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Æthelred I of Wessex

Æthelred I (alt. Aethelred, Ethelred; Æthel-ræd; 845/848 to 871) was King of Wessex from 865 until his death in 871. He was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf of Wessex, four of whom in turn became king. Æthelred succeeded his elder brother Æthelberht and was followed by his youngest brother, Alfred the Great. Æthelred had two sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold, who were passed over for the kingship on their father's death because they were still infants. Alfred was succeeded by his son, Edward the Elder, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with him.

Æthelred's accession coincided with the arrival of the Viking Great Heathen Army in England. Over the next five years the Vikings conquered Northumbria and East Anglia, and at the end of 870 they launched a full-scale attack on Wessex. In early January 871, Æthelred was defeated at the Battle of Reading. Four days later, he scored a victory in the Battle of Ashdown, but this was followed by two defeats at Basing and Meretun. He died shortly after Easter. Alfred was forced to pay off the Vikings, but he scored a decisive victory over them seven years later at the Battle of Edington.

Æthelred's reign was important numismatically. Wessex and Mercia were close allies when he became king, and he carried the alliance further by adopting the Mercian Lunettes design, thus creating a unified coinage design for southern England for the first time. The common design foreshadowed the unification of England over the next sixty years and the reform coinage of King Edgar a century later.

Background
Æthelred's grandfather, Ecgberht, became king of Wessex in 802, and in the view of the historian Richard Abels, it must have seemed very unlikely to contemporaries that he would establish a lasting dynasty. For two hundred years, three families had fought for the West Saxon throne, and no son had followed his father as king. No ancestor of Ecgberht had been a king of Wessex since Ceawlin in the late sixth century, but he was believed to be a paternal descendant of Cerdic, the founder of the West Saxon dynasty. This made Ecgberht an ætheling – a prince eligible for the throne. But after Ecgberht's reign, descent from Cerdic was no longer sufficient to make a man an ætheling. When Ecgberht died in 839 he was succeeded by his son Æthelwulf; all subsequent West Saxon kings were Ecgberht's descendants and were also sons of kings.

At the beginning of the ninth century, England was almost wholly under the control of the Anglo-Saxons. The Midland kingdom of Mercia dominated southern England, but its supremacy came to an end in 825 when it was decisively defeated by Ecgberht at the Battle of Ellendun. The two kingdoms became allies, which was important in the resistance to Viking attacks. In 853, King Burgred of Mercia requested West Saxon help to suppress a Welsh rebellion, and Æthelwulf led a West Saxon contingent in a successful joint campaign. In the same year Burgred married Æthelwulf's daughter, Æthelswith.

In 825, Ecgberht sent Æthelwulf to invade the Mercian sub-kingdom of Kent, and its underking, Baldred, was driven out shortly afterwards. By 830, Essex, Surrey and Sussex had also submitted to Ecgberht, and he had appointed Æthelwulf to rule the south-eastern territories as King of Kent. The Vikings ravaged the Isle of Sheppey in 835, and the following year they defeated Ecgberht at Carhampton in Somerset, but in 838 he was victorious over an alliance of Cornishmen and Vikings at the Battle of Hingston Down, reducing Cornwall to the status of a client kingdom. When Æthelwulf succeeded, he appointed his eldest son Æthelstan (who died in the early 850s) as sub-king of Kent. Ecgberht and Æthelwulf might not have intended a permanent union between Wessex and Kent as they both appointed sons as underkings and charters in Wessex were attested (witnessed) by West Saxon magnates, while Kentish charters were witnessed by the Kentish elite; both kings kept overall control and the underkings were not allowed to issue their own coinage.

Viking raids increased in the early 840s on both sides of the English Channel, and in 843 Æthelwulf was defeated at Carhampton. In 850, Æthelstan defeated a Danish fleet off Sandwich in the first recorded naval battle in English history. In 851 Æthelwulf and his second son Æthelbald defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Aclea and, according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "there made the greatest slaughter of a heathen raiding-army that we have heard tell of up to this present day, and there took the victory". Æthelwulf died in 858 and was succeeded by his oldest surviving son, Æthelbald, as king of Wessex and by his next oldest son, Æthelberht, as king of Kent. Æthelbald only survived his father by two years and Æthelberht then for the first time united Wessex and Kent into a single kingdom.

Early life

Æthelred was the fourth of five sons of King Æthelwulf. His mother, Osburh, was of West Saxon royal descent. According to the historian Sean Miller, Æthelred was probably a year or so older than his younger brother, the future Alfred the Great, who was born 848–9, but Richard Abels says that Æthelred was around eight years old in 853, which would mean he was born about 845. Manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which was written in the 890s, states that in 853 Alfred was sent by his father to Rome and was consecrated by the Pope as king. Historians do not believe that he was consecrated king at this young age and the real nature of the ceremony is explained in an extract from a letter of Pope Leo IV to Æthelwulf, which records that he decorated Alfred "as a spiritual son, with the dignity of the belt and the vestments of the consulate, as is customary with Roman consuls". The contemporary Liber Vitae (confraternity book) of San Salvatore, Brescia, records the names of both Æthelred and Alfred, indicating that both brothers went to Rome. It is likely that Æthelred was also decorated by the pope, but the ceremony was later regarded as foreshadowing Alfred's greatness and neither the chronicler nor the eleventh-century extractor from the Pope's letters were interested in recording the presence of his lesser known elder brother.

Æthelred first witnessed his father's charters as filius regis (king's son) in 854, and he witnessed with this title until he succeeded to the throne in 865. He may have acted as an underking before his accession, as in 862 and 863 he issued his own charters as King of the West Saxons. This must have been as deputy or in the absence of his elder brother, King Æthelberht, as there is no record of conflict between them and he continued to witness his brother's charters as a king's son in 864.

Civilian rule

Æthelred succeeded to the throne on Æthelberht's death in 865, and he married Wulfthryth at an unknown date. West Saxon kings' wives had a low status in the ninth century and very little is known about them. They were not usually given the title of regina (queen), an omission which Alfred the Great justified on the ground of the misconduct of a queen at the beginning of the ninth century. The name of Æthelred's wife is only known because she was recorded as a witness to one charter, S 340 of 868, where she is shown as Wulfthryth regina, suggesting that she had a higher status than other kings' wives. The only other ninth century king's wife known to have been given the title was Æthelwulf's second wife, Judith of Flanders, a great-granddaughter of Charlemagne. Wulfthryth and Æthelred had two known sons, Æthelhelm and Æthelwold. She might have been Mercian or a daughter of Wulfhere, Ealdorman of Wiltshire, who forfeited his lands after being charged with deserting King Alfred for the Danes in about 878, perhaps because he attempted to secure Viking support for his elder grandson Æthelhelm's claim to the throne against Alfred.

Alfred records in the preamble to his will that Æthelwulf had left property jointly to three of his sons, Æthelbald, Æthelred and Alfred, with the proviso that the brother who lived longest would succeed to all of it. When Æthelbald died in 860, Æthelred and Alfred, who were still young, agreed to entrust their share to the new king, Æthelberht, on a promise that he would return it to them intact. When Æthelred succeeded to the throne, Alfred asked him at a meeting of the witan (assembly of leading men) to give him his share of the property. However, Æthelred said that he had attempted many times to divide it but had found it too difficult, and he would instead leave the whole to Alfred on his death. Some historians see the bequest as including the whole of Æthelwulf's bookland, his personal property which he could leave in his will (as opposed to the folkland which passed according to customary law and property earmarked for the support of the crown); it is further argued that it was considered desirable that the bookland would be kept by the king, so Æthelwulf's provision implies that the throne would pass to each brother in turn. However, other historians assert that the bequest had nothing to do with the kingship, and Alfred Smyth argues that the bequest was provision for Æthelwulf's young sons when they reached adulthood, with Æthelbald as trustee and residuary beneficiary if they died young. When Alfred succeeded, the supporters of Æthelred's infant sons complained that Alfred should have shared the property with them, and Alfred had his father's will read to a meeting of the witan to prove his right to keep the whole of the property. Alfred rarely witnessed Æthelred's charters, and this together with the argument over their father's will suggests that they were not on good terms. The historian Pauline Stafford suggests that Æthelred chose to highlight his wife's status as queen in a charter to assert his own sons' claims to the succession.

In 868, Æthelred issued a charter which was attested by a Mercian ætheling and himself attested a charter issued by his sister, Æthelswith, as queen of Mercia. Æthelred used several different titles in his charters. He is called by his father's usual title, Rex Occidentalium Saxonum (King of the West Saxons) in the charter of Ealhswith which he witnessed, and in five of his own. He is "King of the West Saxons and the Men of Kent" in two, and "King" and "King of the Saxons" in one each. The West Saxon charters of Æthelred and his elder brothers followed a uniform style, suggesting that they were produced by a single agency which operated over a number of years.

The Viking invasions

The character of Viking attacks on England decisively changed in the year that Æthelred succeeded to the throne. Previously the country had suffered from sporadic raids, but now it faced an invasion aiming at conquest and settlement. A large force of Vikings, called by contemporaries the Great Heathen Army, arrived in East Anglia. King Edmund purchased peace by paying tribute and the Vikings stayed a year building up their strength. They then marched on York and conquered Northumbria, installing a puppet king. In late 867, they took Nottingham in Mercia and spent the winter there. Æthelred's brother-in-law, King Burgred, appealed to him for help. Æthelred and Alfred led a large West Saxon army to Nottingham and besieged the Vikings, but they refused to leave the safety of the town's defences. The combined Mercian and West Saxon armies were unable to breach the earth ramparts and ditch, and eventually Burgred bought them off. The Vikings then went back to York.

In 869, the Vikings returned to East Anglia and conquered the kingdom, killing King Edmund. In December 870, they launched an attempt to conquer Wessex led by Kings Bagsecg and Halfdan. They occupied Reading on around 28 December. The town is between the Thames and Kennet rivers, and they set about building a ditch and rampart on the southern side between the two rivers. Three days after their arrival they sent out a large foraging party, which was defeated by an army of local levies under the command of Æthelwulf, Ealdorman of Berkshire, at the Battle of Englefield. After another four days, on about 4 January 871, Æthelred and Alfred brought up the main West Saxon army and joined Æthelwulf's forces for an attack on the Danes in the Battle of Reading. The West Saxons fought their way to the town, slaughtering all the Danes they found outside, but when they reached the town gate the Vikings burst out and defeated the West Saxons with a successful counter-attack. Among the dead was Æthelwulf, whose body was secretly carried off to be buried in his native Derby. According to the twelfth-century chronicler Gaimar, Æthelred and Alfred only escaped due to their better knowledge of the local terrain, which allowed them to lose their pursuers by fording the River Loddon at Twyford and going on to Whistley Green, which is around 6 mi east of Reading.

Four days later, on about 8 January, the armies met again in the Battle of Ashdown. The location of the battle is unknown, but may be Kingstanding Hill, 13 mi north-west of Reading. According to Asser's account, the Vikings arrived first at the battle ground and deployed along the top of the ridge, giving them the advantage. They divided their forces into two contingents, one under their two kings and the other under their earls. When the West Saxons saw this, they decided to copy the formation, with Æthelred facing the kings and Alfred the earls. The king then retired to his tent to hear Mass, while Alfred led his forces to the battlefield. Both sides formed their forces into shield walls. Æthelred would not cut short his devotions and Alfred risked being outflanked and overwhelmed by the whole Danish army. He decided to attack and led his men in a charge. Battle then raged around a small thorn tree and finally the West Saxons were victorious. Although Asser emphasises Alfred's role in the victory and implies that Æthelred was dilatory, in the view of the military historian John Peddie, Æthelred was militarily correct to delay joining the battle until the situation was in his favour. The Vikings suffered heavy losses, including King Bagsecg and five earls, Sidroc the Old, Sidroc the Younger, Osbern, Fræna and Harold. The West Saxons followed the Viking flight until nightfall, cutting them down. The historian Barbara Yorke, who sees Asser's biography as intended to portray Alfred as an ideal king, comments that "Asser is particularly careful to give much credit to Alfred".

However, the victory was short-lived. Two weeks later, Æthelred and Alfred were defeated at the royal estate of Basing in the Battle of Basing. There was then a lull of two months until the West Saxons and the Vikings met at an unknown location called Meretun. In the battle on 22 March the Vikings again divided into two divisions and the West Saxons had the advantage for much of the day, putting both divisions to flight, but the Vikings regrouped and finally held control of the battlefield. The West Saxons lost many important men, including Heahmund, the Bishop of Sherborne.

Coinage
In the late eighth and ninth centuries, the only denomination of coin produced in southern England was the silver penny. As of 2007, 152 coins of Æthelred struck by 32 different moneyers have been recorded. His reign is described by the numismatists Adrian Lyons and William Mackay as "a critical point in the development of the English coinage". His first Four Line issue was stylistically similar to the Floriate Cross penny of his predecessor, Æthelberht, but he soon abandoned this and adopted the design of his Mercian brother-in-law, Burgred, resulting in a common coinage design across southern England for the first time. The historian and numismatist Rory Naismith comments that Æthelred:

"took the important step of adopting a new coin-type based not on local tradition, but on the Lunettes-type current in contemporary Mercia. The year 865 thus saw not only the arrival of the Viking great army that would dismantle most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, but also the beginning of the end for separate coinages in separate kingdoms."

Lyons and Mackay see the change as even more crucial:

"The developments of the late 860s can thus be viewed as an essential precursor that eventually led to the unified reform coinage of Edgar. This convergence of the coinage is also tangible evidence for a growing collaboration between Mercia and Wessex which foreshadowed the eventual creation of a unified England."

The single coinage design created a form of monetary union in southern England, reinforcing the mingling of economic interests between the two kingdoms and the military alliance against the Vikings. Coin hoards in Wessex dating to the earlier period of separate coinage designs have few non-Wessex coins, but after the adoption of the common Lunettes design, coins of Wessex and Mercia were used in both kingdoms, and even in Wessex hoards coins of Æthelred I form a minor proportion of the total. Between one and one and a half million Æthelred I Regular Lunette coins were produced, but this seems to have been significantly less than in Mercia. It is not known why the Mercian design was adopted, but it probably reflects the fact that the Lunette type had already been used for more than twelve years, the simplicity of the design, which could easily be copied, and the greater strength of the Mercian economy. The bulk of surviving Æthelred I coins are of the Regular Lunettes design, with 118 coins struck by 21 moneyers, six of whom are known to have also worked for Burgred; the coins are notable for consistency in design and good quality of execution, and they were mainly produced by Canterbury moneyers, with a few in the Mercian town of London. Only one coin is known which was produced in Wessex itself. There were also Irregular Lunettes issues, one of which was a degraded and crude variant, perhaps a result of a breakdown in controls at the end of Æthelred's reign, when Wessex was under the pressure of Viking attacks. Alfred kept the Lunettes design for a short period following his accession in 871, but the design disappears from hoards deposited after around 875.

Death and aftermath
Shortly after Easter 871, which fell on 15 April in that year, Æthelred died. According to Asser, he "went the way of all flesh, having vigorously and honourably ruled the kingdom in good repute, amid many difficulties, for five years". He was buried at the royal minster at Wimborne in Dorset, which had been founded by Saint Cuthburh, a sister of his ancestor, Ingild. While Alfred was attending his funeral, the West Saxons suffered another defeat at Reading, and Alfred himself was then defeated at Wilton. He was forced to buy off the Vikings, who then withdrew to London. In 876, the Vikings returned, and Alfred fought a guerrilla war until he won a decisive victory at the Battle of Edington in 878.

Æthelred had two sons, and if he had lived until they were adults it is unlikely that Alfred would ever have become king, but as they were still young children, Alfred succeeded. Æthelhelm died before Alfred, and Æthelwold unsuccessfully disputed the throne with Edward the Elder after Alfred's death in 899. One of the two places where Æthelwold launched his rebellion was Wimborne, which was symbolically important as his father's burial place. Æthelred's descendants played an important role in governing the country in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. They include Ealdorman Æthelweard, who recorded in his Latin version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that he was Æthelred's great-great-grandson. King Eadwig was forced to accept annulment of his marriage to Ælfgifu due to consanguinity; she may have been Æthelweard's sister, which would make her Eadwig's third cousin once removed due to her descent from Æthelred, and thus within the forbidden degrees of relationship according to the church. Æthelweard and his son Æthelmær were leading magnates who governed west Wessex as ealdormen of the western provinces. The family lost their positions and property after Cnut conquered England in 1016, and one of Æthelmær's sons was executed by Cnut in 1017, while a son-in-law was banished in 1020. Another son, Æthelnoth, was Archbishop of Canterbury, and he lived until 1038.

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title: Æthelred I of Wessex


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User:Donpaolo

Who am I? I was born in 1962, in Genoa, Italy, Europe, from a modest family, 5 children brought up with one clerk pay.

I attended Scientific High School Cassini in Genoa (Italy), at which I took my School Leaving Certificate in 1981.

Scientific interests, I attended the University Degree Course of Physics, at the University of Genoa, where I graduated in 1986 with a Thesis about Savona port silting up in condition of sea storm.

After that, I thought to put my University Degree under a table foot, and I came in the Seminary of Genoa to become a priest.

There I found again my passion for football. By the grace of God, on the 20th of May 1992 Cardinal Canestri ordained me presbyter.

I am very glad to be a priest.

I worked in Pegli, pleasant country town on the Ligure coast, now situated between Multedo oil port and Prà terminal container. I was vice-parish priest at the S. Francesco d'Assisi parish, placed in Salgari street. I loved my parish community, and I ask you too, who are reading, for a prayer for all of them.

As well as parish, I managed youth pastoral at Pegli vicariate.

Now I'm developping a missionary service in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I'm parish priest of Santa Margarita Maria Alacoque parish, Guaricano, a suburb of the capital Santo Domingo. Additionally, I'm the director of the Escuela Catolica Padre Sindulfo and the Colegio Parroquial Betania. Both of them are a work which I do in strict conyunction with my parish's community.

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Fionn mac Cumhaill

Fionn mac Cumhaill ( ; Scottish Gaelic: ; Old and Find or Finn  mac Cumail or mac Umaill), often anglicized Finn McCool or MacCool, is a hero in Irish mythology, as well as in later Scottish and Manx folklore. He is the leader of the Fianna bands of young roving hunter-warriors, as well as being a seer and poet. He is said to have a magic thumb that bestows him with great wisdom. He is often depicted hunting with his hounds Bran and Sceólang, and fighting with his spear and sword. The tales of Fionn and his fiann form the Fianna Cycle or Fenian Cycle (an Fhiannaíocht), much of it narrated by Fionn's son, the poet Oisín.

Etymology
In Old Irish, finn/find means "white, bright, lustrous; fair, light-hued (of complexion, hair, etc.); fair, handsome, bright, blessed; in moral sense, fair, just, true". It is cognate with Primitive Irish VENDO- (found in names from Ogam inscriptions), Welsh gwyn, Cornish gwen, Breton gwenn, Continental Celtic and Common Brittonic *uindo- (a common element in personal and place names), and comes from the Proto-Celtic adjective masculine singular *windos.

Irish legend
Fionn's birth and early adventures are recounted in the narrative The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn and other sources. Fionn was the posthumous son of Cumhall, leader of the Fianna, by Muirne.

Fionn and his father Cumhall mac Trénmhoir ("son of Trénmór") stem from Leinster, rooted in the tribe of Uí Thairsig ("the Descendants of Tairsiu") There is mention of the Uí Thairsig in the Lebor Gabála Érenn as one of the three tribes descended from the Fir Bolg.

His mother was called Muirne Muincháem "of the Fair Neck" (or "of the Lovely Neck", or "Muiren smooth-neck"), the daughter of Tadg mac Nuadat (in Fotha Catha Chnucha) and granddaughter of Nuadat the druid serving Cathair Mór who was high-king at the time, though she is described as granddaughter of Núadu of the Tuatha Dé Danann according to another source (Acallam na Senórach). Cumhall served Conn Cétchathach "of the Hundred Battles" who was still a regional king at Cenandos (Kells, Co. Meath).

Cumhall abducted Muirne after her father refused him her hand, so Tadg appealed to the high king Conn, who outlawed Cumhall. The Battle of Cnucha was fought between Conn and Cumhall, and Cumhall was killed by Goll mac Morna, who took over leadership of the Fianna.

The feud
The Fianna were a band of warriors also known as a military order composed mainly of the members of two rival clans, "Clan Bascna" (to which Finn and Cumall belonged) and "Clan Morna" (where Goll mac Morna belonged), the Fenians were supposed to be devoted to the service of the High King and to the repelling of foreign invaders. After the fall of Cumall, Goll mac Morna replaced him as the leader of the Fianna, holding the position for 10 years.

Birth
Muirne was already pregnant; her father rejected her and ordered his people to burn her, but Conn would not allow it and put her under the protection of Fiacal mac Conchinn, whose wife, Bodhmall the druid, was Cumhall's sister. In Fiacal's house Muirne gave birth to a son, whom she called Deimne, literally "sureness" or "certainty", also a name that means a young male deer; several legends tell how he gained the name Fionn when his hair turned prematurely white.

Boyhood
Fionn and his brother Tulcha mac Cumhal were being hunted down by the Goll, the sons of Morna, and other men. Consequently, Finn was separated from his mother Muirne, and placed in the care of Bodhmall and the woman Liath Luachra ("Grey of Luachra"), and they brought him up in secret in the forest of Sliabh Bladma, teaching him the arts of war and hunting. After the age of six, Finn learned to hunt, but still had cause to flee from the sons of Morna.

As he grew older he entered the service – incognito – of a number of local kings, but each one, when he recognised Fionn as Cumhal's son, told him to leave, fearing they would be unable to protect him from his enemies.

Thumb of Knowledge
Fionn was a keen hunter and often hunted with Na Fianna on the hill of Allen in County Kildare, it is believed by many in the area that Fionn originally caught the Salmon of Knowledge in the River Slate that flows through Ballyteague. The secret to his success thereafter when catching "fish of knowledge" was to always cast from the Ballyteague side of a river. He gained what commentators have called the "Thumb of Knowledge" after eating a certain salmon, thought to be the Salmon of Wisdom. The account of this is given in The Boyhood Deeds of Fionn.

Young Fionn, still known by his boyhood name Demne, met the poet Finn Éces (Finnegas), near the river Boyne and studied under him. Finnegas had spent seven years trying to catch the salmon that lived in Fec's Pool (Linn Féic) of the Boyne, for it was prophesied the poet would eat this salmon, and "nothing would remain unknown to him". Although this salmon is not specifically called the "Salmon of Knowledge", etc., in the text, it is presumed to be so, i.e., the salmon that fed on the nut[s] of knowledge at the well of Segais. Eventually the poet caught it, and told the boy to cook it for him. While he was cooking it, Demne burned his thumb, and instinctively put his thumb in his mouth. This imbued him with the salmon's wisdom, and when Éces saw that he had gained wisdom, he gave the youngster the whole salmon to eat, and gave Demne the new name, Fionn.

Thereafter, whenever he recited the teinm láida with his thumb in his mouth, the knowledge he wished to gain was revealed to him.

In subsequent events in his life, Fionn was able to call on ability of the "Thumb of Knowledge", and Fionn then knew how to gain revenge against Goll. In the Acallam na Sénorach, the ability is referred to as "The Tooth of Wisdom" or "Tooth of Knowledge" (dét fis).

Fionn's acquisition of the Thumb of Knowledge has been likened to the Welsh Gwion Bach tasting the Cauldron of Knowledge, and Sigurðr Fáfnisbani tasting Fáfnir's heart.

Fire-breather of the Tuatha de Danann

One feat of Fionn performed at 10 years of age according to the Acallam na Senórach was to slay Áillen (or ), the fire-breathing man of the Tuatha Dé Danann, who had come to wreak destruction on the Irish capital of Tara every year on the festival of Samhain for the past 23 years, lulling the city's men to sleep with his music then burning down the city and its treasures.

When the King of Ireland asked what men would guard Tara against Áillen's invasion, Fionn volunteered. Fionn obtained a special spear (the "Birga") from Fiacha mac Congha ("son of Conga"), which warded against the sleep-inducing music of Áillen's "dulcimer" (timpán) when it was unsheathed and the bare steel blade was touched against the forehead or some other part of the body. This Fiacha used to be one of Cumall's men, but was now serving the high-king.

After Fionn defeated Áillen and saved Tara, his heritage was recognised and he was given command of the Fianna: Goll stepped aside, and became a loyal follower of Fionn, although a dispute later broke out between the clans over the pig of Slanga.

Almu as eric
Before Finn completed the feat of defeating the firebrand of the fairy mound and defending Tara, he is described as a ten-year-old "marauder and an outlaw". It is also stated elsewhere that when Finn grew up to become "capable of committing plunder on everyone who was an enemy", he went to his maternal grandfather Tadg to demand compensation (éric) for his father's death, on pain of single combat, and Tadg acceded by relinquishing the estate of Almu (the present-day Hill of Allen). Finn was also paid éric by Goll mac Morna.

Adulthood
Fionn's sword was called "Mac an Luinn".

Love life
Fionn met his most famous wife, Sadhbh, when he was out hunting. She had been turned into a deer by a druid, Fear Doirich, whom she had refused to marry. Fionn's hounds, Bran and Sceólang, born of a human enchanted into the form of a hound, recognised her as human, and Fionn brought her home. She transformed back into a woman the moment she set foot on Fionn's land, as this was the one place she could regain her true form. She and Fionn married and she was soon pregnant. When Fionn was away defending his country, Fear Doirich (literally meaning Dark Man) returned and turned her back into a deer, whereupon she vanished. Fionn spent years searching for her, but to no avail. Bran and Sceólang, again hunting, found her son, Oisín, in the form of a fawn; he transformed into a child, and went on to be one of the greatest of the Fianna.

In The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne the High King Cormac mac Airt promises the aging Fionn his daughter Gráinne, but at the wedding feast Gráinne falls for one of the Fianna, Diarmuid Ua Duibhne, noted for his beauty. She forces him to run away with her and Fionn pursues them. The lovers are helped by the Fianna, and by Diarmuid's foster-father, the god Aengus. Eventually Fionn makes his peace with the couple. Years later, however, Fionn invites Diarmuid on a boar hunt, and Diarmuid is gored. Water drunk from Fionn's hands has the power of healing, but each time Fionn gathers water he lets it run through his fingers before he gets back to Diarmuid. His grandson Oscar shames Fionn, but when he finally returns with water it is too late; Diarmuid has died.

Death
According to the most popular account of Fionn's death, he is not dead at all, rather, he sleeps in a cave, surrounded by the Fianna. One day he will awake and defend Ireland in the hour of her greatest need. In one account, it is said that he will arise when the Dord Fiann, the hunting horn of the Fianna, is sounded three times, and he will be as strong and as well as he ever was.

Popular folklore
Many geographical features in Ireland are attributed to Fionn. Legend has it he built the Giant's Causeway as stepping-stones to Scotland, so as not to get his feet wet; he also once scooped up part of Ireland to fling it at a rival, but it missed and landed in the Irish Sea — the clump became the Isle of Man, the pebble became Rockall, and the void became Lough Neagh. In Ayrshire, Scotland a common myth is that Ailsa Craig, a small islet just off coast of the said county, is another rock thrown at the fleeing Benandonner. The islet is sometimes referred to as "paddys' mile stone" in Ayrshire. Fingal's Cave in Scotland is also named after him, and shares the feature of hexagonal basalt columns with the nearby Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

In both Irish and Manx popular folklore, Fionn mac Cumhail (known as "Finn McCool" or "Finn MacCooill" respectively) is portrayed as a magical, benevolent giant. The most famous story attached to this version of Fionn tells of how one day, while making a pathway in the sea towards Scotland – The Giant's Causeway – Fionn is told that the giant Benandonner (or, in the Manx version, a buggane) is coming to fight him. Knowing he cannot withstand the colossal Benandonner, Fionn asks his wife Oona to help him. She dresses her husband as a baby, and he hides in a cradle; then she makes a batch of griddle-cakes, hiding griddle-irons in some. When Benandonner arrives, Oona tells him Fionn is out but will be back shortly. As Benandonner waits, he tries to intimidate Oona with his immense power, breaking rocks with his little finger. Oona then offers Benandonner a griddle-cake, but when he bites into the iron he chips his teeth. Oona scolds him for being weak (saying her husband eats such cakes easily), and feeds one without an iron to the 'baby', who eats it without trouble.

In the Irish version, Benandonner is so awed by the power of the baby's teeth and the size of the baby that, at Oona's prompting, he puts his fingers in Fionn's mouth to feel how sharp his teeth are. Fionn bites Benandonner's little finger, and scared of the prospect of meeting his father considering the baby's size, Benandonner runs back towards Scotland across the Causeway smashing the causeway so Fionn can't follow him.

The Manx Gaelic version contains a further tale of how Fionn and the buggane fought at Kirk Christ Rushen. One of Fionn's feet carved out the channel between the Calf of Man and Kitterland, the other carved out the channel between Kitterland and the Isle of Man, and the buggane's feet opened up Port Erin. The buggane injured Fionn, who fled over the sea (where the buggane could not follow), however, the buggane tore out one of his own teeth and struck Fionn as he ran away. The tooth fell into the sea, becoming the Chicken Rock, and Fionn cursed the tooth, explaining why it is a hazard to sailors.

In Newfoundland, and some parts of Nova Scotia, "Fingal's Rising" is spoken of in a distinct nationalistic sense. Made popular in songs and bars alike, to speak of "Fingle," as his name is pronounced in English versus "Fion MaCool" in Newfoundland Irish, is sometimes used as a stand-in for Newfoundland or its culture.

Folktales involving hero Fin MacCool are considered to be classified in Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 369, "The Youth on a Quest for his lost Father", a tale type that, however, some see as exclusive to South Asian tradition, namely India.

Historical hypothesis
The 17th-century historian Geoffrey Keating, and some Irish scholars of the 19th century, believed that Fionn was based on a historical figure.

The 19th century scholar Heinrich Zimmer suggested that Fionn and the Fenian Cycle came from the heritage of the Norse-Gaels. He suggested the name Fianna was an Irish rendering of Old Norse fiandr "enemies" > "brave enemies" > "brave warriors". He also noted the tale of Fionn's Thumb of Knowledge is similar to the Norse tale of Sigurðr and Fáfnir, although similar tales are found in other cultures. Zimmer proposed that Fionn might be based on Caittil Find (d. 856) a Norseman based in Munster, who had a Norse forename (Ketill) and an Irish nickname (Find, "the Fair" or "the White"). But Ketill's father must have had some Norse name also, certainly not Cumall, and the proposal was thus rejected by George Henderson.

Toponymy
Fionn Mac Cumhaill was said to be originally from Ballyfin, in Laois. The direct translation of Ballyfin from Irish to English is "town of Fionn".

Retellings
T. W. Rolleston compiled both Fenian and Ultonian cycle literature in his retelling, The High Deeds Of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland (1910).

James Stephens published Irish Fairy Tales (1920), which is a retelling of a few of the Fiannaíocht.

Macpherson's Ossian
Fionn MacCumhail was transformed into the character "Fingal" in James Macpherson's poem cycle Ossian (1760), which Macpherson claimed was translated out of discovered Ossianic poetry written in the Scottish Gaelic language. "Fingal", derived from the Gaelic Fionnghall, was possibly Macpherson's rendering Fionn's name as Fingal based on a misapprehension of the various forms of Fionn. His poems had widespread influence on writers, from the young Walter Scott to Goethe, but there was controversy from the outset about Macpherson's claims to have translated the works from ancient sources. The authenticity of the poems is now generally doubted, though they may have been based on fragments of Gaelic legend,

Twentieth century literature
Fionn mac Cumhaill features heavily in modern Irish literature. Most notably he makes several appearances in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake (1939) and some have posited that the title, taken from the street ballad "Finnegan's Wake", may also be a blend of "Finn again is awake", referring to his eventual awakening to defend Ireland.

Fionn also appears as a character in Flann O'Brien's comic novel, At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), in passages that parody the style of Irish myths. Morgan Llywelyn's book Finn Mac Cool (1994) tells of Fionn's rise to leader of the Fianna and the love stories that ensue in his life. That character is celebrated in "The Legend of Finn MacCumhail", a song by the Boston-based band Dropkick Murphys featured on their album Sing Loud Sing Proud!.

Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre by John Prebble (Secker & Warburg, 1966), has an account of a legendary battle between Fionn mac Cumhaill, who supposedly lived for a time in Glencoe (in Scotland), and a Viking host in forty longships which sailed up the narrows by Ballachulish into Loch Leven. The Norsemen were defeated by the Feinn of the valley of Glencoe, and their chief Earragan was slain by Goll MacMorna.

The High Deeds of Finn MacCool, an evocative children's novel by Rosemary Sutcliffe, was published im 1969.

"Finn Mac Cool" written by American author, Morgan Llywelyn, was released in 1994. The fictional novel vividly recounts Finn's historical adventures saturated with myth and magic. A childhood spent in exile, the love and loss of his beloved wife and child, and his legendary rise from a low class slave to leader of the invincible Fianna.

Finn McCool is a character in Terry Pratchett's and Steve Baxter's The Long War.

The adventures of Fion Mac Cumhail after death is explored by the novella "The Final Fighting of Fion Mac Cumhail" by Randall Garrett (Fantasy and Science Fiction - September 1975).

Finn's early childhood and education is explored in  'Tis Himself: The Tale of Finn MacCool by Maggie Brace.

Other stories featuring Fionn Mac Cumhail are two of three of the stories in The Corliss Chronicles the story of Prudence Corliss. In the stories, he is featured in The Wraith of Bedlam and The Silver Wheel. He is a close confidant to Prudence and allies himself with her to defeat the evil fictional king Tarcarrius.

Plays and shows
In 1987 Harvey Holton (1949–2010) published Finn with the Three Tygers Press, Cambridge. This was a dramatic cycle of poems in Scots for the stage and with music by Hamish Moore, based on the legends of Finn McCool and first performed at The Edinburgh Festival in 1986 before going on tour around Scotland.

In the 1999 Irish dance show Dancing on Dangerous Ground, conceived and choreographed by former Riverdance leads, Jean Butler and Colin Dunne, Tony Kemp portrayed Fionn in a modernised version of The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Gráinne. In this, Diarmuid, played by Colin Dunne, dies at the hands of the Fianna after he and Gráinne, played by Jean Butler, run away together into the forests of Ireland, immediately after Fionn and Gráinne's wedding. When she sees Diarmuid's body, Gráinne dies of a broken heart.

In 2010, Washington DC's Dizzie Miss Lizzie's Roadside Revue debuted their rock musical Finn McCool at the Capitol Fringe Festival. The show retells the legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill through punk-inspired rock and was performed at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in March 2011.

title: Fionn mac Cumhaill


text:
Charles the Bald

Charles the Bald (Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during the reign of his father, Louis the Pious, Charles succeeded, by the Treaty of Verdun (843), in acquiring the western third of the empire. He was a grandson of Charlemagne and the youngest son of Louis the Pious by his second wife, Judith.

Struggle against his brothers
He was born on 13 June 823 in Frankfurt, when his elder brothers were already adults and had been assigned their own regna, or subkingdoms, by their father. The attempts made by Louis the Pious to assign Charles a subkingdom, first Alemannia and then the country between the Meuse and the Pyrenees (in 832, after the rising of Pepin I of Aquitaine) were unsuccessful. The numerous reconciliations with the rebellious Lothair and Pepin, as well as their brother Louis the German, King of Bavaria, made Charles's share in Aquitaine and Italy only temporary, but his father did not give up and made Charles the heir of the entire land which was once Gaul. At a diet in Aachen in 837, Louis the Pious bade the nobles do homage to Charles as his heir. Pepin of Aquitaine died in 838, whereupon Charles at last received that kingdom, which angered Pepin's heirs and the Aquitainian nobles.

The death of the emperor in 840 led to the outbreak of war between his sons. Charles allied himself with his brother Louis the German to resist the pretensions of the new Emperor Lothair I, and the two allies defeated Lothair at the Battle of Fontenoy-en-Puisaye on 25 June 841. In the following year, the two brothers confirmed their alliance by the celebrated Oaths of Strasbourg. The war was brought to an end by the Treaty of Verdun in August 843. The settlement gave Charles the Bald the kingdom of the West Franks, which he had been governing until then, and which practically corresponded with what is now France, as far as the Meuse, the Saône, and the Rhône, with the addition of the Spanish March as far as the Ebro. Louis received the eastern part of the Carolingian Empire, known then as East Francia and later as Germany. Lothair retained the imperial title and the Kingdom of Italy. He also received the central regions from Flanders through the Rhineland and Burgundy as king of Middle Francia.

Reign in the West

Shortly after Verdun, Charles went on to an unsuccessful campaign against Brittany, on the return from which he signed the Treaty of Coulaines with his nobility and clergy. After that, the first years of his reign, up to the death of Lothair I in 855, were comparatively peaceful. During these years the three brothers continued the system of "confraternal government", meeting repeatedly with one another, at Koblenz (848), at Meerssen (851), and at Attigny (854). In 858, Louis the German, invited by disaffected nobles eager to oust Charles, invaded the West Frankish kingdom. Charles was so unpopular that he was unable to summon an army, and he fled to Burgundy. He was saved only by the support of the bishops, who refused to crown Louis the German king, and by the fidelity of the Welfs, who were related to his mother, Judith. In 860, he in his turn tried to seize the kingdom of his nephew, Charles of Provence, but was repulsed. On the death of his nephew Lothair II in 869, Charles tried to seize Lothair's dominions by having himself consecrated as King of Lotharingia at Metz, but he was compelled to open negotiations when Louis found support among Lothair's former vassals. Lotharingia was partitioned between Charles and Louis in the resulting treaty (870).

Besides these family disputes, Charles had to struggle against repeated rebellions in Aquitaine and against the Bretons. Led by their chiefs Nomenoë and Erispoë, who defeated the king at the Battle of Ballon (845) and the Battle of Jengland (851), the Bretons were successful in obtaining a de facto independence. Charles also fought against the Vikings, who devastated the country of the north, the valleys of the Seine and Loire, and even up to the borders of Aquitaine. At the Vikings' successful siege and sack of Paris in 845 and several times thereafter Charles was forced to purchase their retreat at a heavy price. Charles led various expeditions against the invaders and, by the Edict of Pistres of 864, made the army more mobile by providing for a cavalry element, the predecessor of the French chivalry so famous during the next 600 years. By the same edict, he ordered fortified bridges to be put up at all rivers to block the Viking incursions. Two of these bridges at Paris saved the city during its siege of 885–886. Charles engaged in diplomacy with the Emirate of Cordoba, receiving camels from Emir Muhammad I in 865. From the 860s, the palace of Compiègne became an increasingly important centre for Charles and he founded a monastery there in 876. In the tenth century Compiègne was known as ‘Carlopolis’ because of its association with Charles.

In 871–872, Charles sent two letters to Pope Hadrian II where he made a defence of royal sovereignty in the face of intrusive actions by the papacy into state affairs.

Reign as emperor
In 875, after the death of the Emperor Louis II (son of his half-brother Lothair), Charles the Bald, supported by Pope John VIII, traveled to Italy, receiving the royal crown at Pavia and the imperial insignia in Rome on 25 December. As emperor, Charles combined the mottoes that had been used by his grandfather and father into a single formula: renovatio imperii Romani et Francorum, "renewal of the empire of the Romans and Franks". These words appeared on his seal.

Louis the German, also a candidate for the succession of Louis II, revenged himself by invading and devastating Charles's domains, and Charles had to return hastily to West Francia. After the death of Louis the German (28 August 876), Charles in his turn attempted to seize Louis's kingdom, but was decisively beaten at the Battle of Andernach on 8 October 876.

In the meantime, John VIII, menaced by the Saracens, was urging Charles to come to his defence in Italy. Charles again crossed the Alps, but this expedition was received with little enthusiasm by the nobles, and even by his regent in Lombardy, Boso, and they refused to join his army. At the same time Carloman, son of Louis the German, entered northern Italy. Charles, ill and in great distress, started on his way back to Gaul, but died while crossing the pass of Mont Cenis at Brides-les-Bains, on 6 October 877.

Burial and succession
According to the Annals of St-Bertin, Charles was hastily buried at the abbey of Nantua, Burgundy, because the bearers were unable to withstand the stench of his decaying body. A few years later, his remains were transferred to the Abbey of Saint-Denis where he had long wished to be buried, in a porphyry tub which may be the same one known as "Dagobert's tub" (cuve de Dagobert), now in the Louvre. It was recorded that there was a memorial brass there that was melted down at the Revolution.

Charles was succeeded by his son, Louis. Charles was a prince of education and letters, a friend of the church, and conscious of the support he could find in the episcopate against his unruly nobles, for he chose his councillors from among the higher clergy, as in the case of Guenelon of Sens, who betrayed him, and of Hincmar of Reims.

Baldness
It has been suggested that Charles's nickname was used ironically and not descriptively; he was not in fact bald but rather was extremely hairy. An alternative or additional interpretation is based on Charles's initial lack of a regnum. "Bald" would in this case be a tongue-in-cheek reference to his landlessness at age at which his brothers already had been sub-kings for some years.

Contemporary depictions of his person, such as in his Bible of 845, on his seal of 847 (as king) and on his seal of 875 (as emperor), show him with a full head of hair, as does the equestrian statuette (c. 870), which is thought to depict him.

The Genealogy of Frankish Kings, a text from Fontanelle dating from possibly as early as 869, names him as Karolus Calvus ("Charles the Bald"), and he is given the same name in the late tenth century by Richier of Reims and Adhemar of Chabannes.

Marriages and children
Charles married Ermentrude, daughter of Odo I, Count of Orléans, in 842. She died in 869. In 870, Charles married Richilde of Provence, who was descended from a noble family of Lorraine.

With Ermentrude:
 * Judith (c. 843 – after 866), married first King Ethelwulf of Wessex, second his son King Ethelbald, and third Baldwin I, Margrave of Flanders
 * Louis the Stammerer (846–879)
 * Charles the Child (847–866)
 * Lothair the Lame (848–866), monk in 861, became Abbot of Saint-Germain
 * Carloman (849–876)
 * Rotrude (852–912), a nun, Abbess of Saint-Radegunde
 * Ermentrud (854–877), a nun, Abbess of Hasnon
 * Hildegarde (born 856, died young)
 * Gisela (857–874)
 * Godehilde (864–907)

With Richilde:
 * Rothilde (871–929), married firstly to Hugues, Count of Bourges and secondly to Roger, Count of Maine.
 * Drogo (872–873)
 * Pippin (873–874)
 * a son (born and died 875)
 * Charles (876–877)

title: Charles the Bald


text:
Alberobello

Alberobello (literally "beautiful tree"; Barese: Ajarubbédde) is a small town and comune of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10,237 inhabitants (2022) and is famous for its unique trullo buildings. The trulli of Alberobello have been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. Alberobello is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").

History
A first occupation of the area started only in the early sixteenth century on the impulse of the Count of Conversano Andrea Matteo III Acquaviva d'Aragona. He allowed about forty peasant families from Noci to settle here and cultivate the land, with the obligation to give him a tenth of the crops.

In 1635 his successor, Count Giangirolamo II (1600–1665) erected an inn with a tavern and an oratory and started the urbanization of the forest with the construction of few small houses. The expansion of the urban area was helped by the abundance of limestone, karst and calcareous sedimentary, and by the permission of the count to build houses only with dry walls without the use of mortar, which would become the peculiar trulli. This obligation to have houses built with dry stones was an expedient of the count to avoid paying taxes to the Spanish viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples. The centre of Alberobello was built on the streets of the ancient river Cana, where is now the largo Giuseppe Martelotta.

Alberobello remained a fief of the Acquaviva of Aragon until 27 May 1797, when King Ferdinand IV of Bourbon elevated the small village to the royal city, freeing it from the feudal servitude of the counts. On 22 June 1797, the first mayor Francesco Giuseppe Lippolis was elected.

Alberobello is the only inhabited center with an entire district of trulli, and is considered to be the cultural capital of the trulli of the Itria Valley.

The trulli of Alberobello

The history of the trulli (from Ancient Greek τρούλλοι) is linked to the Prammatica De Baronibus, an edict of the 15th-century Kingdom of Naples that subjected every new settlement to a tribute. In 1481 the Counts of Conversano D'Acquaviva D'Aragona from 1481, owners of the territory of Alberobello, then imposed on the residents that they built their dwellings dry, without using mortars, so that they could be configured as precarious buildings and easily demolished.

Having to use only stones, the peasants found in the round form with self-supporting domed roof the simplest configuration. The roofs were embellished with decorative pinnacles representing the signature of the architect (''master trullaro).

International relations
Alberobello is twinned with:
 * 🇯🇵 Shirakawa-gō, Japan
 * 🇯🇵 Gokayama, Japan
 * 🇮🇹 Monte Sant'Angelo, Italy, since 2013
 * 🇮🇹 Andria, Italy
 * 🇹🇷 Harran, Turkey, since 2013

During the Italian diaspora, a large number of Alberobellesi emigrated to Utica, New York.

title: Alberobello


text:
2012

2012 was designated as:
 * International Year of Cooperatives
 * International Year of Sustainable Energy for All

January

 * January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins.
 * January 12 – Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Băsescu's economic austerity measures. Clashes are reported in numerous Romanian cities between protesters and law enforcement officers.
 * January 13 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia runs aground off the coast of Italy, causing 32 deaths.
 * January 23 – Iran–European Union relations: the European Union adopts an embargo against Iran in protest of its continued effort to enrich uranium.

February

 * February 1 – Egypt's deadliest football incident known as the Port Said Stadium riot is sparked after local Port Said Al Masry fans attack supporters of Cairo-based team Al Ahly SC. The massacre results in 74 deaths: 72 Al Ahly fans, 1 Al Masry fan and 1 police officer. Most of the deaths are caused by stabbing, fans thrown off the stands and a stampede.
 * February 6
 * Queen Elizabeth II celebrates her "Diamond Jubilee", marking 60 years as Queen of the United Kingdom.
 * A magnitude 6.7 earthquake strike in the central Philippines island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.
 * February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France, following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.
 * February 21 – Greek government-debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.
 * February 27 – Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh formally transfers power to Vice President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, after a year of mass protests, ending his 33-year-long reign.

March

 * March 1 – Sauli Niinistö is inaugurated as the 12th President of Finland.
 * March 4
 * A series of explosions is reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.
 * Vladimir Putin is elected President of Russia.
 * March 5 – Air date of Kony 2012 (viral documentary film) on YouTube.
 * March 12 – A coach carrying school pupils and teachers crashes while travelling through Sierre Tunnel on the A9 motorway in western Switzerland. Of the 52 people on board, 28 are killed, among them 22 children.
 * March 13 – After 246 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.
 * March 15 – Communist party chief of Chongqing Bo Xilai, well known for his neo-Maoist leanings and policies, is removed from his post after a large scandal involving the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood and an incident involving the Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun.
 * March 22
 * The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.
 * Pakistan wins the 2012 Asia Cup cricket tournament.

April

 * April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.
 * April 11 – An 8.6 earthquake strikes Indonesia triggering a small tsunami that hits the coast of Aceh.
 * April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.
 * April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il Sung, the founder of the republic.
 * April 20 – Bhoja Air Flight 213 crashes near Rawalpindi, Pakistan, killing all 127 people on board.
 * April 25 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

May

 * May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.
 * May 6 – Legislative elections are held in Greece to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 108 out of 300 seats.
 * May 12–August 12 – The 2012 World Expo takes place in Yeosu, South Korea.
 * May 19 – Chelsea wins the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League held in Munich, Germany by beating the home side Bayern Munich in the final.
 * May 20 – An annular solar eclipse visible from Asia and North America is the 58th solar eclipse from 73 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 128.
 * May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to the public.
 * May 22–26 – The Eurovision Song Contest 2012 takes place in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is won by Swedish entrant Loreen with the song "Euphoria".

June

 * June 5–6 – The century's second and last solar transit of Venus occurs. The next pair are predicted to occur in 2117 and 2125.
 * June 6 – 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak first identified.
 * June 7 – Morley and Dianella in Perth, Western Australia, have a once in a decade tornado.
 * June 8 – UEFA Euro 2012, hosted by Poland and Ukraine, begins in Warsaw, with a match between Poland and Greece, which ends 1-1.
 * June 17 – Snap legislative elections are held in Greece, following failure to form a government, to elect all 300 members of the Hellenic Parliament and the New Democracy party, led by Antonis Samaras, comes out as the largest party winning 129 out of 300 seats.
 * June 18 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female, docks manually with orbiting module Tiangong-1, making this the third country, after the United States and Russia, successfully to perform the mission.
 * June 21 – The Congress of Paraguay approves the impeachment of president Fernando Lugo.
 * June 22 – Fernando Lugo is removed from power. Vice President Federico Franco becomes the new president of Paraguay.
 * June 24 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island tortoise subspecies, dies in Galápagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.
 * June 30 – Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, is elected 5th President of Egypt, the first elected democratically by the Egyptian people, sparking mixed reactions and protests throughout the country.

July

 * July 1 – The final match of the UEFA Euro 2012 takes place in Kyiv between Spain and Italy. Spain wins 4–0, achieving victorious from the third international tournament in a row, after winning UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
 * July 4
 * CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.
 * Sport Club Corinthians Paulista wins the Copa Libertadores by beating the Boca Juniors
 * July 20 – 2012 Aurora, Colorado shooting: 12 people are killed and 58 are injured in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. The shooter, James Holmes, opens fire on a crowd during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.
 * July 21 – Turkish adventurer Erden Eruç becomes the first person in history to complete a solo human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth.
 * July 23 – The Solar storm of 2012 is an unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun which barely misses the Earth by nine days. If it had hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.
 * July 27–August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.
 * July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.

August

 * August 1 – Microsoft finishes development of Windows 8, with general availability announced for October 26
 * August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.
 * August 24 – The House of Representatives of Japan passes a resolution criticizing the President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak's visit to the disputed Liancourt Rocks.
 * August 25 – The Voyager 1 space probe becomes the first human-made object to successfully exit the Solar System and enter Interstellar space, and to an extent, becoming the first Interstellar probe, pioneering Interstellar exploration.
 * August 31 – Armenia severs diplomatic relations with Hungary, following the extradition to Azerbaijan and subsequent pardoning of Ramil Safarov, who was convicted of killing an Armenian soldier in Hungary in 2004. The move is also met with fierce criticism from other countries.

September

 * September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran, and orders the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.
 * September 11–27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens is among those killed during attacks in Benghazi.
 * September 22 – The United Kingdom informs the World Health Organization about a novel coronavirus case originating from Saudi Arabia.

October

 * October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance, during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 128,000 ft (24 mi) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.
 * October 16 – Seven paintings worth $25 million are stolen from the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
 * October 22 – November 2 – Hurricane Sandy, the largest Atlantic hurricane on record (as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spanning 900 miles (1,400 km)), wreaks havoc, resulting in 233 total deaths and $68.7 billion (2012 USD) damage.
 * October 26 – Windows 8 is released to the general public by Microsoft.
 * October 28 – Jorge Lorenzo becomes the World Champion of the 2012 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season.

November

 * November 6 – 2012 United States presidential election: Barack Obama is reelected President of the United States, defeating his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
 * November 13 – A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of Australia and the South Pacific. It is the 45th of 72 solar eclipses of Solar Saros 133.
 * November 14–21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.
 * November 25–December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people missing. The typhoon causes considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.
 * November 29 – The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.

December

 * December 6 – The U.S. state of Washington becomes the first jurisdiction in the modern world to officially legalize the possession of cannabis for personal use.
 * December 6–16 – The 2012 FIFA Club World Cup is held in Japan and won by Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.
 * December 8 – The UN Climate Change Conference in Qatar agrees to extend the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
 * December 12
 * North Korea successfully launches satellite Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2.
 * December 12 is the last time in the 21st century that the month, day and final two digits of the year are the exact same (12/12/12). The next time this will happen will be on New Year's Day in 2101 (01/01/01).
 * December 14 – Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting: Twenty-eight people, including the gunman, are killed in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
 * December 17 – Spanish bank Grupo Santander announces the acquisition of the remaining 10% of Banesto it did not yet own, effectively absorbing it into Banco Santander.
 * December 18 – At least 55 people drown after an overcrowded boat capsizes off the coast of Somalia.
 * December 21 – 2012 phenomenon: End of 13th b'ak'tun in the Mayan calendar, supposed end of the world according to new age beliefs. Festivities took place to commemorate the event in the countries that were part of the Maya civilization (Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador), with main events at Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala.

Nobel Prizes

 * Chemistry – Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka, for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors.
 * Economics – Alvin E. Roth and Lloyd Shapley, for the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.
 * Literature – Mo Yan, who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.
 * Peace – European Union, for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
 * Physics – Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland, for ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems.
 * Physiology or Medicine – John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent.

New English words

 * hot take
 * escape room

title: 2012


text:
Chess strategy

Chess strategy is the aspect of chess play concerned with evaluation of chess positions and setting goals and long-term plans for future play. While evaluating a position strategically, a player must take into account such factors as the relative value of the pieces on the board, pawn structure, king safety, position of pieces, and control of key squares and groups of squares (e.g. diagonals, open files, and individual squares). Chess strategy is distinguished from chess tactics, which is the aspect of play concerned with the move-by-move setting up of threats and defenses. Some authors distinguish static strategic imbalances (e.g. having more valuable pieces or better pawn structure), which tend to persist for many moves, from dynamic imbalances (such as one player having an advantage in piece ), which are temporary. This distinction affects the immediacy with which a sought-after plan should take effect. Until players reach the skill level of "master", chess tactics tend to ultimately decide the outcomes of games more often than strategy. Many chess coaches thus emphasize the study of tactics as the most efficient way to improve one's results in serious chess play.

The most basic way to evaluate one's position is to count the total value of pieces on both sides. The point values used for this purpose are based on experience. Usually pawns are considered to be worth one point, knights and bishops three points each, rooks five points, and queens nine points. The fighting value of the king in the endgame is approximately four points. These basic values are modified by other factors such as the (e.g. advanced pawns are usually more valuable than those on their starting squares),  (e.g. a  usually coordinates better than a bishop plus a knight), and the  (knights are generally better in  with many pawns, while bishops are more powerful in ).

Another important factor in the evaluation of chess positions is the pawn structure or pawn skeleton. Since pawns are the most immobile and least valuable of the pieces, the pawn structure is relatively static and largely determines the strategic nature of the position. Weaknesses in the pawn structure, such as isolated, doubled, or backward pawns and, once created, are usually permanent. Care must therefore be taken to avoid them unless they are compensated by another valuable asset, such as the possibility to develop an attack.

Basic concepts of board evaluation
A advantage applies both strategically and tactically. Generally more pieces or an aggregate of more powerful pieces means greater chances of winning. A fundamental strategic and tactical rule is to capture opponent pieces while preserving one's own.

Bishops and knights are called minor pieces. A knight is about as valuable as a bishop, but less valuable than a rook. Rooks and the queen are called major pieces. Bishops are usually considered slightly better than knights in open positions, such as toward the end of the game when many of the pieces have been captured, whereas knights have an advantage in closed positions. Having two bishops (the ) is a particularly powerful weapon, especially if the opposing player lacks one or both of their bishops.

Three pawns are likely to be more useful than a knight in the endgame, but in the middlegame, a knight is often more powerful. Two minor pieces are stronger than a single rook, and two rooks are slightly stronger than a queen. The bishop on squares of the same color as the opponent's king is slightly more valuable in the opening as it can attack the vulnerable square f7 (for White) or f2 (for Black). A rook is more valuable when with another rook or queen; consequently, doubled rooks are worth more than two.

One commonly used simple scoring system is:
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Piece !! Value
 * Pawn || align="center" | 1
 * Knight || align="center" | 3
 * Bishop || align="center" | 3
 * Rook || align="center" | 5
 * Queen || align="center" | 9
 * }
 * Rook || align="center" | 5
 * Queen || align="center" | 9
 * }
 * Queen || align="center" | 9
 * }

Under a system like this, giving up a knight or bishop to win a rook ("winning the exchange") is advantageous and is worth about two pawns. This ignores complications such as the current position and freedom of the pieces involved, but it is a good starting point. In an open position, bishops are more valuable than knights (a bishop pair can easily be worth seven points or more in some situations); conversely, in a closed position, bishops are less valuable than knights. A knight in the center of the board that cannot be taken, however, is known as a knight outpost and threatens several fork instances. In such a case, a knight is worth far more than a bishop. Also, many pieces have a partner. By doubling up two knights, two rooks, rook and queen, or bishop and queen, the pieces can get stronger than the sum of the individual pieces alone. When a piece loses its partner, its value slightly decreases. The king is priceless since its capture results in the defeat of that player and ends that game. However, especially in the endgame, the king can also be a fighting piece, and is sometimes given a fighting value of three-and-a-half points.

Space
Other things being equal, the side that controls more on the board has an advantage. More space means more options, which can be exploited both tactically and strategically. A player who has all pieces developed and no tactical tricks or promising long-term plan should try to find a move that enlarges their influence, particularly in the center. In some openings, however, one player accepts less space for a time, to set up a counterattack in the middlegame. This is one of the concepts behind hypermodern play.

The easiest way to gain space is to push the pawn skeleton forward. One must be careful not to over stretch, however. If the opponent succeeds in getting a protected piece behind enemy lines, this piece can become such a serious problem that a piece with a higher value might have to be exchanged for it.

Larry Evans gives a method of evaluating space. The method (for each side) is to count the number of squares attacked or occupied on the opponent's side of the board. In this diagram from the Nimzo-Indian Defense, Black attacks four squares on White's side of the board (d4, e4, f4, and g4). White attacks seven squares on Black's side of the board (b5, c6, e6, f5, g5, and h6 – counting b5 twice) and occupies one square (d5). White has a space advantage of eight to four and Black is cramped.

Control of the center
The strategy consists of placing pieces so that they attack the central four squares of the board. A piece being placed on a central square, however, does not necessarily mean it controls the center; e.g., a knight on a central square does not attack any central squares. Conversely, a piece does not have to be on a central square to control the center. For example, the bishop can control the center from afar.

Control of the center is generally considered important because tactical battles often take place around the central squares, from where pieces can access most of the board. Center control allows more movement and more possibility for attack and defense.

Chess openings try to control the center while developing pieces. Hypermodern openings are those that control the center with pieces from afar (usually the side, such as with a fianchetto); the older Classical (or Modern) openings control it with pawns.

Initiative
The initiative belongs to the player who can make threats that cannot be ignored, such as checking the opponent's king. They thus put their opponent in the position of having to use their turns responding to threats rather than making their own, hindering the development of their pieces. The player with the initiative is generally attacking and the other player is generally defending.

Defending pieces
It is important to defend one's pieces even if they are not directly threatened. This helps stop possible future campaigns from the opponent. If a defender must be added at a later time, this may cost a tempo or even be impossible due to a fork or discovered attack. The approach of always defending one's pieces has an antecedent in the theory of Aron Nimzowitsch who referred to it as "overprotection." Similarly, if one spots undefended enemy pieces, one should immediately take advantage of those pieces' weakness.

Even a defended piece can be vulnerable. If the defending piece is also defending something else, it is called an overworked piece, and may not be able to fulfill its task. When there is more than one attacking piece, the number of defenders must also be increased, and their values taken into account. In addition to defending pieces, it is also often necessary to defend key squares, open files, and the. These situations can easily occur if the pawn structure is weak.

Exchanging pieces
To exchange pieces means to capture a hostile piece and then allow a piece of the same value to be captured. As a rule of thumb, exchanging pieces eases the task of the defender who typically has less room to operate in.

Exchanging pieces is usually desirable to a player with an existing advantage in material, since it brings the endgame closer and thereby leaves the opponent with less ability to recover ground. In the endgame even a single pawn advantage may be decisive. Exchanging also benefits the player who is being attacked, the player who controls less space, and the player with the better pawn structure.

When playing against stronger players, many beginners attempt to constantly exchange pieces "to simplify matters". However, stronger players are often relatively stronger in the endgame, whereas errors are more common during the more complicated middlegame.

Note that "the exchange" may also specifically mean a rook exchanged for a bishop or knight. The phrase "up the exchange" means that a player has captured a rook in exchange for a bishop or knight—a materially advantageous trade. Conversely, "down the exchange" means having lost a rook but captured a bishop or knight—a materially disadvantageous trade.

Pawns
In the endgame, passed pawns, unhindered by enemy pawns from promotion, are strong, especially if advanced or protected by another pawn. A passed pawn on the sixth is roughly as strong as a knight or bishop and often decides the game. (Also see isolated pawn, doubled pawns, backward pawn, connected pawns.)

Knights
Since knights can easily be chased away by pawn moves, it is often advantageous for knights to be placed in  in the enemy position as outposts—squares where they cannot be attacked by pawns. Such a knight on the fifth rank is a strong asset. The ideal position for a knight is the opponent's third rank, when it is supported by one or two pawns. A knight at the edge or corner of the board controls fewer squares than one on the board's interior, thus the saying "A knight on the rim is dim!"

A king and one knight are not sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king (see Two knights endgame). A king and two knights can checkmate a lone king but cannot force it.

Bishops
A bishop always stays on squares of the color it started on, so once one of them is gone, the squares of that color become more difficult to control. When this happens, pawns moved to squares of the other color do not block the bishop, and enemy pawns directly facing them are stuck on the vulnerable color.

A fianchettoed bishop, e.g. at g2 after pawn g2–g3, can provide a strong defense for the castled king on g1 and often exert pressure on the long diagonal h1–a8. After a fianchetto, giving up the bishop can weaken the holes in the pawn chain; doing so in front of the castled king may thus affect its safety.

In general, a bishop is of roughly equal value to a knight. In certain circumstances, one can be more powerful than the other. If the game is "closed" with many interlocked pawn formations, the knight tends to be stronger, because it can hop over the pawns while they block the bishop. A bishop is also weak if it is restricted by its own pawns, especially if they are blocked and on the bishop's color. Once a bishop is lost, the remaining bishop is considered weaker since the opponent can now plan their moves to play a white or black color game.

In an with action on both sides of the board, the bishop tends to be stronger because of its long range. This is especially true in the endgame; if passed pawns race on opposite sides of the board, the player with a bishop usually has better winning chances than a player with a knight.

A king and a bishop are not sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king, but two bishops and a king checkmate an opposing lone king easily.

Rooks
Rooks have more scope of movement on half-open files (ones with no pawns of one's own color). Rooks on the seventh rank can be very powerful as they attack pawns that can only be defended by other pieces, and they can restrict the enemy king to its back rank. A pair of rooks on the player's seventh rank are often a sign of a winning position.

In middlegames and endgames with a passed pawn, Tarrasch's rule states that rooks, both friend and foe of the pawn, are usually strongest the pawn rather than in front of it.

A king and a rook are sufficient material to checkmate an opposing lone king, although it's a little harder than checkmating with king and queen; thus the rook's distinction as a major piece above the knight and bishop.

Queen
Queens are the most powerful pieces. They have great mobility and can make many threats at once. They can act as a rook and as a bishop at the same time. For these reasons, checkmate attacks involving a queen are easier to achieve than those without one. Although powerful, the queen is also easily harassed. Thus, it is generally wise to wait to the queen until after the knights and bishops have been developed to prevent the queen from being attacked by minor pieces and losing tempo. When a pawn is promoted, most of the time it is promoted to a queen.

King
During the middlegame, the king is often best protected in a corner behind its pawns. Such a position for either of the players is often achieved by castling by that player. If the rooks and queen leave the first rank (commonly called that player's back rank), however, an enemy rook or queen can checkmate the king by invading the first rank, commonly called a back-rank checkmate. Moving one of the pawns in front of the king (making a luft) can allow it an escape square, but may weaken the king's overall safety otherwise. One must therefore wisely balance between these trade-offs.

Castling is often thought to help protect the king and often "connects" the player's two rooks together so the two rooks may protect each other. This can reduce a threat of a back-rank skewer in which the king can be skewered with capture of a rook behind it.

The king can become a strong piece in the endgame. With reduced material, a quick checkmate becomes less of a concern, and moving the king towards the center of the board gives it more opportunities to make threats and actively influence play.

Considerations
Chess strategy consists of setting and achieving long-term goals during the game—for example, where to place different pieces—while tactics concentrate on immediate maneuver. These two parts of chess thinking cannot be completely separated, because strategic goals are mostly achieved by the means of tactics, while the tactical opportunities are based on the previous strategy of play.

Because of different strategic and tactical patterns, a game of chess is usually divided into three distinct phases: the opening, usually the first 10 to 25 moves, when players develop their armies and set up the stage for the coming battle; the middlegame, the developed phase of the game; and the endgame, when most of the pieces are gone and kings start to take an active part in the struggle.

Opening
A chess opening is the group of initial moves of a game (the "opening moves"). Recognized sequences of opening moves are referred to as openings and have been given names such as the Ruy Lopez or Sicilian Defence. They are catalogued in reference works such as the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings. It is recommended for anyone but the chessmasters that when left with a choice to either invent a new variation or follow a standard opening, choose the latter.

There are dozens of different openings, varying widely in character from quiet positional play (e.g. the Réti Opening) to very aggressive play (e.g. the Latvian Gambit). In some opening lines, the exact sequence considered best for both sides has been worked out to 30–35 moves or more. Professional players spend years studying openings, and continue doing so throughout their careers, as opening theory continues to evolve.

The fundamental strategic aims of most openings are similar:
 * Development: To place (develop) the pieces (particularly bishops and knights) on useful squares where they influence the game.
 * Control of the : Control of the central squares allows pieces to be moved to any part of the board relatively easily, and can also have a cramping effect on the opponent.
 * King safety: Correct timing of castling can enhance this.
 * Pawn structure: Players strive to avoid the creation of pawn weaknesses such as isolated, doubled or backward pawns, and.

During the opening, some pieces have a recognized optimum square they try to reach. Hence, an optimum deployment could be to push the king and queen pawn two squares, followed by moving the knights so they protect the center pawns and give additional control of the center. One can then deploy the bishops, protected by the knights, to pin the opponent's knights and pawns. An opening may end with castling, which moves the king to safety, creates a stronger, and puts a rook on a.

Apart from these fundamentals, other strategic plans or tactical sequences may be employed in the opening.

Most players and theoreticians consider that White, by virtue of the first move, begins the game with a small advantage. Black usually strives to neutralize White's advantage and achieve, or to develop  in an unbalanced position.

Middlegame
The middlegame is the part of the game when most pieces have been developed. Because the opening theory has ended, players have to assess the position to form plans based on the features of the positions, and at the same time take into account the tactical possibilities in the position.

Typical plans or strategic themes—for example the, that is the attack of pawns against an opponent who has more pawns on the queenside—are often appropriate just for some pawn structures, resulting from a specific group of openings. The study of openings should therefore be connected with the preparation of plans typical for resulting middlegames.

The middlegame is also the phase when most combinations occur. Middlegame combinations are often connected with the attack against the opponent's king; some typical patterns have their own names, for example the Boden's Mate or the Lasker–Bauer combination.

Another important strategical question in the middlegame is whether and how to reduce material and transform into an endgame (i.e. ). For example, minor material advantages can generally be transformed into victory only in an endgame, and therefore the stronger side must choose an appropriate way to achieve an ending. Not every reduction of material is good for this purpose; for example, if one side keeps a light-squared bishop and the opponent has a dark-squared one, the transformation into a bishops and pawns ending is usually advantageous for the weaker side only, because an endgame with bishops on opposite colors is likely to be a draw, even with an advantage of one or two pawns.

Endgame
The endgame (or end game or ending) is the stage of the game when there are few pieces left on the board. There are three main strategic differences between earlier stages of the game and the endgame:
 * During the endgame, pawns become more important; endgames often revolve around attempting to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth rank.
 * The king, which must be protected in the middlegame owing to the threat of checkmate, becomes a strong piece in the endgame and it is often brought to the center of the board where it can protect its own pawns, attack the pawns of opposite color, and hinder movement of the opponent's king.
 * Zugzwang, a disadvantage because the player must make a move, is often a factor in endgames and rarely in other stages of the game. For example, in the adjacent diagram, Black on move must play 1...Kb7 and allow white to after 2.Kd7, while White on move must allow a draw either after 1.Kc6 stalemate or losing the last pawn by moving anywhere else.

Endgames can be classified according to the type of pieces remaining on the board. Basic checkmates are positions where one side has only a king and the other side has one or two pieces and can checkmate the opposing king, with the pieces working together with their king. For example, king and pawn endgames involve only kings and pawns on one or both sides and the task of the stronger side is to promote one of the pawns. Other more complicated endings are classified according to the pieces on the board other than kings, e.g. "rook and pawn versus rook endgame".

title: Chess strategy


text:
100s BC (decade)

This article concerns the period 109 BC – 100 BC.

title: 100s BC (decade)


text:
326

Year 326 (CCCXXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantinus and Constantinus (or, less frequently, year 1079 Ab urbe condita). The denomination 326 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.

Roman Empire

 * Emperor Constantine the Great travels to Rome to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his accession to power, but while en route at Pola he orders his older son, Crispus Caesar, to be executed, possibly on charges of adultery. Later, Fausta, second wife of Constantine I, is also executed by being suffocated or boiled in a hot bath.

Religion

 * September 14 (traditional date) – Helena, mother of Constantine I, discovers the so-called True Cross and the Holy Sepulchre (Jesus's tomb) in Jerusalem. On her pilgrimage, she pauses on the Aegean island of Patmos, where she is said to found the church of Panagia Ekatontapiliani.
 * Helena tells Constantine that he must atone for executing his son and wife by building churches, and at about this date construction begins on Old St. Peter's Basilica, the first church on the traditional site of Saint Peter's tomb in Rome, and on the basilica of Golgotha on Calvary outside Jerusalem.
 * Christianity is introduced to the Kingdom of Iberia (modern-day Georgia) by Saint Nino (approximate date).

Births

 * Constantius Gallus, Roman consul and statesman (d. 354)
 * Murong Chui (or Daoming), Chinese general (d. 396)

Deaths

 * Flavius Julius Crispus, son of Constantine I (b. 303)
 * Flavia Maxima Fausta, Roman empress (b. 289)
 * Licinius II, Roman consul and caesar (b. 315)
 * Liu (or Xianlie), Chinese empress of Han Zhao

title: 326