rich in elements that form feldspar and quartz. It is contrasted with mafic rocks, which are relatively richer in magnesium and iron. Felsic refers to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium. Felsic magma or lava is higher in viscosity than mafic magma/lava, and have low temperatures to keep the felsic minerals molten.

Felsic rocks are usually light in color and have specific gravities less than 3. The most common felsic rock is granite. Common felsic minerals include quartz, muscovite, orthoclase, and the sodium-rich plagioclase feldspars (albite-rich).

Terminology
In modern usage, the term acid rock, although sometimes used as a synonym, normally now refers specifically to a high-silica-content (greater than 63% SiO2 by weight) volcanic rock, such as rhyolite. Older, broader usage is now considered archaic. That usage, with the contrasting term "basic rock" (MgO, FeO, mafic), was based on an ancient concept, dating from the 19th century, that "silicic acid" (H4SiO4 or Si(OH)4) was the chief form of silicon occurring in siliceous rocks. Although this intuition makes sense from an acid-base perspective in aquatic chemistry considering water-rock interactions and silica dissolution, siliceous rocks are not formed by this protonated monomeric species, but by a tridimensional network of SiO44– tetrahedra connected to each other. Once released in water and hydrolyzed, these silica entities can indeed form silicic acid in aqueous solution.

The term "felsic" is a derivation of the words "feldspar" and "silica". The similarity of the resulting term felsic to the German felsig, "rocky" (from Fels, "rock"), is accidental. Feldspar is from the German Feldspat, a compound of the German Feld, meaning field, plus spat[h], meaning mineral.

Classification of felsic rocks
In order for a rock to be classified as felsic, it generally needs to contain more than 75% felsic minerals (namely quartz, orthoclase and plagioclase). Rocks with greater than 90% felsic minerals can also be called leucocratic, from the Greek words for white and dominance.

Felsite is a petrologic field term used to refer to very fine-grained or aphanitic, light-colored volcanic rocks which might be later reclassified after a more detailed microscopic or chemical analysis.

In some cases, felsic volcanic rocks may contain phenocrysts of mafic minerals, usually hornblende, pyroxene or a feldspar mineral, and may need to be named after their phenocryst mineral, such as 'hornblende-bearing felsite'.

The chemical name of a felsic rock is given according to the TAS classification of Le Maitre (1975). However, this only applies to volcanic rocks. If the rock is analyzed and found to be felsic but is metamorphic and has no definite volcanic protolith, it may be sufficient to simply call it a 'felsic schist'. There are examples known of highly sheared granites which can be mistaken for rhyolites.

For phaneritic felsic rocks, the QAPF diagram should be used, and a name given according to the granite nomenclature. Often the species of mafic minerals is included in the name, for instance, hornblende-bearing granite, pyroxene tonalite or augite megacrystic monzonite, because the term "granite" already assumes content with feldspar and quartz.

The rock texture thus determines the basic name of a felsic rock.

title: Felsic


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Talk:Frederick William I of Prussia

Untitled
This is more than usually useless, HJ. Let me point out (I really ought to have this on cut and paste we tell you so \that w herebythen 'name, ordinal number title of polity' for all others.  Unfortunately, a lot of these articles are written by those unfamiliar with English nomenclature. JHK

OK -- I removed the list of titles. Why? because first, the excessive list of titles was leading into a discussion of Hohenzollerns and their titles -- not the topic of the article. Second, titles should take second place to what the subject actually did. Titles mean nothing compared to actions. There were more titles listed than information about the man himself. This is an encyclopedia, NOT Debrett's peerage, and NOT a genealogical resource. As written, it was not a good article -it is now a good stub, and would welcome careful attention and feeding. Sample questions -- what do we know about the man himself? What did he do (why is he remembered)? How was he representative (or not) of his world? JHK

Frederich William
Old Fred-Willy really does deserve more then this. Though not the equal of his illustrious son, he was at least the equal of the first king of Prussia or the Great Elector. I'll try to add some stuff. - CJWilly

 * Seriously, this guy's article needs a ton more stuff. I'm not trying to gloss his retarded treatment of Fritz JoshNarins (talk) 16:03, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Added stuff on his admnistrative dedication, love of the military, mistreatment of his son. Could also use some notes on his diseases and perhaps some meaningful statistics on his army. -CJWilly

weird move
Uhhh, why was this article moved to "Frederick William I in Prussia"? I mean, I know he hang out there and all but shouldn't it be "of"?  Volunteer Marek  06:00, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

king IN Prussia
This pretty much explains it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_William_I_of_Prussia  — Preceding unsigned comment added by DeathComesSoon (talk • contribs) 14:11, 19 July 2011 (UTC)

Spotty
Perfunctory and incomplete article about one of the more important figures of early modern European history. Much detail about his coffin/sarcophagus but little about his reign. (German WP entry is 10 times as long – 7,000 words – with 14 illustrations.) Sca (talk) 15:19, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

Wrong Name
Why is his name listed in an English equivalent first, and then German in parentheses, almost like the original is English? Can someone fix his name please? 112.198.98.30 (talk) 15:19, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Jeez Louise, this again. If you'd care to look at the German Wikipedia, that is exactly how it is done with British monarchs there. Zwerg Nase (talk) 15:39, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I looked. You are wrong:  https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles,_Prince_of_Wales 112.198.79.234 (talk) 10:06, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I am not wrong. It is how pointed out, the most common used name is used as article title. Therefore, Charles is Charles but Elizabeth is Elisabeth and George is Georg and Edward is Eduard. Zwerg Nase (talk) 10:18, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
 * But British Royals are German...112.198.98.30 (talk) 17:35, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
 * I don't mean to be offensive, but that might be the dumbest thing I've ever read here... Zwerg Nase (talk) 17:36, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Only the ones from the House of Hanover were of German descent, and since the first world war they haven't married into any German royal families either.
 * The rule on the English language wikipedia is that whenever there is a commonly used name in English, that one is used in stead of the one from the person's own language. That applies to Roman names ( Trajan, Vespasian, Livy...) but also to royal or papal names. -- fdewaele, 29 November 2015, 20:15.
 * I have NEVER heard anyone say "Frederik William". Besides, even if it were the "common way" isn't this supposed to be an academic website? I mean, writing stuff in the common way, we might as well go all the way and be like "Fred-Willy was a ballah mang. I mean, he had bank, and bitches, and mad lands and shit." This is one of those things that prevents people from taking wikipedia seriously...112.198.79.234 (talk) 07:31, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
 * If you feel it should be dealt with differently, feel free to propose it at the right place, which would probably be here. Zwerg Nase (talk) 08:38, 30 November 2015 (UTC)
 * You are on wikipedia calling an intelligent person "dumb"? If you are ignorant, read wikipedia. It will tell you the British Royals are German Royalty. So are the Russian Royals. It is idiots like you that ruin this site...112.198.98.30 (talk) 18:55, 29 November 2015 (UTC)
 * If you talk about what nationality a monarch has, you clearly have not understood the whole point of monarchies. But for now, I will leave you with the good point made by . Zwerg Nase (talk) 22:03, 29 November 2015 (UTC)

I have pointed this out above: If you feel this should be changed, discuss it in the Wikiproject. Until such a time that Wikipedia decides to change its policy on monarch names, I will keep reverting your changes. Zwerg Nase (talk) 10:41, 30 November 2015 (UTC) and As Zwerg Nase pointed out if you don't like the policy, then try to change it at the appropriate place but in the meanwhile please adhere to Wikipedia's set policy and don't do any unilateral moves without consensus. I have thus restored the articles to their previous form as you did attempt to move them -- fdewaele, 30 November 2015, 13:48.
 * I agree. Translating German names into English is offensive and tantamount to cultural genocide. I am glad they have the original German names listed in parentheses. However, the article's title is clearly wrong. And this IS the place to discuss it! How do we report people like you committing vandalism?2001:558:6012:5A:565:ABEA:FCDE:5BBD (talk) 19:26, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Invoking "cultural genocide" is a bit on the hysterical side. Here are some names from the German Wikipedia, all given as main titles and used throughout the texts: Thomas Morus (Thomas More), Raffael (Raffaello Sanzio), Maria Stuart (Mary Stuart), Ludwig XIV. (französisch Louis XIV), Christoph Kolumbus, Johann Ohneland, Horaz (Quintus Horatius Flaccus). I could give you many more. Are they examples of cultural genocide? If so, it has been continuing for centuries. Culture must be a tough old bird to resist such rough treatment and still survive! METRANGOLO1 (talk) 21:30, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

"Soldier-King" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect Soldier-King and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 August 7 until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. —  Red-tailed hawk (nest) 19:36, 7 August 2022 (UTC)

title: Talk:Frederick William I of Prussia


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Frisians

The Frisians are an ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands, north-western Germany and southern Denmark, and during the Early Middle Ages in the north-western coastal zone of Flanders, Belgium. They inhabit an area known as Frisia and are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia (which was a part of Denmark until 1864).

There are several theories about the origin of the name of the Frisians, which is derived from Frisii or Fresones, names used by the Romans to describe a Germanic tribe that inhabited the same region but disappeared during the 5th century before the appearance of the Frisians. Most probably the name is derived from the verb fresare in Vulgar Latin, meaning 'milling, cutting, grooving, crushing, removing shells'; this name may have been given to the Frisii because they 'cut the land': digging ditches and dykes to irrigate the wet marshlands where they lived. Compare fresar el paisaje in the Romance language Spanish. Another theory is the name derives from frisselje (to braid, thus referring to braided hair).

The Frisian languages are spoken by more than 500,000 people; West Frisian is officially recognised in the Netherlands (in Friesland), and North Frisian and Saterland Frisian are recognised as regional languages in Germany.

History
Prior to the appearance of the modern Frisians, their namesake, the ancient Frisii, enter recorded history in the Roman account of Drusus's 12 BC war against the Rhine Germans and the Chauci. They occasionally appear in the accounts of Roman wars against the Germanic tribes of the region, up to and including the Revolt of the Batavi around 70 AD. Frisian mercenaries were hired as cavalry to assist the Roman invasion of Britain. They are not mentioned again until c. 296, when they were deported into Roman territory as laeti (i.e., Roman-era serfs; see Binchester Roman Fort and Cuneus Frisionum). The discovery of a type of earthenware unique to fourth century Frisia, called terp Tritzum, shows that an unknown number of them were resettled in Flanders and Kent, probably as laeti under Roman coercion. From the third through the fifth centuries, Frisia suffered marine transgressions that made most of the land uninhabitable, aggravated by a change to a cooler and wetter climate. Whatever population may have remained dropped dramatically, and the coastal lands remained largely unpopulated for the next two centuries. When conditions improved, Frisia received an influx of new settlers, mostly Angles and Saxons. These people would eventually be referred to as 'Frisians' (Frīsa, Frīsan), though they were not necessarily descended from the ancient Frisii. It is these 'new Frisians' who are largely the ancestors of the medieval and modern Frisians.

By the end of the sixth century, Frisian territory had expanded westward to the North Sea coast and, in the seventh century, southward down to Dorestad. This farthest extent of Frisian territory is sometimes referred to as Frisia Magna. Early Frisia was ruled by a High King, with the earliest reference to a 'Frisian King' being dated 678.

In the early eighth century, the Frisians mostly worshipped Germanic gods such as Thor and Odin outside the vicinity of Utrecht. Slightly later, the Frisian nobles came into increasing conflict with the Franks to their south, resulting in a series of wars in which the Frankish Empire eventually subjugated Frisia in 734. These wars benefited attempts by Anglo-Irish missionaries (which had begun with Saint Boniface) to convert the Frisian populace to Christianity, in which Saint Willibrord largely succeeded.

Some time after the death of Charlemagne, the Frisian territories were in theory under the control of the Count of Holland, but in practice the Hollandic counts, starting with Count Arnulf in 993, were unable to assert themselves as the sovereign lords of Frisia. The resulting stalemate resulted in a period of time called the 'Frisian freedom', a period in which feudalism and serfdom (as well as central or judicial administration) did not exist, and in which the Frisian lands only owed their allegiance to the Holy Roman Emperor.

During the 13th century, however, the counts of Holland became increasingly powerful and, starting in 1272, sought to reassert themselves as rightful lords of the Frisian lands in a series of wars, which (with a series of lengthy interruptions) ended in 1422 with the Hollandic conquest of Western Frisia and with the establishment of a more powerful noble class in Central and Eastern Frisia.

In 1524, Frisia became part of the Seventeen Provinces and in 1568 joined the Dutch revolt against Philip II, king of Spain, heir of the Burgundian territories; Central Frisia has remained a part of the Netherlands ever since. The eastern periphery of Frisia would become part of various German states (later Germany) and Denmark. An old tradition existed in the region of exploitation of peatlands.

Migration to England and Scotland
Though it is impossible to know exact numbers and migration patterns, research has indicated that many Frisians were part of the wave of ethnic groups to colonise areas of present-day England alongside the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, starting from around the fifth century when Frisians arrived along the coastline of Kent.

Frisians principally settled in modern-day Kent, East Anglia, the East Midlands, North East England, and Yorkshire. Across these areas, evidence of their settlement includes place names of Frisian origin, such as Frizinghall in Bradford and Frieston in Lincolnshire.

Similarities in dialect between Great Yarmouth and Friesland have been noted, originating from trade between these areas during the Middle Ages. Frisians are also known to have founded the Freston area of Ipswich.

In Scotland, historians have noted that colonies of Angles and Frisians settled as far north as the River Forth. This corresponds to those areas of Scotland which historically constituted part of Northumbria.

Frisians in Denmark
The earliest traces of Frisians in modern-day Denmark date back from the 8th century, when Frisian traders and craftsmen settled down in Ribe. In the Later Middle Ages Frisians farmers settled around Tøndermarsken west of Tønder. The evidence for this are the dwelling mounds or terps (værfter) in the area that are built after the same method as the ones alongside the Wadden Sea further south. Colonists from the south also settled down in Misthusum in the Ballum marshes near Skærbæk during the 12th of 13th century. According to documents around 1400 at least some of them were considered as "Hollanders".

In modern times, Frisian culture in Denmark is described as assimilated and most people of Frisian descent do not consider themselves Frisian. In regards of the Frisian language, very few may speak it as first language but it was traditionally spoken in several polder hamlets near the border with Germany. One estimate puts the Frisian population in Denmark somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000. This number, however, might be grossly exaggerated. Frisian identity in Denmark was promoted by the Eiderstedt farmer and political activist Cornelius Petersen, who built a traditional Frisian farmstead in Møgeltønder in 1914 and founded the rural protest movement Bondens Selvstyre ("Farmers' self-government"). More recently, the retired journalist Benny Siewertsen wrote a partisan pamphlet on Frisian heritage in Denmark.

Language
As both the Anglo-Saxons of England and the early Frisians were formed from similar tribal confederacies, their respective languages were very similar, together forming the Anglo-Frisian family. Old Frisian is the most closely related language to Old English and the modern Frisian dialects are in turn the closest related languages to contemporary English that do not themselves derive from Old English (although the modern Frisian and English are not mutually intelligible).

The Frisian language group is divided into three mutually unintelligible languages:
 * West Frisian, spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland
 * Saterland Frisian, spoken in the German municipality of Saterland just south of East Frisia
 * North Frisian, spoken in the German region of North Frisia (within the Kreis of Nordfriesland) on the west coast of Jutland.

Of these three languages both Saterland Frisian (2,000 speakers) and North Frisian (10,000 speakers) are endangered. West Frisian is spoken by around 350,000 native speakers in Friesland, and as many as 470,000 when including speakers in neighbouring Groningen province. West Frisian is not listed as threatened, although research published by Radboud University in 2016 has challenged that assumption.

Identity
Today there exists a tripartite division, of North, East and West Frisians, caused by Frisia's continual loss of territory in the Middle Ages. The West Frisians, in general, do not see themselves as part of a larger group of Frisians, and, according to a 1970 poll, identify themselves more with the Dutch than with the East or North Frisians.

title: Frisians