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Francis I of France

Francis I (François I$er$; Françoys; 12 September 1494 – 31 March 1547) was King of France from 1515 until his death in 1547. He was the son of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. He succeeded his first cousin once removed and father-in-law Louis XII, who died without a legitimate son.

A prodigious patron of the arts, Francis promoted the emergent French Renaissance by attracting many Italian artists to work for him, including Leonardo da Vinci, who brought the Mona Lisa, which Francis had acquired. Francis' reign saw important cultural changes with the growth of central power in France, the spread of humanism and Protestantism, and the beginning of French exploration of the New World. Jacques Cartier and others claimed lands in the Americas for France and paved the way for the expansion of the first French colonial empire.

For his role in the development and promotion of the French language, Francis became known as le Père et Restaurateur des Lettres (the 'Father and Restorer of Letters'). He was also known as François au Grand Nez ('Francis of the Large Nose'), the Grand Colas, and the Roi-Chevalier (the 'Knight-King').

In keeping with his predecessors, Francis continued the Italian Wars. The succession of his great rival Emperor Charles V to the Habsburg Netherlands and the throne of Spain, followed by his election as Holy Roman Emperor, led to France being geographically encircled by the Habsburg monarchy. In his struggle against Imperial hegemony, Francis sought the support of Henry VIII of England at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. When this was unsuccessful, he formed a Franco-Ottoman alliance with the Muslim sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, a controversial move for a Christian king at the time.

Early life and Accession
Francis of Orléans was born on 12 September 1494 at the Château de Cognac in the town of Cognac, which at that time lay in the province of Saintonge, a part of the Duchy of Aquitaine. Today the town lies in the department of Charente.

Francis was the only son of Charles of Orléans, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy, and a great-great-grandson of King Charles V of France. His family was not expected to inherit the throne, as his third cousin King Charles VIII was still young at the time of his birth, as was his father's cousin the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis XII. However, Charles VIII died childless in 1498 and was succeeded by Louis XII, who himself had no male heir. The Salic Law prevented women from inheriting the throne. Therefore, the four-year-old Francis (who was already Count of Angoulême after the death of his own father two years earlier) became the heir presumptive to the throne of France in 1498 and was vested with the title of Duke of Valois.

In 1505, Louis XII, having fallen ill, ordered his daughter Claude and Francis to be married immediately, but only through an assembly of nobles were the two engaged. Claude was heir presumptive to the Duchy of Brittany through her mother, Anne of Brittany. Following Anne's death, the marriage took place on 18 May 1514. On 1 January 1515, Louis died, and Francis inherited the throne. He was crowned King of France in the Cathedral of Reims on 25 January 1515, with Claude as his queen consort.

Reign
As Francis was receiving his education, ideas emerging from the Italian Renaissance were influential in France. Some of his tutors, such as (his Latin instructor, who later during the reign of Francis was named Grand Aumônier de France) and Christophe de Longueil (a Brabantian humanist), were attracted by these new ways of thinking and attempted to influence Francis. His academic education had been in arithmetic, geography, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing and he became proficient in Hebrew, Italian, Latin and Spanish. Francis came to learn chivalry, dancing, and music, and he loved archery, falconry, horseback riding, hunting, jousting, real tennis and wrestling. He ended up reading philosophy and theology and he was fascinated with art, literature, poetry and science. His mother, who had a high admiration for Italian Renaissance art, passed this interest on to her son. Although Francis did not receive a humanist education, he was more influenced by humanism than any previous French king.

Patron of the arts

By the time he ascended the throne in 1515, the Renaissance had arrived in France, and Francis became an enthusiastic patron of the arts. At the time of his accession, the royal palaces of France were ornamented with only a scattering of great paintings, and not a single sculpture, not ancient nor modern.

Francis patronized many great artists of his time, including Andrea del Sarto and Leonardo da Vinci; the latter of whom was persuaded to make France his home during his last years. While da Vinci painted very little during his years in France, he brought with him many of his greatest works, including the Mona Lisa (known in France as La Joconde), and these remained in France after his death. Other major artists to receive Francis' patronage included the goldsmith Benvenuto Cellini and the painters Rosso Fiorentino, Giulio Romano, and Primaticcio, all of whom were employed in decorating Francis' various palaces. He also invited architect Sebastiano Serlio, who enjoyed a fruitful late career in France. Francis also commissioned a number of agents in Italy to procure notable works of art and ship them to France.

Man of letters
Francis was also renowned as a man of letters. When he comes up in a conversation among characters in Baldassare Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, it is as the great hope to bring culture to the war-obsessed French nation. Not only did Francis support a number of major writers of the period, but he was also a poet himself, if not one of particular ability. Francis worked diligently at improving the royal library. He appointed the great French humanist Guillaume Budé as chief librarian and began to expand the collection. Francis employed agents in Italy to look for rare books and manuscripts, just as he had agents looking for artworks. During his reign, the size of the library greatly increased. Not only did he expand the library, but there is also evidence that he read the books he bought for it, a much rarer event in the royal annals. Francis set an important precedent by opening his library to scholars from around the world in order to facilitate the diffusion of knowledge.

In 1537, Francis signed the Ordonnance de Montpellier, which decreed that his library be given a copy of every book to be sold in France. Francis' older sister, Marguerite, Queen of Navarre, was an accomplished writer who produced the classic collection of short stories known as the Heptameron. Francis corresponded with the abbess and philosopher Claude de Bectoz, of whose letters he was so fond that he would carry them around and show them to the ladies of his court. Together with his sister, he visited her in Tarascon.

Construction
Francis poured vast amounts of money into new structures. He continued the work of his predecessors on the Château d'Amboise and also started renovations on the Château de Blois. Early in his reign, he began construction of the magnificent Château de Chambord, inspired by the architectural styles of the Italian Renaissance, and perhaps even designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Francis rebuilt the Louvre Palace, transforming it from a medieval fortress into a building of Renaissance splendour. He financed the building of a new City Hall (the Hôtel de Ville) for Paris in order to have control over the building's design. He constructed the Château de Madrid in the Bois de Boulogne and rebuilt the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The largest of Francis' building projects was the reconstruction and expansion of the Château de Fontainebleau, which quickly became his favourite place of residence, as well as the residence of his official mistress, Anne, Duchess of Étampes.

Military action
Although the Italian Wars (1494–1559) came to dominate the reign of Francis I, which he constantly participated in at the forefront as le Roi-Chevalier, the wars were not the sole focus of his policies. He merely continued the wars that he succeeded from his predecessors and that his heir and successor on the throne, Henry II of France, would inherit after Francis' death. Indeed, the Italian Wars had begun when Milan sent a plea to King Charles VIII of France for protection against the aggressive actions of the King of Naples. Militarily and diplomatically, the reign of Francis I was a mixed bag of success and failure. Francis tried and failed to become Holy Roman Emperor at the Imperial election of 1519, primarily due to his adversary Charles having threatened the electors with violence. However, there were also temporary victories, such as in the portion of the Italian Wars called the War of the League of Cambrai (1508–1516) and, more specifically, to the final stage of that war, which history refers to simply as "Francis' First Italian War" (1515–1516), when Francis routed the combined forces of the Papal States and the Old Swiss Confederacy at Marignano on 13–15 September 1515. This grand victory at Marignano allowed Francis to capture the Italian city-state of Duchy of Milan. However, in November 1521, during the Four Years' War (1521–1526), Francis was forced to abandon Milan in the face of the advancing Imperial forces of the Holy Roman Empire and open revolt within the duchy.

Much of the military activity of Francis's reign was focused on his sworn enemy, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Francis and Charles maintained an intense personal rivalry. Charles, in fact, brashly dared to challenge Francis to single combat multiple times. In addition to the Holy Roman Empire, Charles personally ruled Spain, Austria, and a number of smaller possessions neighbouring France. He was thus a constant threat to Francis I's kingdom.

Francis I attempted to arrange an alliance with Henry VIII at the famous meeting at the Field of Cloth of Gold on 7 June 1520, but despite a lavish fortnight of diplomacy they failed to reach an agreement. Francis and Henry VIII both shared the dreams of power and chivalric glory; however their relationship featured intense personal and dynastic rivalry. Francis was driven by his intense eagerness to retake Milan, despite the strong opposition of other powers. Henry VIII was likewise determined to recapture northern France, which Francis could not allow.

However, the situation was grave; Francis had to face not only the whole might of Western Europe, but also internal hostility in the form of Charles III de Bourbon, a capable commander who fought alongside Francis as his constable at the great battle of Marignano, but defected to Charles V after his conflict with Francis' mother over inheritance of Bourbon estates. Despite all this, the Kingdom of France still held the balance of power in its favour. Nevertheless, the defeat suffered from the cataclystic battle of Pavia on 24 February 1525, during part of the continuing Italian Wars known as the Four Years' War upheaved the political ground of Europe. He was actually taken prisoner: Cesare Hercolani injured his horse, and Francis himself was subsequently captured by Charles de Lannoy. Some claim he was captured by Diego Dávila, Alonso Pita da Veiga, and Juan de Urbieta, from Guipúzcoa. For this reason, Hercolani was named "Victor of the battle of Pavia". Zuppa alla Pavese was supposedly invented on the spot to feed the captive king after the battle.

Francis was held captive morbidly in Madrid. In a letter to his mother, he wrote, "Of all things, nothing remains to me but honour and life, which is safe." This line has come down in history famously as "All is lost save honour." Francis was compelled to make major concessions to Charles in the Treaty of Madrid (1526), signed on 14 January, before he was freed on 17 March. An ultimatum from Ottoman Sultan Suleiman to Charles additionally played a role in his release. Francis was forced to surrender any claims to Naples and Milan in Italy. Francis was forced to recognised the independence of the Duchy of Burgundy, which had been part of France since the death of Charles the Bold in 1477. And finally, Francis was betrothed to Charles' sister Eleanor. Francis returned to France in exchange for his two sons, Francis and Henry, Duke of Orléans, the future Henry II of France, but once he was free he revoked the forced concessions as his agreement with Charles was made under duress. He also proclaimed that the agreement was void because his sons were taken hostage with the implication that his word alone could not be trusted. Thus he firmly repudiated it. A renewed alliance with England enabled Francis to repudiate the treaty of Madrid.

Francis persevered in his rivalry against Charles and his intent to control Italy. By the mid-1520s, Pope Clement VII wished to liberate Italy from foreign domination, especially that of Charles, so he allied with Venice to form the League of Cognac. Francis joined the League in May 1526, in the War of the League of Cognac of 1526–30. Francis' allies proved weak, and the war was ended by the Treaty of Cambrai (1529; "the Peace of the Ladies", negotiated by Francis’ mother and Charles’ aunt). The two princes were released, and Francis married Eleanor.

On 24 July 1534, Francis, inspired by the Spanish tercios and the Roman legions, issued an edict to form seven infantry Légions of 6,000 troops each, of which 12,000 of 42,000 were arquebusiers, testifying to the growing importance of gunpowder. The force was a national standing army, where any soldier could be promoted on the basis of vacancies, were paid wages by grade and granted exemptions from the taille and other taxes up to 20 sous, a heavy burden on the state budget.

After the League of Cognac failed, Francis concluded a secret alliance with the Landgrave of Hesse on 27 January 1534. This was directed against Charles on the pretext of assisting the Duke of Württemberg to regain his traditional seat, from which Charles had removed him in 1519. Francis also obtained the help of the Ottoman Empire and after the death of Francesco II Sforza, ruler of Milan, renewed the contest in Italy in the Italian War of 1536–1538. This round of fighting, which had little result, was ended by the Truce of Nice. The agreement collapsed, however, which led to Francis' final attempt on Italy in the Italian War of 1542–1546. Francis I managed to hold off the forces of Charles and Henry VIII. Charles was forced to sign the Treaty of Crépy because of his financial difficulties and conflicts with the Schmalkaldic League.

Relations with the Americas and Asia

Francis had been much aggrieved at the papal bull Aeterni regis: in June 1481 Portuguese rule over Africa and the Indies was confirmed by Pope Sixtus IV. Thirteen years later, on 7 June 1494, Portugal and the Crown of Castille signed the Treaty of Tordesillas under which the newly discovered lands would be divided between the two signatories. All this prompted Francis to declare, "The sun shines for me as it does for others. I would very much like to see the clause of Adam’s will by which I should be denied my share of the world."

In order to counterbalance the power of the Habsburg Empire under Charles V, especially its control of large parts of the New World through the Crown of Spain, Francis endeavoured to develop contacts with the New World and Asia. Fleets were sent to the Americas and the Far East, and close contacts were developed with the Ottoman Empire permitting the development of French Mediterranean trade as well as the establishment of a strategic military alliance.

The port city now known as Le Havre was founded in 1517 during the early years of Francis' reign. The construction of a new port was urgently needed in order to replace the ancient harbours of Honfleur and Harfleur, whose utility had decreased due to silting. Le Havre was originally named Franciscopolis after the king who founded it, but this name did not survive into later reigns.

Americas
In 1524, Francis assisted the citizens of Lyon in financing the expedition of Giovanni da Verrazzano to North America. On this expedition, Verrazzano visited the present site of New York City, naming it New Angoulême, and claimed Newfoundland for the French crown. Verrazzano's letter to Francis of 8 July 1524 is known as the Cèllere Codex.

In 1531, Bertrand d'Ornesan tried to establish a French trading post at Pernambuco, Brazil.

In 1534, Francis sent Jacques Cartier to explore the St. Lawrence River in Quebec to find "certain islands and lands where it is said there must be great quantities of gold and other riches". In 1541, Francis sent Jean-François de Roberval to settle Canada and to provide for the spread of "the Holy Catholic faith."

Asia

French trade with East Asia was initiated during the reign of Francis I with the help of shipowner Jean Ango. In July 1527, a French Norman trading ship from the city of Rouen is recorded by the Portuguese João de Barros as having arrived in the Indian city of Diu. In 1529, Jean Parmentier, on board the Sacre and the Pensée, reached Sumatra. Upon its return, the expedition triggered the development of the Dieppe maps, influencing the work of Dieppe cartographers such as Jean Rotz.

Ottoman Empire
Under the reign of Francis I, France became the first country in Europe to establish formal relations with the Ottoman Empire and to set up instruction in the Arabic language under the guidance of Guillaume Postel at the Collège de France.

In a watershed moment in European diplomacy, Francis came to an understanding with the Ottoman Empire that developed into a Franco-Ottoman alliance. The objective for Francis was to find an ally against the House of Habsburg. The pretext used by Francis was the protection of the Christians in Ottoman lands. The alliance has been called "the first nonideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a Christian and non-Christian empire". It did, however, cause quite a scandal in the Christian world and was designated "the impious alliance", or "the sacrilegious union of the [French] Lily and the [Ottoman] Crescent." Nevertheless, it endured for many years, since it served the objective interests of both parties. The two powers colluded against Charles V, and in 1543 they even combined for a joint naval assault in the siege of Nice.

In 1533, Francis I sent colonel Pierre de Piton as ambassador to Morocco, initiating official France-Morocco relations. In a letter to Francis I dated 13 August 1533, the Wattassid ruler of Fez, Ahmed ben Mohammed, welcomed French overtures and granted freedom of shipping and protection of French traders.

Bureaucratic reform and language policy

Francis took several steps to eradicate the monopoly of Latin as the language of knowledge. In 1530, he declared French the national language of the kingdom, and that same year opened the Collège des trois langues, or Collège Royal, following the recommendation of humanist Guillaume Budé. Students at the Collège could study Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic, then Arabic under Guillaume Postel beginning in 1539.

In 1539, in his castle in Villers-Cotterêts, Francis signed the important edict known as Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, which, among other reforms, made French the administrative language of the kingdom as a replacement for Latin. This same edict required priests to register births, marriages, and deaths, and to establish a registry office in every parish. This initiated the first records of vital statistics with filiations available in Europe.

Religious policies
Divisions in Christianity in Western Europe during Francis' reign created lasting international rifts. Martin Luther's preaching and writing sparked the Protestant Reformation, which spread through much of Europe, including France.

Initially, Francis was relatively tolerant of the new movement, despite burning several heretics at the Place Maubert in 1523. He was influenced by his beloved sister Marguerite de Navarre, who was genuinely attracted by Luther's theology. Francis even considered it politically useful, as it caused many German princes to turn against his enemy Charles V.

Francis' attitude towards Protestantism changed for the worse following the "Affair of the Placards", on the night of 17 October 1534, in which notices appeared on the streets of Paris and other major cities denouncing the Catholic mass. The most fervent Catholics were outraged by the notice's allegations. Francis himself came to view the movement as a plot against him and began to persecute its followers. Protestants were jailed and executed. In some areas, whole villages were destroyed. In Paris, after 1540, Francis had heretics such as Étienne Dolet tortured and burned. Printing was censored and leading Protestant reformers such as John Calvin were forced into exile. The persecutions soon numbered thousands of dead and tens of thousands of homeless.

Persecutions against Protestants were codified in the Edict of Fontainebleau (1540) issued by Francis. Major acts of violence continued, as when Francis ordered the extirpation of one of the historical pre-Lutheran groups, the Waldensians, at the Massacre of Mérindol in 1545.

Death
Francis died at the Château de Rambouillet on 31 March 1547, on his son and successor's 28th birthday. It is said that "he died complaining about the weight of a crown that he had first perceived as a gift from God". He was interred with his first wife, Claude, Duchess of Brittany, in Saint Denis Basilica. He was succeeded by his son, Henry II.

Francis' tomb and that of his wife and mother, along with the tombs of other French kings and members of the royal family, were desecrated on 20 October 1793 during the Reign of Terror at the height of the French Revolution.

Image and reputation

Francis I has a poor reputation in France—his 500th anniversary was little noted in 1994. Popular and scholarly historical memory ignores his building of so many fine chateaux, his stunning art collection, and his lavish patronage of scholars and artists. He is seen as a playboy who disgraced France by allowing himself to be defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia. The historian Jules Michelet set the negative image.

Francis' personal emblem was the salamander and his Latin motto was Nutrisco et extinguo ("I nourish [the good] and extinguish [the bad]"). His long nose earned him the nickname François du Grand Nez ('Francis of the Big Nose'), and he was also colloquially known as the Grand Colas or Bonhomme Colas. For his personal involvement in battles, he was known as le Roi-Chevalier ('the Knight-King') or le Roi-Guerrier ('the Warrior-King').

British historian Glenn Richardson considers Francis a success:
 * He was a king who ruled as well as reigned. He knew the importance of war and a high international profile in staking his claim to be a great warrior-king of France. In battle, he was brave, if impetuous, which led equally to triumph and disaster. Domestically, Francis exercised the spirit and letter of the royal prerogative to its fullest extent. He bargained hard over taxation and other issues with interest groups, often by appearing not to bargain at all. He enhanced royal power and concentrated decision-making in a tight personal executive but used a wide range of offices, gifts and his own personal charisma to build up an elective personal affinity among the ranks of the nobility upon whom his reign depended .... Under Francis, the court of France was at the height of its prestige and international influence during the 16th century. Although opinion has varied considerably over the centuries since his death, his cultural legacy to France, to its Renaissance, was immense and ought to secure his reputation as among the greatest of its kings.

Marriage and issue
On 18 May 1514, Francis married his second cousin Claude, the daughter of King Louis XII and Duchess Anne of Brittany. The couple had seven children:
 * 1) Louise (19 August 1515 – 21 September 1518): died young; engaged to Charles I of Spain almost from birth until death.
 * 2) Charlotte (23 October 1516 – 8 September 1524): died young; engaged to Charles I of Spain from 1518 until death.
 * 3) Francis (28 February 1518 – 10 August 1536): succeeded his mother Claude as Duke of Brittany, but died aged 18, unmarried and childless.
 * 4) Henry II (31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559): succeeded his father Francis I as King of France and his brother Francis as Duke of Brittany. Married Catherine de' Medici and had issue.
 * 5) Madeleine (10 August 1520 – 2 July 1537): married James V of Scotland and had no issue.
 * 6) Charles (22 January 1522 – 9 September 1545): died unmarried and childless.
 * 7) Margaret (5 June 1523 – 14 September 1574): married Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy and had issue.

On 4 July 1530, Francis I married his second wife Eleanor of Austria, Queen (widow) of Portugal and the sister of Emperor Charles V. The couple had no children.

During his reign, Francis kept two official mistresses at court, and he was the first king to officially give the title of "maîtresse-en-titre" to his favorite mistress. The first was Françoise de Foix, Countess of Châteaubriant. In 1526, she was replaced by the blonde-haired, cultured Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly, Duchess of Étampes, who, with the death of Queen Claude two years earlier, wielded far more political power at court than her predecessor had done. Another of his earlier mistresses was allegedly Mary Boleyn, mistress of King Henry VIII and sister of Henry's future wife, Anne Boleyn.

Portrayals
Francis was the subject of several portraits. A 1525–30 work by Jean Clouet is now housed at the Louvre in Paris. A portrait dated to 1532–33 by Joos van Cleve may have been commissioned either for the occasion of a meeting with Henry VIII of England or Francis' second marriage. The workshop of van Cleve produced copies of this work to be distributed to other courts.

The amorous exploits of Francis inspired the 1832 play by Fanny Kemble, Francis the First, and the 1832 play by Victor Hugo, Le Roi s'amuse ("The King's Amusement"), which featured the jester Triboulet, the inspiration for the 1851 opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. Francis was first played in the George Méliès short François Ier et Triboulet (1907) by an unknown actor, possibly Méliès. He has been since played by Claude Garry (1910), William Powell (1922), Aimé Simon-Girard (1937), Sacha Guitry (1937), Gérard Oury (1953), Jean Marais (1955), Pedro Armendáriz (1956), Claude Titre (1962), Bernard Pierre Donnadieu (1990), Timothy West (1998), Emmanuel Leconte (2007–2010), Alfonso Bassave (2015-2016) and Colm Meaney (2022).

title: Francis I of France


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Yosemite Valley

Yosemite Valley (Yosemite, Miwok for "killer") is a glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about 7.5 mi long and 3,000–3,500 ft deep, surrounded by high granite summits such as Half Dome and El Capitan, and densely forested with pines. The valley is drained by the Merced River, and a multitude of streams and waterfalls flow into it, including Tenaya, Illilouette, Yosemite and Bridalveil Creeks. Yosemite Falls is the highest waterfall in North America and is a big attraction, especially in the spring, when the water flow is at its peak. The valley is renowned for its natural environment and is regarded as the centerpiece of Yosemite National Park.

The valley is the main attraction in the park for the majority of visitors and a bustling hub of activity during tourist season in the summer months. Most visitors enter the valley from roads to the west and pass through the Tunnel View entrance. Visitor facilities are in the center of the valley. There are both hiking trail loops that stay within the valley and trailheads that lead to higher elevations.

Descriptions
Yosemite Valley is on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, 150 mi east of San Francisco. It stretches for 7.5 mi in a roughly east–west direction, with an average width of about 1 mi.

Yosemite Valley represents only one percent of the park area, but it is where most visitors arrive and stay. More than half a dozen creeks tumble from hanging valleys at the top of granite cliffs that can rise 3000 – above the valley floor, which itself is 4000 ft above sea level. These streams combine into the Merced River, which flows out from the western end of the valley, down the rest of its canyon to the San Joaquin Valley. The flat floor of Yosemite Valley holds both forest and large open meadows, which have views of the surrounding crests and waterfalls.

Below is a description of these features, looking first at the walls above, moving west to east as a visitor does when entering the valley, then visiting the waterfalls and other water features, returning east to west with the flow of water.

The first view of Yosemite Valley many visitors see is the Tunnel View. So many paintings were made from a viewpoint nearby that the National Park Service named that viewpoint Artist Point. The view from the lower (western) end of the Valley contains the great granite monolith El Capitan on the left, and Cathedral Rocks on the right with Bridalveil Fall. Just past this spot the Valley suddenly widens with the Cathedral Spires, then the pointed obelisk of Sentinel Rock to the south. Across the Valley on the northern side are the Three Brothers, rising one above the other like gables built on the same angle – the highest crest is Eagle Peak, with the two below known as the Middle and Lower Brothers.

To this point the Valley has been curving gently to the left (north). Now a grand curve back to the right begins, with Yosemite Falls on the north, followed by the Royal Arches, topped by North Dome. Opposite, to the south, is Glacier Point, 3,200 ft above the Valley floor. At this point the Valley splits in two, one section slanting northeast, with the other curving from south to southeast. Between them, at the eastern end of the valley, is Half Dome, among the most prominent natural features in the Sierra Nevada. Above and to the northeast of Half Dome is Clouds Rest, at 9926 ft; it is the highest point near Yosemite Valley.

Water
Snow melting in the Sierra forms creeks and lakes. In the surrounding region, these creeks flow to the edge of the Valley to form cataracts and waterfalls. A fan of creeks and forks of the Merced River take drainage from the Sierra crest and combine at Merced Lake. The Merced then flows down to the end of its canyon (Little Yosemite Valley), where it begins what is often called the Giant Staircase. The first drop is Nevada Fall, which drops 594 ft, bouncing off the granite slope below it. Below is Vernal Fall, 317 ft high, one of the most picturesque waterfalls in the Valley. The Merced then descends rapids to meet Illilouette Creek, which drops from the valley rim to form Illilouette Fall. They combine at the base of the gorges that contain each stream, and then flow around the Happy Isles to meet Tenaya Creek at the eastern end of Yosemite Valley proper.

Tenaya Creek flows southwest from Tenaya Lake and down Tenaya Canyon, finally flowing between Half Dome and North Dome before joining the Merced River. The following falls tumble from the Valley rim to join it at various points:
 * Yosemite Falls 2425 ft Upper Yosemite Fall 1430 ft, the middle cascades 670 ft, and Lower Yosemite Fall 320 ft. (Yosemite Creek)
 * Snow Creek Falls 2140 ft
 * Sentinel Falls 1920 ft
 * Ribbon Fall 1612 ft
 * Royal Arch Cascade 1250 ft
 * Lehamite Falls 1180 ft
 * Staircase Falls 1020 ft
 * Bridalveil Fall 620 ft. (Bridalveil Creek)
 * Nevada Fall 594 ft
 * Silver Strand Falls 574 ft
 * Vernal Fall 318 ft

Geology
The features in Yosemite Valley are made of granitic rock emplaced as plutons miles deep during the late Cretaceous. Over time the Sierra Nevada was uplifted, exposing this rock to erosion at the surface.

The oldest of these granitic rocks, at 114 million years, occur along the Merced River Gorge west of the valley. The El Capitan pluton intruded the valley, forming most of the granitic rock that makes up much of the central part of the valley, including Cathedral Rocks, Three Brothers, and El Capitan. The youngest Yosemite Valley pluton is the 87-million-year-old Half Dome granodiorite, which makes up most of the rock at Glacier Point, the Royal Arches, and its namesake, Half Dome. For the last 30 million years, glaciers have periodically filled much of the valley. The most current glaciation, the Wisconsinian was not, however, the most severe. Ice ages previous to the Wisconsinian were colder and lasted longer. Their glaciers were huge and covered nearly all the landmarks around Yosemite Valley except Half Dome, Eagle Peak, Sentinel Dome, and the top of El Capitan. Wisconsinian glaciers, however, only reached Bridalveil Fall in the valley. The glaciers widened the valley, but much of its width is in fact due to previous stream erosion and mass wasting along vertical joints in the valley's walls.

After the retreat of many of these glaciers, a stand of Ancient Lake Yosemite developed. The valley floor owes its flatness to sediment deposited by these stands (the last glaciers in the valley were small and did not remove much old lake sediment). The last stand of Lake Yosemite was about 5.5 mi long and was impounded by a terminal moraine near the base of El Capitan. It was later filled by sediment, becoming a swampy meadow.

The parallel Tenaya Canyon and Little Yosemite Canyon glaciers were, at their largest, 2,000 ft deep where they flowed into the Yosemite Valley near the base of Half Dome. They also formed Clouds Rest behind Half Dome as an arête.

Near Glacier Point there are 2,000 ft of mostly glacial sediment with at least six separate sequences of Lake Yosemite sediments. Here, huge and highly erosive pre-Wisconsinian glaciers excavated the bedrock valley floor, and much smaller Wisconsinian glaciers deposited glacial debris.

Ecology

The biological community on the floor of Yosemite Valley is a diverse one, with more than 400 species of grasses and wildflowers and thousands of species of insects having been identified there. At the most general level, the valley can be classified as a dry yellow pine forest with a number of large open meadows. Plant and animal species that make up a significant part of this natural community include:
 * Trees – ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, sugar pine, white fir, incense-cedar, California black oak, interior live oak, coast Douglas-fir, California laurel, bigleaf maple, Scouler's willow, Pacific dogwood, white alder, western balsam poplar
 * Shrubs – whiteleaf manzanita, mountain misery, western azalea, American dogwood, buckbrush, deer brush, sierra gooseberry
 * Wildflowers – Indian pink, soap plant, California poppy, miner's lettuce, purple Chinese houses, purple milkweed, Pacific starflower, western buttercup, pineapple weed
 * Mammals – California ground squirrel, western gray squirrel, chickaree, mule deer, American black bear, bobcat, coyote
 * Birds – dark-eyed junco, mountain chickadee, black-headed grosbeak, white-headed woodpecker, Steller's jay, American dipper, common raven
 * Reptiles – Gilbert's skink, northern alligator lizard, rattlesnake
 * Amphibians – Sierra Nevada salamander

Tourism
Yosemite National Park had a record number of 5 million visitors in 2016. In 2020 visitation dropped to 2,268,313 visitors. A reservation system was implemented in 2020, which required a reservation in order to enter the park. The reservation system has been periodically lifted and reimplemented since 2021.

On July 24, 2018, several areas of the park, including the Valley, were closed due to wildfires in the area.

Hiking
Several trails lead out of the Valley, including
 * The John Muir Trail – running 211 mi to Mount Whitney
 * The Mist Trail – with views of Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall
 * The Four Mile Trail – leading to Glacier Point.
 * The Yosemite Falls Trail – to the top of Yosemite Falls

Climbing
Yosemite is now a world rock climbing attraction. The massive 'big walls' of granite have been climbed countless times since the 1950s and have pushed climbers' abilities to new heights. While climbers traditionally take several days to climb the monoliths, bivvying on the rock faces, modern climbing techniques help climbers ascend the cliffs in mere hours. Many climbers stay at Camp 4 before beginning big wall climbs, which became notable after World War II as "a birthplace of rock climbing’s modern age" and was introduced into the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Half Dome figures prominently on the reverse side of the California state quarter. Hiking to the top of Half Dome is one of the most popular hikes from the valley, and very crowded. The park now requires permits to use the trail, and in 2011 the permits sold out very quickly after becoming available. The park now uses a lottery system for hikers to apply for permits.

Native Americans in Yosemite
Habitation of the Yosemite Valley proper can be traced to about 3,000 years ago when vegetation and game in the region was similar to that present today; the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada had acorns, deer, and salmon, while the eastern Sierra had pinyon nuts and obsidian. The prehistory of the area is divided into three cultural phases on archaeological grounds: the "Crane Flat" phase, (1000 BCE to 500 CE) is marked by hunting with the atl atl and the use of grinding stones; the "Tarmarack" phase (500 to 1200 CE), marked by a shift to using smaller rock points, indicating development and use of the bow and arrow; and the "Mariposa" phase, from 1200 until European contact in the mid-19th century.

In the 19th century, it was inhabited by a Miwok band who called the Valley "Ah-wah-nee" and themselves the Ahwahnechee. This group had trading and family ties to Mono Lake Paiutes from the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. They annually burned the vegetation on the Valley floor, which promoted the black oak and kept the meadows and forests open. This protected the supply of their principal food, acorns, and reduced the chance of ambush. At the time of first European contact, this band was led by Chief Tenaya (Teneiya), who was raised by his mother among the Mono Lake Paiutes.

The Mariposa Battalion and the first tourists
The first non-Native Americans to see Yosemite Valley were probably members of the 1833 Joseph Walker Party, which was the first to cross the Sierra Nevada from east to west. The first descriptions of Yosemite, however, came nearly 20 years later. The 1849 California Gold Rush led to conflicts between miners and Native Americans, and the state formed the volunteer Mariposa Battalion as a punitive expedition against the Native Americans living in the Yosemite area. In 1851, the Battalion was led by Major Jim Savage, whose trading post on the Merced River the Awaneechee had raided. This and other missions (the Mariposa Wars) resulted in Chief Teneiya and the Awaneechee spending months on a reservation in the San Joaquin Valley. The band returned the next year to the Valley but took refuge among the Mono Paiutes after further conflicts with miners. Most of the Awaneechee (along with Teneiya) were chased back to the Valley and killed by the Paiutes after violating hospitality by stealing horses.

While the members of that first expedition of the Mariposa Battalion had heard rumors of what could be found up the Merced River, none were prepared for what they saw March 27, 1851, from what is now called Old Inspiration Point (close to the better-visited Tunnel View). Dr. Lafayette Bunnell later wrote:

"The grandeur of the scene was but softened by the haze that hung over the valley – light as gossamer – and by the clouds which partially dimmed the higher cliffs and mountains. This obscurity of vision but increased the awe with which I beheld it, and as I looked, a peculiar exalted sensation seemed to fill my whole being, and I found my eyes in tears with emotion."

Camping that night on the Valley floor, the group agreed with the suggestion of Dr. Bunnell to call it "Yo-sem-i-ty", mistakenly believing that was the native name. The term is from the Southern Sierra Miwok word Yohhe'meti, meaning "they are killers," which referred to the inhabitants of the place.

James Hutchings—who organized the first tourist party to the Valley in 1855—and artist Thomas Ayers generated much of the earliest publicity about Yosemite, creating articles and entire magazine issues about the Valley. Ayres' highly detailed angularly exaggerated artwork and his written accounts were distributed nationally and an art exhibition of his drawings was held in New York City.

Two of Hutchings' first group of tourists, Milton and Houston Mann, built the first toll route into the valley, with the development of the first hotels in the area and other trails quickly following. Many of the early pioneers in the valley of European descent, and a few Native Americans, are buried in Yosemite Cemetery.

Yosemite: The first park
The work of Ayres gave Easterners an appreciation for Yosemite Valley and started a movement to preserve it. Influential figures such as Galen Clark, clergyman Thomas Starr King and leading landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted were among those who urged Senator John Conness of California to try to preserve Yosemite.

President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill on June 30, 1864, granting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to the State of California "for public use, resort and recreation," the two tracts "shall be inalienable for all time". This was the first time in history that a federal government had set aside scenic lands simply to protect them and to allow for their enjoyment by all people.

Simply designating an area a park isn't sufficient to protect it. California did not set up an administration for the park until 1866 when the state appointed Galen Clark as the park's guardian. An 11-year struggle followed to resolve homesteading claims in the valley. The challenge of increasing tourism, with the need to first build stagecoach roads, then the Yosemite Valley Railroad, along with hotels and other facilities in and around the Valley was met during the rest of the 19th century. But much environmental damage was caused to the valley itself at that time. The problems that Yosemite Park had under state control was one of the factors in establishing Yellowstone National Park as the first completely national park in 1872.

Due to the difficulty of traveling there, early visitors to the valley came for several weeks to a couple of months, often as entire families with many possessions. Early hotels were therefore set up for extended stays and catered primarily to wealthy patrons who could spend extended periods away from home. One of these hotels—the Wawona Hotel, built in the 1880s—still operates.

After the Valley became a park, the surrounding territory was still subject to logging, mining, and grazing. John Muir publicized the damage to the subalpine meadows that surround the Valley and in 1890, the government created a national park that included a much larger territory—enclosing Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove.

20th century
As with Yellowstone, the new federal park was under U.S. Army jurisdiction until 1914. In 1906, the state ceded the Valley and Mariposa Grove to the federal government. The National Park Service, on its creation in 1916, took over Yosemite. Yosemite Valley is listed as a National Historic District and as a California Historical Landmark. After the creation of the Park Service, many separate hotel owners held separate concession contracts. The Yosemite Park Company had built the Yosemite Lodge and Yosemite Village had its own group of merchants. Fire had destroyed a number of the original valley hotels and concession owners came and went until Park Service forced the two largest companies to merge in order that one single concession contract could be given. In 1925 the two family-run companies became the Yosemite Park and Curry Company and went on to build and run the Ahwahnee Hotel as the company headquarters for years, introducing a number of traditions, including the Bracebridge dinner.

Curry Village was the site from where villagers and visitors watched the Yosemite Firefall. This "fall" was large batches of red hot embers dropped from Glacier Point. The Park Service stopped this practice in 1969 as part of their long process of de-emphasizing artificial park attractions.

On July 6, 1996, a massive rock slide, weighing an estimated 60,000–80,000 tons, crashed 1800 ft into the valley from the east side of Glacier Point, traveling at over 160 mph. Dust blanketed that part of the valley for days, and the wind speed in front of the slide is estimated to have been 300 mph. One person was killed in the slide.

Merced River Plan
In 1987, Congress designated 122 miles of the Merced as a Wild and Scenic River. Yosemite National Park contains 81 of these miles, and the valley contains eight of those miles. This designation will "... preserve the Merced River in free-flowing condition and to protect the water quality and the outstandingly remarkable values (ORVs) that make the river worthy of designation."

In March 2014, the park system released the Merced Wild and Scenic River Comprehensive Management Plan/EIS to address the preservation of the river, safety, and to improve the visitor experience in the park. The plan will restore meadows and river bank areas and remove non-essential roads. Camping capacity will increase by 37%, and recreational services will be expanded. The plan calls for an 8% increase in parking for day use visitors to Yosemite Valley, including a new 300-car parking lot. The plan will allow the valley to accommodate a peak of 20,100 visitors per day.

The plan has been criticized for prioritizing park visitors over the preservation of the river and the valley. Some believe there should be further limitations to the number of cars and parking lots in the valley, and more focus on public transportation. On busy summer days, there can be long delays and traffic gridlock at the entrance to Yosemite.

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

title: Yosemite Valley


text:
Regina Protmann

Regina Protmann (1552 – 18 January 1613) was a Roman Catholic religious sister. She founded the Sisters of Saint Catherine and was a pioneer in the establishment of hospitals as well as schools for girls. Her first biographer was the Jesuit Engelbert Keilert who described her as an intelligent and well-versed woman with a deep faith and sense of conviction.

Her beatification was celebrated on 13 June 1999 in Warsaw.

Life
Regina Protmann was born in Braniewo (Braunsberg) in 1552 and to Peter Protmann and Regina née Tingel. Her father was a merchant and local patrician. Her uncle was a councilman.

Protmann became familiarized with religious and political matters during the time of the Protestant Reformation and the Counter Reformation. She joined a Marian group that the Jesuits had set up and she entrusted herself to their spiritual care. In 1571, she explained to her parents that she could not be married as expected but was devoting herself to religious studies and taking care of the sick and poor.

Despite the opposition of her parents Protmann moved out on her own and with two other women lived in an abandoned house. The group made a living in taking care of and nursing the sick and also doing housework. During a time of witch-hunt and strict counter-measures from the Roman Catholic Church it was unheard of for women to live on their own. There were no convents for women in the area at that time.

Protmann persevered and, inspired by Saint Catherine of Alexandria, founded one which became the congregation of the Sisters of Saint Catherine. Protmann helped to nurse the sick and educated nurses while seeing to it that nurses themselves received care when it was needed. Under the government of the prince-bishops schools for males existed alone but Protmann founded schools for girls as well.

Protmann died in 1613 after a painful illness she contracted that winter while on a travel trip.

World War II and after
The Saint Catherine of Alexandria church in Braunsberg was ruined in 1945 during its capture by the Soviet forces during World War II. Braniewo was assigned to Poland. During the expulsion of the inhabitants of East Prussia, including the sisters of her congregation, over 100 sisters died. It was rebuilt after 1979 and in 2001 dedicated as a Minor Basilica. On 28 June 2000, Protmann was declared the patroness of Braniewo.

Beatification
The beatification process opened in Warmia and in Frascati in an informative that opened in 1957 and closed sometime later before it received the validation needed from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on 19 September 1991. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the cause on 27 October 1992. Pope John Paul II confirmed Protmann's heroic virtue and name her as venerable on 17 December 1996. A miracle due to her intercession was a healing that originated in Brazil. John Paul II beatified Protmann in Warsaw on 13 June 1999. The postulator for this cause is Sr. Józefa Krause.

title: Regina Protmann


text:
Lenny Bruce

Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), better known by his stage name Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon in 2003.

Bruce paved the way for counterculture-era comedians. His trial for obscenity was a landmark of freedom of speech in the United States. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him third (behind Richard Pryor and George Carlin) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comics of all time.

Early life
Bruce was Jewish, born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, New York. He grew up in nearby Bellmore, and attended Wellington C. Mepham High School. According to his biography, during part of his high school years, he lived at Dengler's Farm on Wantagh Avenue in Wantagh, New York. His parents divorced before he was 10, and he lived with various relatives over the next decade. His British-born father, Myron (Mickey) Schneider, was a shoe clerk; they saw each other very infrequently. His mother, Sally Marr (legal name Sadie Schneider, born Sadie Kitchenberg), was a stage performer and dancer and had an enormous influence on Bruce's career.

After spending time working on a farm, Bruce joined the United States Navy at the age of 16 in 1942, with active service during World War II aboard the USS Brooklyn (CL-40) in Northern Africa, Palermo in 1943, and Anzio, Italy, in 1944. In May 1945, after a comedic performance for his shipmates in which he was dressed in drag, his commanding officers became upset. He defiantly convinced his ship's medical officer that he was experiencing homosexual urges, leading to his dishonorable discharge in July 1945. However, he had not admitted to or been found guilty of any breach of naval regulations, and successfully applied to change his discharge to "Under Honorable Conditions ... by reason of unsuitability for the naval service".

During the Korean War era, Bruce served in the United States Merchant Marine, ferrying troops from the US to Europe and back. In 1959, while videotaping the first episode of Hugh Hefner's Playboy's Penthouse, Bruce talked about his Navy experience and showed a tattoo he received in Malta in 1942.

After a short period living with his father in California, Bruce settled in New York City, hoping to establish himself as a comedian. However, he found it difficult to differentiate himself from the thousands of other show business hopefuls who populated the city. One place where they congregated was Hanson's, a diner where Bruce met Joe Ancis, who had a profound influence on Bruce's approach to comedy. Many of Bruce's later routines reflected his meticulous schooling at the hands of Ancis. According to Bruce's biographer Albert Goldman, Ancis's humor involved stream-of-consciousness sexual fantasies and references to jazz. He also gained notoriety for his focus on controversial subjects, black humour, obscenity, and criticism of organized religion and the establishment.

Bruce took the stage as "Lenny Marsalle" one evening at the Victory Club as a stand-in master of ceremonies for one of his mother's shows. His ad-libs earned him some laughs. Soon afterward, in 1947, just after changing his last name to Bruce, he earned $12 and a free spaghetti dinner for his first stand-up performance in Brooklyn. He was later a guest—and was introduced by his mother, calling herself Sally Bruce—on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio program. Lenny did a piece inspired by Sid Caesar, "The Bavarian Mimic", featuring impressions of American movie stars (e.g., Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, and Edward G. Robinson).

Career
Bruce's early comedy career included writing the screenplays for Dance Hall Racket in 1953, which featured Bruce, his wife Honey Harlow, and mother Sally Marr; Dream Follies in 1954, a low-budget burlesque romp; and a children's film, The Rocket Man, in 1954. In 1956, Frank Ray Perilli, a fellow nightclub comedian who later wrote two dozen successful films and plays, became Bruce's mentor and part-time manager. Through Perilli, Bruce met and collaborated with photojournalist William Karl Thomas on three screenplays (Leather Jacket, Killer's Grave and The Degenerate), none of which made it to the screen, and the comedy material on his first three comedy albums.

Bruce was a roommate of comedian Buddy Hackett in the 1950s. The two appeared on the Patrice Munsel Show (1957–1958), calling their comedy duo the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players", 20 years before the cast of Saturday Night Live used the same name. In 1957, Thomas booked Bruce into the Slate Brothers nightclub, where he was fired the first night for what Variety headlined as "blue material". This led to the theme of Bruce's first solo album on Berkeley-based Fantasy Records, The Sick Humor of Lenny Bruce, for which Thomas photographed the album cover. Thomas also photographed Bruce's other covers, acted as cinematographer on abortive attempts to film their screenplays, and in 1989 wrote a memoir of their ten-year collaboration, Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet. The 2016 biography of Frank Ray Perilli, The Candy Butcher, devotes a chapter to Perilli's ten-year collaboration with Bruce.

Bruce released four albums of original material on Fantasy Records, later compiled and re-released as The Lenny Bruce Originals. Two later records were produced and sold by Bruce himself, including a 10-inch album of the 1961 San Francisco performances that started his legal troubles. Starting in the late 1960s, other unissued Bruce material was released by Alan Douglas, Frank Zappa and Phil Spector, as well as Fantasy. Bruce developed the complexity and tone of his material in Enrico Banducci's North Beach nightclub, the hungry i, where Mort Sahl had earlier made a name for himself.

Branded a "sick comic", Bruce was essentially blacklisted from television, and when he did appear, thanks to sympathetic fans like Hefner and Steve Allen, it was with great concessions to Broadcast Standards and Practices. Jokes that might offend, like a routine on airplane-glue-sniffing teenagers that was done live for The Steve Allen Show in 1959, had to be typed out and pre-approved by network officials. On his debut on Allen's show, Bruce made an unscripted comment on the recent marriage of Elizabeth Taylor to Eddie Fisher, wondering, "Will Elizabeth Taylor become bar mitzvahed?"

In the midst of a severe blizzard, Bruce gave a famous performance at Carnegie Hall at midnight on February 4, 1961. It was recorded and later released as the three-disc set The Carnegie Hall Concert. In his posthumous biography of Bruce, Albert Goldman described that night:

"It's all a trip—and the best of it is you haven't the faintest idea where you're going! Lenny worshiped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. His greatest fear was getting his act down pat. On this night, he rose to every chance stimulus, every interruption and noise and distraction, with a mad volleying of mental images that suggested the fantastic riches of Charlie Parker's horn. The first flash was simply the spectacle of people piled up in America's most famous concert hall."

In August 1965, a year before his death, Bruce gave his penultimate performance at San Francisco's Basin Street West, mainly talking about his legal troubles. The filmed performance was released by Rhino Home Video in 1992 as The Lenny Bruce Performance Film.

Personal life
In 1951, Bruce met Honey Harlow, a stripper from Manila, Arkansas. They were married that year, and Bruce was determined she would end her work as a stripper. They left New York in 1953 for the West Coast, where they got work as a double act at the Cup and Saucer in Los Angeles. Bruce then joined a bill at the club Strip City. Harlow found employment at the Colony Club, widely known as the best burlesque club in Los Angeles at the time.

Bruce left Strip City in late 1954 and found work at various strip clubs in the San Fernando Valley. As master of ceremonies, he introduced strippers while performing his material. The Valley clubs provided the perfect environment for him to create new routines. According to his primary biographer, Albert Goldman, it was "precisely at the moment when he sank to the bottom of the barrel and started working the places that were the lowest of the low" that he suddenly broke free of "all the restraints and inhibitions and disabilities that formerly had kept him just mediocre and began to blow with a spontaneous freedom and resourcefulness that resembled the style and inspiration of his new friends and admirers, the jazz musicians of the modernist school."

Honey and Lenny's daughter Kathleen ("Kitty") Bruce was born in 1955. Honey and Lenny had a tumultuous relationship. Many serious domestic incidents occurred between them, usually the result of serious drug use. They broke up and reunited over and over again between 1956 and Lenny's death in 1966. They first separated in March 1956, and were back together by July of that year when they travelled to Honolulu for a nightclub tour. During the trip, Honey was arrested for marijuana possession. Prevented from leaving the island due to her parole conditions, Lenny took the opportunity to leave her again, this time kidnapping the then one-year-old Kitty. In her autobiography, Honey claims Lenny turned her in to the police. She was later sentenced to two years in federal prison.

Throughout the final decade of his life, Bruce was beset by severe drug addiction, using heroin, methamphetamine and Dilaudid daily, suffering numerous health problems and personal strife as a result. His death was caused by an overdose.

He had an affair with jazz singer Annie Ross in the late 1950s. In 1959, his divorce from Honey was finalized. At the time of his death, his girlfriend and fiancee was comedienne Lotus Weinstock.

Legal troubles
Bruce's desire to help his wife stop working as a stripper led him to pursue schemes designed to make as much money as possible. The most notable was the Brother Mathias Foundation scam, which resulted in Bruce's arrest in Miami, Florida, in 1951 for impersonating a priest. He was soliciting donations for a leper colony in British Guiana (now Guyana) under the auspices of the "Brother Mathias Foundation", which he had legally chartered—the name was his own invention, but possibly referred to the actual Brother Matthias who had befriended Babe Ruth at the Baltimore orphanage where Ruth had been confined as a child.

While posing as a laundry man, Bruce stole several priests' clergy shirts and a clerical collar. He was acquitted because of the legality of the New York state-chartered foundation, the actual existence of the Guiana leper colony, and the local clergy's inability to expose him as an impostor. Later, in his semifictional autobiography How to Talk Dirty and Influence People, Bruce said that he had made about $8,000 in three weeks, sending $2,500 to the leper colony and keeping the rest.

Obscenity arrests
On October 4, 1961, Bruce was arrested for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco, where he had used the word "cocksucker", and said that "to is a preposition, come is a verb"; that the sexual context of 'come' was so common that it bore no weight; and that if someone hearing it became upset, he "probably can't come". Although the jury acquitted him, other law enforcement agencies began monitoring his appearances, resulting in frequent arrests under obscenity charges.

Bruce was arrested again in 1961 in Philadelphia for drug possession, and again in Los Angeles two years later. The latter arrest took place in then-unincorporated West Hollywood, and the arresting officer was a young deputy named Sherman Block, who later became county sheriff. The charge this time was that the comedian had used the word "schmuck", an insulting Yiddish word that was also considered a term for "penis". The Hollywood charges were later dismissed.

On December 5, 1962, Bruce was arrested on stage at the Gate of Horn folk club in Chicago. That year, he played at Peter Cook's The Establishment club in London, and in April the next year he was barred from entering the United Kingdom by the Home Office as an "undesirable alien".

In April 1964, he appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village, with undercover police detectives in the audience. He was arrested along with club owners Howard and Elly Solomon, who were arrested for allowing an obscene performance. On both occasions, Bruce was arrested after leaving the stage.

A three-judge panel presided over his widely publicized six-month trial, prosecuted by Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Richard Kuh, with Ephraim London and Martin Garbus as the defense attorneys. Bruce and Howard Solomon were found guilty of obscenity on November 4, 1964. The conviction was announced despite positive testimony and petitions of support from—among other artists, writers and educators—Woody Allen, Bob Dylan, Jules Feiffer, Allen Ginsberg, Norman Mailer, William Styron, and James Baldwin, and Manhattan journalist and television personality Dorothy Kilgallen and sociologist Herbert Gans. Bruce was sentenced on December 21, 1964, to four months in a workhouse; he was set free on bail during the appeals process and died before the appeal was decided. Solomon, the owner of the club where Lenny was arrested, later saw Bruce's conviction overturned.

Later years

Bruce appeared on network television only six times. In his later club performances, he was known for relating the details of his encounters with the police directly in his comedy routine. These performances often included rants about his court battles over obscenity charges, tirades against fascism, and complaints that he was being denied his right to freedom of speech. He was banned outright from several U.S. cities.

In September 1962, his only visit to Australia caused a media storm, although he was neither banned nor forced to leave the country. He was booked for a two-week engagement at Aaron's Exchange Hotel, a small pub in central Sydney, by American-born, Australia-based promoter Lee Gordon, who was by then deeply in debt, nearing the end of his formerly successful career, and desperate to save his business. Bruce's first show at 9 p.m. on September 6 was uneventful, but his second show at 11 p.m. led to major public controversy. Bruce was heckled by audience members, and when local actress Barbara Wyndon stood up and complained that Bruce was only talking about America and asked him to talk about something different, a clearly annoyed Bruce responded, "Fuck you, madam. That's different, isn't it?" Bruce's remark shocked some audience members and several walked out.

By the next day, several Sydney papers denounced Bruce as "sick"; one illustrated their story with a retouched photograph appearing to show Bruce giving a fascist salute. The venue owners cancelled the rest of Bruce's performances, and he retreated to his Kings Cross hotel room. Local university students (including future OZ magazine editor Richard Neville), who were fans of Bruce's humor tried to arrange a performance at the Roundhouse at the University of New South Wales, but at the last minute the university's vice-chancellor rescinded permission to use the venue, with no reason given, and an interview Bruce was scheduled to give on Australian television was cancelled by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Bruce remained largely confined to his hotel, but eight days later gave his third and last Australian concert at the Wintergarden Theatre in Sydney's eastern suburbs. Although it had a capacity of 2,100, only 200 people attended, including a strong police presence, and Bruce gave what was described as a "subdued" performance. It was long rumored that a tape recording of the historic performance was made by police, but it was in fact recorded by local jazz saxophonist Sid Powell, who brought a portable tape recorder to the show. The tape was rediscovered in 2011 in the possession of Australian singer Sammy Gaha, who had acted as Bruce's chauffeur during his visit; it was subsequently donated to the Lenny Bruce audio collection at Brandeis University. Bruce left the country a few days later and spoke little about the experience.

Increasing drug use also affected Bruce's health and repeated arrests further caused deterioration to his mental health. By 1966, he had been blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the U.S. as owners feared prosecution for obscenity. He gave a famous performance at the Berkeley Community Theatre in December 1965, which was recorded and became his last live album, The Berkeley Concert. The performance has been described as lucid, clear and calm, and one of his best. His last performance took place on June 25, 1966, at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, on a bill with Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention. The performance was not remembered fondly by Bill Graham, whose memoir describes Bruce as "whacked out on amphetamine"; Graham thought that Bruce finished his set emotionally disturbed. Zappa asked Bruce to sign his draft card, but the suspicious Bruce refused.

At the request of Hefner and with the aid of Paul Krassner, Bruce wrote an autobiography that was serialized in Playboy in 1964 and 1965. It was later published as How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. During this time, Bruce also contributed a number of articles to Krassner's satirical magazine The Realist.

Death and posthumous pardon
On August 3, 1966, Bruce was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home. The official photo taken at the scene showed him lying naked on the floor, a syringe and burned bottle cap nearby, along with various other narcotics paraphernalia. Record producer Phil Spector, a friend of Bruce's, bought the negatives of the photographs "to keep them from the press". The official cause of death was "acute morphine poisoning caused by an overdose".

Bruce's remains were interred in Eden Memorial Park Cemetery in Mission Hills, California, but an unconventional memorial on August 21 was controversial enough to keep his name in the spotlight. Over 500 people came to the service to pay their respects, led by Spector. Cemetery officials tried to block the ceremony after ads for it encouraged attendees to bring box lunches and noisemakers. Delivering the eulogy, featured at the end of the documentary Lenny Bruce Without the Tears, the Rev. William Glenesk said:

"He was in a sense an evangelist, on a street corner. He was a man—up tight against an artificial world... who shattered its façades, and its hypocrisy, and—if you will pardon the phrase which seems to become a cliche—he saw life as it is."

Bruce's epitaph reads: "Beloved father—devoted son / Peace at last". Dick Schaap concluded his eulogy to Bruce in Playboy with the words: "One last four-letter word for Lenny: Dead. At forty. That's obscene". A memorial event was held at the Judson Memorial Church in New York City on August 12, which was "packed to overflowing" an hour before it was due to get underway. It was attended by prominent members of the arts community, many of whom also performed, and included Allen Ginsberg, Joe Lee Wilson, Jean Shepherd, Charlie Haden, and The Fugs; Paul Krassner officiated.

On December 23, 2003, 37 years after Bruce's death, New York Governor George Pataki granted him a posthumous pardon for his obscenity conviction.

Legacy
Bruce was the subject of the 1974 biographical drama Lenny, directed by Bob Fosse and starring Dustin Hoffman, who was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for the role. It was based on the Broadway stage play of the same name by Julian Barry, which starred Cliff Gorman in his 1972 Tony Award-winning role. The main character's editing of a fictionalized film version of Lenny was also a major part of Fosse's own autobiopic, the 1979 Academy Award-nominated All That Jazz, where Gorman again played Bruce.

The documentary film Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth (1998), directed by Robert B. Weide and narrated by Robert De Niro, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Episode 12 of Season 1 of Liberty on Trial in America: Cases That Defined Freedom, aired on January 3, 2020, explored the ways in which Bruce and the First Amendment affected each other.

In 2004, Comedy Central placed Bruce at number three on its list of the 100 greatest stand-ups of all time, above Woody Allen (4th) and below Richard Pryor (1st) and George Carlin (2nd). Both comedians who ranked higher than Bruce considered him a major influence. Pryor said that hearing Bruce for the first time "changed my life"; while Carlin said that Bruce was a "brilliant comedian" who influenced him as much as a man in his moral thinking and attitudes as he did as a comedian. Carlin was arrested along with Bruce after refusing to provide identification when police raided a Bruce performance.

In popular culture

 * In 1966, Grace Slick co-wrote and sang the Great Society song "Father Bruce".
 * Bruce is pictured in the top row of the cover of the Beatles 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
 * The clip of a news broadcast featured in "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night" by Simon & Garfunkel carries the ostensible newscast audio of Bruce's death. In another track on the album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)", Paul Simon sings, "... I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce, that all my wealth won't buy me health."
 * Tim Hardin's fourth album Tim Hardin 3 Live in Concert, released in 1968, includes the song "Lenny's Tune" about his friend Bruce.
 * Nico's 1967 album Chelsea Girl includes a track entitled "Eulogy to Lenny Bruce", a version of Hardin's "Lenny's Tune" with the lyrics slightly altered. In it, she describes her sorrow and anger at Bruce's death.
 * The Stranglers' 1977 song "No More Heroes" references Lenny Bruce, asking "Whatever happened to dear old Lenny?"
 * Genesis's 1974 song "Broadway Melody of 1974" depicts a dystopic New York where "Lenny Bruce declares a truce and plays his other hand, Marshall McLuhan, casual viewin', head buried in the sand" and "Groucho, with his movies trailing, stands alone with his punchline failing."
 * John Mayall's 1969 live album The Turning Point opens with the song "The Laws Must Change", featuring the line "Lenny Bruce was trying to tell you many things before he died".
 * Bob Dylan's 1981 song "Lenny Bruce", from his Shot of Love album, describes a brief taxi ride the two men shared. In its last line, Dylan recalls: "Lenny Bruce was bad, he was the brother that you never had."
 * Phil Ochs wrote a song eulogizing Bruce, "Doesn't Lenny Live Here Anymore?", that is featured on his 1969 album Rehearsals for Retirement.
 * Australian group Paul Kelly and the Dots' 1982 album Manila features a track named "Lenny (To Live Is to Burn)", which includes clips of Bruce performing.
 * Bruce is pictured (along with Robert Burns, Dylan Thomas, and Truman Capote) on the cover of 1987's Clutching at Straws by the English progressive rock group Marillion.
 * R.E.M.'s 1987 song "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" mentions Bruce twice. Its opening line is, "That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds, snakes and aeroplanes, and Lenny Bruce is not afraid". The third verse refers to a quartet of famous people sharing the initials L.B. (Bruce, Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev and Lester Bangs).
 * Bruce appears as a character in Don DeLillo's 1997 novel Underworld, where Bruce does a stand-up routine about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
 * Jonathan Larson's musical Rent has a song entitled "La Vie Boheme", mentioning Bruce.
 * The Mighty Mighty Bosstones's 2000 album Pay Attention features the track "All Things Considered" that refers to Bruce. "He would introduce us to his closest friend the one and only Lenny Bruce".
 * Joy Zipper's 2005 album The Heartlight Set features the track "For Lenny's Own Pleasure".
 * Nada Surf's song "Imaginary Friends", from their 2005 album The Weight Is a Gift, refers to Bruce: "Lenny Bruce's bug eyes stare from an LP, asking me just what kind of fight I've got in me."
 * Shmaltz Brewing Company brews a year-round beer called Bittersweet Lenny's R.I.P.A., whose marketing line is "Brewed with an obscene amount of hops".
 * Metric's song "On the Sly", from their 2007 album Grow Up and Blow Away, says "For Halloween I want to be Lenny Bruce".
 * In the 2014 episode "Comic Perversion" of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, fictional comic Josh Galloway says while being arrested: "I would like to dedicate my arrest to Mr. Lenny Bruce. NYPD crucified him, too."
 * A fictionalized version of Bruce is played by Luke Kirby as a recurring character in the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, where he is portrayed as a friend and champion of the titular character. Kirby won an Emmy for his portrayal in 2019.

Compilations
The later compilations are released in the European Union under various oldies labels, as the content used is public domain in the EU.

title: Lenny Bruce


text:
Talk:Regina Protmann

Untitled
I read the whole article and I can't find a single thing this person did that warrents an encyclopedia article. Life history is fine, but in the first line or two the reader needs to know why this person was important. --maveric149

Mav -- she is only vaguely possibly of interest because she founded a cloister -- like hundreds (if not thousands) of other vastly more interesting people. She's here because she came up in user:H.J.'s genealogical research -- Regina is from Braunsberg, which we all know is in Ermland which, as we all by now know, was in Prussia. JHK

Yes and she started community hospitals, whereas before there were no such things. and Yes she started schools for girls, but maybe that was a mistake. And yes 400 years later she is still important enough to the pope, that he came there to visited. But maybe that is only because he wants to declare her Polish, but then again, maybe not, he did not change and polonionize her name. Anyway maybe without her having started a school for girls JHK may not have been able to attend a school. Think about it. And thanks again maveric, it seems like it (browser) cause some space again. I'll have to check it. user:H.J.
 * OK, that's great. Then just say that in the first line or two. Remember -- it is best to start an article with a good defintion first. Just say she was one of the first people to start community hospitals in a certain area. I think that may be the problem so many people have with your articles -- they are not proberly framed around a good definition and go directly into life history stuff that is only of interest to someboyd after they are introduced to why this person was important. --maveric149, Sunday, April 21, 2002

User:maveric, I added a line up front. It already explains her work in the article, but I guess for those who cannot get it or who want to know instantly, without reading all of an article, it is a good idea to summarize or define up front. That is not done in other countries and I followed the original article. There a "surprise ending" or "the point" is being revealed only after doing the "work" of reading it all. For the "instant gratification crowd" here we must begin with a summary. Thanks for the good advise, I should have figured it myself. (However,perhaps the trouble with the education system here,is, that so many students only read the summary ?). user:H.J. Mon,Apr 22

 * No, user:H.J., it isn't the education system here -- it's what we call good writing. Check out any style manual, and it will tell you that, in writing any kind of scholarly essay, the main point should come at the beginning, and then be illustrated in the body.  This is also true in other countries, i can tell you for a fact.  However, it may not have been done as often in the 18th century, when your source was written.  Also, since your source is clearly directed at people who already had some idea of who Regina Protmann was, it is likely that there was a lesser need to make the main point come at the beginning.  Today, she is only a very minor figure, and so it is more important to let people know what she did to deserve an article of her own, from the very beginning.
 * As for your very unnecessary comments about the education system in this country, again, I suggest that you should stop calling the kettle black, Ms. Pot. Few, if any, of your contributions demonstrate that you have even the most minimal background knowledge for making those contributions accurate and meaningful.  Several people who actually do have training in how to read different kinds of sources critically and how to look at the broader historical picture (as well as those who have the ability to write decent English) have tried to help explain these things, in order to help you to create better articles from the start, but your response has always been the same:  either we are trying to cover up the "truth" as you see it, or we are only (in your estimation) only "so-called experts", whose opinions are somehow irrelevant, or you make personal attacks.  These often stem from an attitude which does in fact affect the educational system here, i.e., that one doesn't need to be an expert to teach -- and especially to teach history.  Trained historians are expected to think and examine evidence critically -- and they spend years gaining the background to make that possible.  If you think that the system is bad, then stop promoting the attitude that someone with no training and no apparent willingness to learn (which makes all the difference -- there are lots of people out there who acquire the necessary skills not through formal training, but simply because they wanted to learn) is as qualified as someone who has gone through 5-10 years of advanced, post-baccalaureate training.  Most aren't.  And most of your "so-called" experts, that is, the people who are occupied in higher education and the academic world in general NEVER  think they know everything, because we're constantly bombarded with new discoveries and interpretations.  It's our job to try and keep up.

 * Oh -- and by the way, I'm very sorry, but I think that, in the US, the dame schools in the Protestant colonies that existed as early as the 17th century were very unlikely to have been influenced by a Prussian Catholic, of whom few would have heard. Women of the upper and merchant classes often received some education anyway, even before the time of Regina Protmann, but this was usually within their own homes.  Also, privately funded hospitals were hardly new -- there are examples to be found all over Europe.  Finally, it is difficult to believe that Regina Protmann was more influential than the Enlightenment thinkers and writers who proposed education for the masses-- or especially more influential than Mary Wollstonecraft!  Oh -- and when the Pope beatified Regina Protmann, it was for her importance in setting an example to Catholics in Poland, because she was a native of Braniewo.  It's in his homily from July 13, 1999, given in Warsaw.JHK

To JHK Hello, JHK ,Oh ,that is so nice of you to take the time and write such indept talk. That is so beautiful. I am really touched. Thank you so very much. And I am so glad that you are keeping up with the new discoveries user:H.J.

 * What does indept mean? If I might make a suggestion, perhaps sarcasm works better for those with a true command of the language.  I also note that you have again resorted to snide comments, rather than actually speaking to the point.  Or does it bother you that I was able to mention actual facts that reduce the weight of your arguments?  Please note that all I have ever asked for here is that you please:

 * cooperate with the naming conventions agreed upon (and feel free to contribute to those discussions, if you have some reason for not liking those conventions)
 * try to write articles that make sense in English to people who don't know much about the subject -- you tend to write as if we should all know who these (often) relatively minor historical figures were. This means telling us more about the person's accomplishments than his lineage -- generally, what a person DID is more important than his bloodline
 * don't plagiarize, and when you give a source, please give a correctly formatted bibliographical reference -- unless it's adapted from a Public Domain source, in which case, you should just use the footer everybody else uses "from a 1911 encyclopedia", "adapted from ...", etc.
 * watch your punctuation, and create informative stubs, because that way, you aren't imposing upon other people's time. The people who take pride in well-written, solid articles often spend a lot of time correcting typos and silly errors, when they could be adding real content.  No one expects perfect English from non-native speakers, but at least please make sure that there are no spaces before commas and periods, and that there are spaces after them, and that the links you form are valid (that is, you check to see if there are already articles on available before you create a new, incorrectly titled, article)

 * That's basically it. I really am not sure why you want to contribute, if you don't want the articles here to be the best they can. And, if you do want that, I'm not sure why you refuse to take well-meant advice (for example, the advice from User:maveric149 above) without making nasty comments.  JHK

-- To User:JHK No, not nasty comments. maveric makes sense. I addressed him, stating that. I agree with him, it is best to have a short to the point definition right at the beginning of an article ... as he suggested. Thank you again for all your good effort. user:H.J.

Polish Prussia
It's actually a very common and popular error to confuse Royal Prussia (integral part of Kigdom of Poland 1466-1772) with the Kingdom of Prussia (1701-1871). Check the well resourced, following articles Braniewo, Warmia and Royal Prussia. Now, I know that yours was a good faith edit, but it would be nice, if before reverting you actually check sources before blindly following your instincts. Sunday Hippie (talk) 21:50, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Regina Protmann


text:
Stoic

Stoic may refer to:
 * An adherent of Stoicism; one whose moral quality is associated with that school of philosophy
 * STOIC, a programming language
 * Stoic (film), a 2009 film by Uwe Boll
 * Stoic (mixtape), a 2012 mixtape by rapper T-Pain
 * The Stoic, a 1947 novel by Theodore Dreiser
 * HMS Stoic (P231), an S class submarine of the Royal Navy in World War II
 * Stoic (company), an American video game developer

title: Stoic