text:
Talk:Muses

Disambiguation I
There's also a (Britpo) band named Muse.

 * conventions so far would say put them at Muse (band) and put a link here. -- Tarquin 09:15 Oct 9, 2002 (UTC)

 * This needs a real disambig page: Muse, Muse (band), MusE, MuSE - Omegatron 15:32, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

 * Agreed. It is difficult to find information on the band when searching for them - Az Paz 12:30, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Real disambiguation page created - Az Paz 12:50, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * Isn't it more likely that most people visiting this page would be looking for the indie band rather than the mythological Ancient Greek deities? Sbiki 16:30, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

 * With Muse (disambiguation) the recent re-insertion of the little advert is not required. Deleted.--Wetman 01:27, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

 * Convention would have a link to the band included. For exmaple Chili pepper, Gondwanaland, Placebo, Atreyu, Franz Ferdinand and so on. This is a case for reinstertion. It's addition does not degrade the quality of the page. Space Erased 11:52, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Note that these other pages do not have general dab pages, as Muse (disambiguation) does. The primary meaning of muse is still muse: ask an adult. --Wetman 05:51, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Now, those who have created the dozens of redirects for Muse intending Muse (Greek mythology) might rectify their disservice to the Wikipedia reader and the trouble caused for adult Wikipedians by revising the double redirects that have been created. --Wetman 18:00, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

This article makes the statement that originally there were 3 Muses, but later they were 9 in number -- & with different names. (This claim is also repeated in Zeus.) A quick look at my primary Greek Mythology reference -- H.R. Rose's A Handbook of Greek Mythology, which is usually reliable & very detailed -- does not mention this fact. Can someone offer verification that this was the case? -- llywrch 22:29, 23 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Added the reference to chapter and verse of Pausanias. Bacchiad 23:49, 9 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Somebody please complete the sentence in 4th para in section "Cults of the Muses". "... in Boeotia all played host to festival in which poetic recitations were". The sentence just ends there abruptly. Jay 21:09, 25 Jul 2004 (UTC)
 * ah.. thanks User:Bacchiad. Jay 15:45, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I'm a rookie Wiki - what do you think of my addition?
I added the "functions in literature" section, and also listed the props and poses often associated with certain muses. Whaddaya think?

I liked it. The only (small) problem I saw was the formatting. For literary block quotes, it's preferred to use
 * colons to format it like this

rather than spaces to format it like this. Bacchiad 21:02, 20 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Kickin'. The spaces showed automatically when I pulled from another site, so your change is appropriate and welcome.

-Circular 2:46AM, 28 Dec 2004 (PCT)

Muses and Creativity Today
I found the article very interesting. Does anyone know anything about modern Muses? I'm curious about where artists and creative people in particular get their inspiration from. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 * On inspiration: I am running a virtual gallery called Broken Muses being inspired by broken mannequins. --Brandlm 21:04, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

-- The accompanying painting is of the three Graces, not the Muses.
 * Drugs. (Oct.)
 * More seriously, "they rip each other off".
 * Most seriously: to pay the bills. "Necessity is the mother of invention".

 * Oop. Our anonymous friend is right. I've moved them to Charites. (That's Wikipedian for "Graces" eh.) --Wetman 00:57, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Helike
Hello classicists! Recently a moon of Jupiter (planet) was named Helike. The namers state that Helike was one of the Muses. I don't see this named listed here and am wondering whether it was actually an alternative name for the whole group, since they came from Mount Helicon. Is this correct? (I've tried googling to no avail). The Singing Badger 21:48, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * Best I've found are some sources that have Helike be the tutelary goddess of Mount Helikon (there's a recurring theme about willows, too), which was the dwelling place of the Muses. In that sense, Helike is a composite of all of the Muses. If you think Helike is bad, try Eukelade --I've found absolutely nothing about her, which is surprising considering the high quality sites that exist about Greek mythology.
 * Urhixidur 04:02, 2005 Apr 3 (UTC)
 * Helike was one of the nymphs that nurtured Zeus in his infancy on Crete, hence the astronomy connection. But Mount Helicon is in Boeotia, the haunt of the Muses, not strongly-Zeus-connected. The willow connection is suggestive: The "Willow Mountain" Helicon and also a quite distinct "willow-nymph"— just as there were oak tree nymphs and ash-nymphs (Dryads and Meliai). --Wetman 16:16, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Other Words

 * Are the words "mosaic" or "mouse" related to the muses? I assume that "amusement" or "bemused" is. Perhaps "Cleo-patra", is named after one of the muses, and her name meant, "the father of history"? The "calliope" is a musical instrument, isn't it? (Oct.)

Mosaic indeed derives from Medieval Latin musaicum: "work of the Muses". The root out of which Greek "Mousa" originally stems is *menth- whose basic meaning is "to know", "to learn". So they are "the Ones Who Know"; this is why they are invoked by poets, so as to tell them the truth, although the Mousai have also claimed (in Hesiod) that they can lie as well. Kalliope means "she of the beautiful voice". If the name has been given to an instrument or when I can't tell. Lucius Domitius 03:10, 9 November 2005 (UTC)

The name "Cleopatra" is a composite of "kleos" which means "glory", "renown" and "pater", meaning "father": her name essentially means something along the lines of "she who comes from a glorious father", or "she who is of a glorious pedigree" in more general terms. You are correct in that "kleos" and the name "Kleio" are of the same root, that is *kleu-, which essentially means "to hear". One cannot really say what "Kleio" means by the way, perhaps it is "the renowned one" or "she who knows the deeds of renown" i.e. history. Lucius Domitius 00:29, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Chronology
when are the names first attested? Does Hesiod have them? Or does Hesoid have the4 number nine? 85.232.167.109 17:32, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

It is already in Hesiod's "Theogony"; the catalogue of their names is in lines 77-9. They are nine in number (line 60), probably something to do with the fact that Zeus was having intercourse with Mnemosyne, their mother, for nine days (lines 53-6). Lucius Domitius 17:10, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

 * "The muses are typically invoked at or near the beginning of an epic poem or classical Greek story." What do you suppose was intended by a "classical Greek story"? A prose narrative that invoked a muse? Can you think of one? --Wetman 05:47, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

The use of muse for a living person
I think this article is lacking information for the use of the word for a real living person. The first four headings only talk about mythical persons. The heading The concept of the Muse-poet somewhat goes into the other direction, but really just consists of a quote that does not say very much about the woman. So there is only this sentence left: The word muse may be used figuratively, to denote someone who inspires an artist. in the misc section. Have a look at the German Wikipedia articles: muse (mythical) and muse (relationship), the are not very good, but have about equal length. --84.178.77.42 20:48, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

 * Your translation of the relevant German Wikipedia text on this extension of "muse" would be a welcome addition. See if you don't want to log in. --Wetman 01:41, 19 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Nearly three years later (!), I added the template to request that a section based on Muse (Beziehung) be added here. It would be even better for it to be its own article (e.g. Muse (relationship)), but I leave it to someone else to create such a stub and move the use of the  template there. — 72.244.201.227 (talk) 00:49, 17 July 2009 (UTC).
 * And even 3 more years and there is basically no mention at all of the modern muse in this article.. people are often referred to as being someone's "muse" or the concept of it, and there is no discussion in the article at all about this.--114.205.84.126 (talk) 12:57, 23 March 2013 (UTC)
 * Another nine years, and someone has at last translated/written Muse (source of inspiration). The wheels here grind slow but exceeding fine. A pointer to that article at the hatnote should be sufficient. Herostratus (talk) 03:32, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

Classical Invocations of the muses
However beautiful their poetry, perhaps we should not include Shakespeare, Dante and Milton among the Classics? Surely there must be other surviving Greek authors who invoked the muses. Could we put the more "modern" examples in a subsequent subsection? cladist Oct 4 2006

 * Go for it! introduce the Renaissance/Baroque invocations with a brief note on how they differ from their classical models. --Wetman 13:27, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

What about Edmund Spenser's poem "The Teares of The Muses"? It seems relevant to this article. Kestrel7 21:47, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Disambiguation II
Multiple disambiguation is not used on article pages, in wikipedia per the wikipedia disambiguation guidelines. This guideline states that where the user may be searching for something else, a link is provided. It is perfectly reasonable to provide a direct link to another article where there is one other use (as per the edit comment in Renesis13's edit - it provides an example where one other use for "ColdFusion" ).

However, the guidelines also clearly state that:-
 * "Where there are several articles to be disambiguated from each other, include a link to a separate disambiguation page."

The Muse (disambiguation) page has 19 separate articles for the term (although 4 are redlinks). Disambiguation pages are provided specifically to avoid multiple disambiguation in articles. Guinness 11:24, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

 * You are misinterpreting the guidelines. That the guidelines says to include a link to a separate disambiguation page does NOT mean that a secondary common article cannot (or should not) also be linked to.  Why else would there be a template for it?  Please read the guidelines more carefully, as well as the instructions for use of the "otheruses" templates (Template:Otheruses). -- Renesis (talk) 15:43, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I think we're going to disagree on the interpretation of the guidlines, although I'm a little surprised about the existence of a template. In any case since we are not going to agree between ourselves on this, I have asked for the guidelines to be clarified.  I humbly suggest that you keep an eye on anything that goes on there, and add your input as you see fit. Regards, Guinness 21:56, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

I don't think the band Muse reaches the level of common-ness for inclusion in the base-name article along with the dab, though, even though I agree that in some cases a secondary use could. -- JHunterJ 22:37, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
 * Muse is the most popular band in the UK at the moment... it's blatantly obvious to me that they do warrant an inclusion in the base-name article. -DMurphy 19:39, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

 * Yeah I should of read this before, but I added the link to the rock band Muse. They are a phenomenally popular band and lets face it, it's not hurting anybody to have the link there. GrahamGRA 00:40, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

 * They aren't phenomenally popular outside of the UK, and Wikipedia isn't UK-centered. Pink (singer) is more popular than Muse (at least on this side of the pond), but she doesn't get mentioned in the hatnote for Pink either. -- JHunterJ 00:45, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Then add her if you want. The UK is quite important for music bands. Muse have released over 7 million albums worldwide, not just in the UK. That makes them popular and that gives full rights to put them on the page as a shortcut. GrahamGRA 00:49, 18 April 2007 (UTC) Additional: Oh and it's worth mentioning, the article about disambiguation is a guideline, not an official wikipedia policy kthx. Additional Additional: The link to the Muse disambiguation page still exists. Users aren't blocked from the use.

 * I don't want, that's the point. I want to avoid hatnote bloat. -- JHunterJ 02:31, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

10th and 11th muse
Aren't those associated with film and television, respectivly?--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus 03:57, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

Disambiguation III
I have removed the section on the National Science Foundation MUSE project and all links to related web sites. It has nothing to do with muse in this context, and its entry has a link on the muse disambiguation page.  PacificBoy  15:18, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Vandalism
There appears to be vandalism one that page that states "Andrew is gay". I'm deleting now --

Weasel word banner bad
what is with this weasel word banner hegemony. "weasel word" is such a nancy way of complaining about the phrasing, put that banner somewhere else it's seriously detracting from the aesthetics of a wiki. ("weasel words"?!? too casual! sounds hokey!  lends an undue air of amateurness to wikipedia! stupid!)  and what's with the wiktatorship? i can't delete the banner myself. this banner is anti-wiki.

 * weasel words don't refer to using casual or simple language, they refer to words that indirectly push an opinion or position without doing so.72.89.142.185 (talk) 18:38, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

 * "indirectly push an opinion or position without doing so"
 * What is this intended to mean? It is a self-contradicting, hence meaningless, statement, essentially claiming that something does something without doing it!  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.114.111 (talk) 20:51, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Thelxinoe
The article at Thelxinoe (Moon) states that the moon is named for a muse, one of muses. A quick google of the name has revealed websites saying the same thing. I don't have a primary source so I can add her to the article, so I'm hoping someone else will do some investigating. T@nn 09:21, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

User:Ajuk's move of Muse to Muse (Greek mythology)
I posted at User:Ajuk's Talkpage the following note:
 * Now that you have created the dozens of redirects for Muse links that intend Muse (Greek mythology), you might help rectify this disservice to the Wikipedia reader and the trouble caused for other Wikipedians by helping revise the double redirects that you have created. You will find them at Muse by selecting "What links here" in the left-hand table. This is part-and-parcel of a page title move. I have also posted this note at Talk:Muse (Greek mythology). Thank you. --Wetman 18:13, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I have made a move request to restore the primary meaning to the base name article -- JHunterJ 18:19, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

(edit conflict) In case anyone thinks this is frivolous carping, there are more than 600 links to Muse, the vast majority of which need to link to Muse (Greek mythology). Anyone care to help? Any fans of Muse (band) out there reading this? ''silence. beat. beat. ...pin drops.'' --Wetman 18:35, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
 * I've redirected Muse to Muse (Greek mythology), since that appears to be the primary usage. The move back to the base name will apparently take longer. -- JHunterJ 18:42, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

 * Wait! I can manage to fix the relevant ones among the ca. 600 double redirects from Muse to Muse (Greek mythology), if I can have some help. Let's work out what to do here at this Talkpage. Hold off on further changes: Muse (Greek mythology) would strip away lots of popcruft, for one thing... --Wetman 21:36, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Redirect
Ok, I propose making this a redirect to Muse (disambiguation). -- Kimon talk 16:25, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Well, I suppose I should have looked here first, but I went ahead and changed it to the disambiguation page. Too bold? Esrever 17:32, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

Anyway to find out what is more commonly searched for the band or the greek thing? Maybe is should redirect to Selma Hayek? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Ajuk (talk • contribs).
 * Thank you for attempting to restore the pages. Cut-n-paste moves, however, lose the edit history for the affected articles. I will see if the attempt is enough to make the return "speedy" now WP:RM -- JHunterJ 21:12, 22 April 2007 (UTC)

OK but this redirect fixes the links for now right? Ajuk 22:04, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
 * Very nearly -- having a "base name" article redirect to a "base name (identifier)" article is a bit backwards, but that's simply an administrative fix-up. Or it should have been, I thought. -- JHunterJ 22:07, 23 April 2007 (UTC)

Comments moved from (now-deleted) Talk:Muse. --Stemonitis 06:54, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Sacred grove
Doesn't mouseion (museum in English) literally mean "sacred grove" (of the muses)? If so, this should be noted in the article. Badagnani (talk) 04:45, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Muse attributes
a muse i salso a inspiration; or a guiding spirit —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.16.53.81 (talk) 02:12, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

a muse is further a strengthening; mind supporting unique and close felt friend and kindred soul--ElkeK 22:13, 9 January 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by ElkeK (talk • contribs)

Translation of the Muses' names
Petition to remove the word 'the' from the front of all their names. In my understanding of ancient greek you'd never need an article before them (since they're names there as well ...) and the word gets in the way of sense in some cases. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.69.77.254 (talk) 21:37, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Muses in Modern Art
Please see the talk page item at Talk:Thalia for an article/topic idea either for a section on this page or a full page (list) on its own. Apparently I need to create an account to start a new page and right now I would rather not do that as I am not sure what my username is going to be yet. 66.102.199.176 (talk) 17:38, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Books
Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Movies & Plays
The Muse (film)

Xanadu (film)

Paintings & Sculpture
The Muses (oil painting by Maurice Denis)

The Nine Muses sculpted by Troy Pillow

Music
Muse (band)

66.102.199.176 (talk) 18:04, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Comics
Girl Genius includes a set of clockwork muses based on the legend.

WeepingAngel63 (talk) 04:50, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Pierides
I was looking up info about the Pierides and found this page. Most sources I've seen say that they were turned into magpies; Wikipedia's the only one I've found that also says jackdaws. I don't know anything about this subject, but someone who does might want to double-check it. It would also be nice to have a citation for the Pierides myth -- I know Ovid talked about them, but is that the source of the story mentioned here? Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Ranetz (talk • contribs) 19:27, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Link to Muse (band)
How come the direct link to Muse (band) at the top of the page was removed? CR4ZE (talk) 11:20, 15 May 2010 (UTC)
 * It's been replaced with a link to Muse (disambiguation). More appropriate as there are multiple articles/subjects with this name. Voceditenore (talk) 12:31, 15 May 2010 (UTC)

Link to Facebook Photo Gallery of the Muses Depicted in Art
This is the Facebook page with the most extensive gallery of photos online: Wikipedia's external links guidelines do not prohibit all links to Facebook, only those not contributing to a users' experience.
 * Facebook Gallery of the Muses Depicted in Art

 * On Wikipedia, external links should be reliable sources. According to WP:EL, "links to social networking sites (such as Myspace and Facebook)" should not be on Wikipedia, "except for a link to an official page of the article's subject".  What is difficult to understand about this? --Fama Clamosa (talk) 19:50, 1 February 2011 (UTC)

 * The link is to a Facebook photo gallery -- the most extensive I have found on the net. Wikipedia's users would benefit from a direct link to it. Wikipedia's relationship to resources on Facebook will evolve. The images take advantage of Facebook's recent implementation of high-res photo galleries...this is a valuable resource to persons interested in the representation of the Muses in art. Why is it such a singular issue to you?? Just let the link remain...it could very well be that you are the only person objecting to it. This is something we will not know, however, if you so obsessively remove it.
 * The problem is that it is not reliable. How do we know that what is in that link is relevant to this article and will remain so? In addition these sort of Facebook pages come and go all the time. The images may also be in breach of copyright, and so we would discourage linking to it. Ultimately it boils down to there being consensus here that wikipedia shouldn't link to Facebook except in particular circumstances, which this is not. Quantpole (talk) 22:26, 1 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Ok let's hold off on the link to this Facebook gallery until we are all more familiar with the resources on Facebook. In the meantime can you monitor this page? I would like to develop it and those for the other muses more thoroughly but apparently Fama Clamosa has issues. For example the 'See also' section should be expanded to include links to similar archetypes in other religions. It is very uncommon for a page on a subject as important as the Muses not to have any 'See also' links whatsoever. I think Fama Clamosa must be taking this disagreement personally. Thanks in advance.FriendlyHelper (talk) 01:12, 2 February 2011 (UTC)

How many muses? One or more?
The article title is 'Muse', singular. Most of the content is about 'Muses', plural. Please, please, /please/ can we have some literate editors and some sort of linguistic quality control in this would-be encyclopaedia?! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.114.111 (talk) 20:55, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
 * This would've been funnier if you'd invented a user name. Cynwolfe (talk) 21:26, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

For my own information, does anyone know of an ancient variation (nothing recent please) of a myth in which one of the nine was somehow different or separate from the other eight?--DStanB (talk) 19:12, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
 * In Metamorphoses by Ovid (hopefully ancient enough), Calliope speaks for the rest of the muses as the most talented among them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GoldCoastPrior (talk • contribs) 01:22, 9 July 2015 (UTC)

Function in Literature
"Seven classic examples are:" Anyone else missing the monumental invocation of the Muses (115 vv.!) that constitutes the proem of Hesiod's Theogony? --Heunir (talk) 00:25, 8 November 2011 (UTC)

"Seven Classic examples"
People keep adding classic examples but not changing the numeric value of that sentence. I changed it to "For example:" To allow for indefinite playfuntime adding of examples. Thanks for the Hesiod note, didn't remember that one. CircularReason (talk) 22:17, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

Tenth Muse
I deleted a large section on the "tenth muse." This was listed as a "somewhat conventional compliment paid to female poets." There was mention that Plato called Sappho the tenth muse (apparently in the Palatine Anthology), but looking at the text, she's at best listed as "equal" to the Muses, and not a "tenth Muse." Attribution to Plato is also uncertain. The remaining "tenth muse" citations are a combination of famous female poets and other abstract concepts that are not covered by the nine muses (e.g., "energy" or "film"). All in all, this is pretty incoherent. Perhaps a good comparison is this article that calls the actress Shilpa Shetty a "goddess." Wikipedia would obviously not include her as a potential "goddess" among the Hindu deities. The deleted section is below. --GoldCoastPrior (talk) 19:47, 30 September 2015 (UTC)

"The archaic poet Sappho of Lesbos was given the compliment of being called "the tenth Muse" by Plato. The phrase has become a somewhat conventional compliment paid to female poets since. In Callimachus' "Aetia", the poet refers to Queen Berenike, wife of Ptolemy II, as a "Tenth Muse", dedicating both the "Coma Berenikes" and the "Victoria Berenikes" in Books III–IV. French critics have acclaimed a series of dixième Muses who were noted in Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia (1948): Marie Lejars de Gournay (1566–1645), Antoinette Deshoulières (1633–1694), Madeleine de Scudéry (1607–1701), and Delphine Gay (1804–1855).

Anne Bradstreet, a Puritan poet of New England, was honored with this title after the publication of her poems in London in 1650, in a volume titled by the publisher as The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. This was also the first volume of American poetry ever published.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a Mexican poet, is well known in the Spanish literary world as the tenth Muse.

Gabriele D'Annunzio's 1920 Constitution for the Free State of Fiume was based on the nine Muses and invoked Energeia (energy) as "the tenth Muse".

In 1924, Karol Irzykowski published a monograph on cinematography entitled "The Tenth Muse" ("Dziesiąta muza"). Analyzing silent film, he pronounced his definition of cinema: "It is the visibility of man's interaction with reality".

In The Tenth Muse: A historical study of the opera libretto Patrick J. Smith implicitly suggests that the libretto be considered as the tenth muse. The claim, if made explicit, is that the relation of word and music as constituted by the libretto is not only of significant import, but that the critical appreciation of that relation constitutes a crucial element in the understanding of opera."

- Previous version of the article

TheMuse and The Muse
The usage of TheMuse and The Muse is under discussion, see Talk:The Daily Muse -- 65.94.168.229 (talk) 05:29, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Questions
1. "The earliest known records of the Nine Muses are from Boeotia, the homeland of Hesiod." What would be the records?

"Some ancient authorities thought that the Nine Muses were of Thracian origin." What is the ancient source?

"In Delphi they were whorshipped as Nḗtē, Mésē, and Hýpatē." What's the source?

"Alternatively, later they were called Kēphisṓ, Apollōnís, and Borysthenís, which names characterize them as daughters of Apollo." What's the source?

"In a later tradition, a set of four Muses were recognized: Thelxinóē, Aoidḗ Archē, and Melétē, said to be daughters of Zeus and Plusia or of Uranus." What is the tradition?

2. The article mentions Pierus. The link behind that name points to a page with two possibilites. Which one of the two applies?

3. "Some Greek writers give the names of the nine Muses as Kallichore, Helike, Eunike, Thelxinoë, Terpsichore, Euterpe, Eukelade, Dia, and Enope." Who are these Greek writers?

4. "Others included Science, Geography, Mathematics, Philosophy, and especially Art, Drama, and inspiration." Why should all the words be capitalized? Why should the last word in the set not be capitalized?

ICE77 (talk) 08:03, 1 January 2018 (UTC)

Attempt to move the primary for Muse to the disamb page
There is a requested move to place the word Muse at the disamb page instead of this one. This RM was opened on December 16, 2020. Randy Kryn (talk) 00:18, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Muse (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 13:32, 23 December 2020 (UTC)

Muse (band) in hatnote
Should Muse (band), given 1) its pageviews (consistenly more than Muses) and 2) the likelihood that someone looking for the band ends up here through the Muse redirect (very likely), not be given a specific mention in the hatnote? i.e. ''"Muse" redirects here. For the band, see Muse (band). For other uses, see Muse (disambiguation).'' This seems to be common practice in this type of situation, and it would certainly save a lot of readers a click. It would not make the hatnote overly long and I see no other possible disadvantage to it. Lennart97 (talk) 22:40, 23 February 2021 (UTC)

I've made the change that I proposed above. If you oppose it, feel free to revert and discuss. Lennart97 (talk) 14:02, 25 February 2021 (UTC)

Sorting order of the nine muses
Is there a preferred order of the names? I noticed that it is not consistent in different languages and sources. If the order has no logic or meaning, would it be an idea to sort the names alphabetically everywhere? Wiki-uk (talk) 07:10, 14 October 2021 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress
There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Muse (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 18:48, 29 December 2023 (UTC)

Protected edit request on 24 March 2024
-per WP:REDCAT: //● →█2003  LN  6█→ ●// 22:33, 24 March 2024 (UTC)
 * ✅ * Pppery * it has begun... 20:46, 25 March 2024 (UTC)

Etymology
The etymology given (at 'Functions in society') is only one of many hypotheses given at Wiktionary Exarchus (talk) 17:26, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

 * From wiktionary:
 * Several hypotheses exist:
 * From *Μονθια (*Monthia), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”) + *dʰeh₁-, whence μανθάνω (manthánō).
 * From *Μοντια (*Montia), from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to tower; mountain”), since all the most important cult-centres of the Muses were on mountains or hills, but Beekes finds this etymology impossible, as the root mont- 'mountain' from IE *men- is not found in Greek.
 * From Proto-Indo-European *mō-, *mē- (“endeavour, will, temper”). Cognate with μῶμαι (mômai, “to seek after, meditate”), μαίομαι (maíomai, “to seek after”), μαιμάω (maimáō, “to be very eager”), Latin mōs, English mood, Proto-Slavic *sъmě̀ti.
 * Beekes suggests the possibility of a borrowing from Pre-Greek.
 * Swerdlow traces it back to Bohairic Coptic Egyptian mōw—apparently cognate with Hebrew משה, Moses—medieval sources mentioning that, like the prophet, “music was found by the water.”
 * Eugenia ioessa (talk) 22:05, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Thalia
I WP:Boldly removed "and a Charite" from the description of Thalia. In Hesiod, Thalia (Muse) is the daughter of Mnemosyne (Th. 77), Zeus's fifth wife (Th. 915–17), while Thalia (Grace) is the daughter of Eurynome (Th. 909), Zeus's third wife (Th. 907–911).

There are also the Nereid Thalia (Th. 245) daughter of Doris and Nereus (Th. 240–264). Eugenia ioessa (talk) 21:50, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Muses


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Alkmaar

Alkmaar is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The municipality has a population of 111,766 as of 2023.

History
The earliest mention of the name Alkmaar is in a 10th-century document. As the village grew into a town, it was granted city rights in 1254. The oldest part of Alkmaar lies on an ancient sand bank a couple of meters (yards) above the surrounding region; it afforded some protection from inundation during medieval times. Its vicinage consists of some of the oldest polders in existence. Older spellings include Alckmar.

On June 24, 1572, after the Geuzen captured the town, five Franciscans from Alkmaar were taken to Enkhuizen and hanged, becoming the martyrs of Alkmaar.

Siege of Alkmaar
In 1573 the city underwent a siege by Spanish forces under the leadership of Don Fadrique, son of the Duke of Alva. The citizens sent urgent messages for help to the Prince of Orange; he responded by promising to open the floodgates of the dykes and flood the region if the need arose, which despite the protestations of the peasantry, fearful for their harvest, he proceeded to do.

Some of his dispatches fell into the hands of Don Fadrique, and, with the waters beginning to rise, the Spaniards raised the siege and fled. It was a turning point in the Eighty Years War and gave rise to the expression Bij Alkmaar begint de victorie ("Victory begins at Alkmaar"). The event is still celebrated every year in Alkmaar on 8 October, the day the siege ended.

Since the French Revolutionary Wars
In 1799, during the French Revolutionary Wars, an Anglo-Russian expeditionary force captured the city but was ultimately defeated in the Battle of Castricum. After that battle, on 18 October 1799, the two opposing sides held the Convention of Alkmaar which met to determine the fate of the defeated Anglo-Russian force. The French victory was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as "Alkmaer".

The North Holland Canal, opened in 1824, was dug through Alkmaar. In 1865 and 1867 the railways between Alkmaar and Den Helder and between Alkmaar and Haarlem were built respectively.

In the second half of the 20th century, Alkmaar expanded quickly with development of new neighbourhoods. On 1 October 1972, the town of Oudorp and the southern portions of Koedijk and Sint Pancras were added to the municipality of Alkmaar.

Administrative divisions
The municipality of Alkmaar historically consists of the following cities, towns, villages and districts: Alkmaar, Bergermeer, Daalmeer, De Hoef, De Horn, De Nollen, Het Rak, Huiswaard, Koedijk (southeastern part), Overdie, Oudorp and Omval. On 1 January 2015 the municipalities of Graft-De Rijp and Schermer were merged into Alkmaar. The historical village of De Rijp is thus since a part of Alkmaar.

These once separate villages are now all linked together by the suburban sprawl of buildings that arose between the late 1970s and early 1990s. During this time, the population of Alkmaar almost doubled.

Local government
The municipal council of Alkmaar consists of 39 seats, which are divided as follows after the 2022 elections:

 * D66 – 5 seats
 * OPA – 5 seats
 * GroenLinks – 5 seats
 * BAS – 4 seats
 * VVD – 4 seats
 * PvdA – 3 seats
 * CDA – 3 seats
 * Leefbaar Alkmaar – 3 seats
 * Partij voor de Dieren – 2 seats
 * Senior's Party of Alkmaar (Senioren Partij Alkmaar) – 2 seats
 * FvD – 1 seat
 * SP – 1 seat
 * ChristenUnie - 1 seat

Transport
The A9 motorway runs from Amsterdam to Alkmaar, then continues on to Den Helder as the N9.

There are direct trains to Den Helder, Hoorn, Zaandam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Ede, Arnhem, Nijmegen, 's-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Haarlem. For exact details see Alkmaar railway station.

Alkmaar has two railway stations:

 * Alkmaar
 * Alkmaar Noord

The waterway Noordhollandsch Kanaal, which opened in 1824, runs through Alkmaar. . it can be crossed (among other ways) using two of the five operating vlotbruggen, Koedijkervlotbrug and Rekervlotbrug.

Main sights
Alkmaar has many medieval buildings that are still intact, most notably the tall tower of the Grote or Sint-Laurenskerk, where many people from Alkmaar hold wedding ceremonies. The other main attraction, especially in the summer months, is Alkmaar's cheese market at the Waagplein, one of the country's most popular tourist attractions. The cheese market traditionally takes place from the first Friday in April through the first Friday in September. Every Friday morning (10:00–12:30) the Waagplein is the backdrop for this traditional cheese market. After the old-fashioned way of the hand clap, traders and carriers will weigh the cheeses. It is one of only four traditional Dutch cheese markets still in existence. The traditional fare of this cheese market is those cheeses made in the local area, as opposed to the well-known brands of Dutch cheeses, including the Edam and Gouda cheeses. It is not actually possible to buy cheese at the market itself, which is really only a demonstration of how this merchants' market operated in times gone by. However, the demonstration, which takes place in front of the medieval weighing house, is surrounded by many specialized stalls where it is possible to buy all kinds of cheese (and non-cheese) related products. The Waag is also home to the local tourist office and a cheese museum. Alkmaar has 399 registered rijksmonuments, of which most are situated along the city's old canals.

Alkmaar has two large theatres and a big cinema (which was originally two cinemas). A red light district is situated at the Achterdam, and Alkmaar has a nightlife scene as well which takes place in the pubs in front of the cheesemarket. Every year, at the end of May Alkmaar hosts the four-day event Alkmaar Pride, which has a canal pride parade on Saturday.

Museums

 * Beatles Museum – dedicated to The Beatles, as John Lennon's first guitar was made in Alkmaar
 * Holland Cheese Museum – located in the historic weigh house
 * National Beer Museum "De Boom"
 * Op ArtMuseum - closed since 2014
 * City Museum Alkmaar – for history of the city

Sports
Alkmaar is home to the professional football team AZ (Alkmaar Zaanstreek). In 2006, the club moved to a new 17,000 capacity stadium, the DSB Stadion, now named the AFAS Stadion. In 2008–2009, AZ won the Eredivisie, the Dutch football league. It was the second league title for the club after the Eredivisie in 1980/81 with only one league defeat. Notable coaches include former FC Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman, and Netherlands national football team coach Louis van Gaal.

The city also has a velodrome where the Dutch national track cycling championships are held every year. The city hosted the 2019 European Road Championships.

Public thinking & public service

 * Isaac Dorislaus (1595–1649) a Dutch Calvinist historian and lawyer
 * Jan Janse de Weltevree (1595 in De Rijp – ??) a Dutch sailor, the first Dutchman to visit Korea
 * Cornelis van der Lijn (1608–1679) Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies 1646-1650 and elected Mayor of Alkmaar in 1668
 * Bernard Nieuwentyt (1654 in West-Graftdijk – 1718) a Dutch philosopher, mathematician, physician and magistrate
 * Anna Smitshuizen (1751–1775) the victim of a cause célèbre murder
 * Kees Boeke (1884–1966) a Dutch reformist educator, Quaker missionary and pacifist
 * Nicolette Bruining (1886–1963) a Dutch theologian, teacher and humanitarian in WWII
 * Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer (1896–1978) a resistance fighter, saved Jewish children
 * Coenraad van der Molen (born 1964) successful business man and philanthropist.
 * Cornelis Berkhouwer (1919–1992) politician, President of the European Parliament 1973-1975
 * Rudi Vis (1941–2010) British Labour politician, MP 1997 to 2010
 * Jaap Pop (born 1941) a former Dutch politician, Mayor of Alkmaar 1988-1995
 * Sybilla Dekker (born 1942) a retired Dutch politician and businesswoman
 * Ronald Bandell (1946–2015) a Dutch civil servant, politician and Mayor of Alkmaar 1995–2000
 * Jos Punt (born 1946) bishop in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam
 * Patrick Cammaert (born 1950) a retired Dutch general and commander of UN peacekeeping missions

The arts

 * Maria Tesselschade Roemers Visscher (1594–1649), poet and engraver
 * Pieter van Schaeyenborgh (1600–1657), painter known for pictures of fish; worked in Alkmaar from 1635
 * brothers Caesar van Everdingen (1616/7-1678) & Allaert van Everdingen (1621–1675) Dutch Golden Age painters
 * Emanuel de Witte (1617–1692) a Dutch perspective painter of genre paintings
 * Willem de Fesch (1687–1761) a virtuoso Dutch violone player and composer
 * Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint (1812–1886) a Dutch novelist
 * Cécile de Jong van Beek en Donk (1866–1944) a Dutch feminist writer
 * Dirk Smorenberg (1883–1960) a Dutch Art Deco painter
 * Jan Wils (1891–1972) a Dutch architect and founding member of the De Stijl movement
 * Jan Gerrit van Gelder (1903–1980) a Dutch art historian
 * Ans Wortel (1929–1996) a Dutch painter, poet and writer
 * Rudi Carrell (1934–2006) entertainer, hosted his own TV show
 * Dan van der Vat (1939–2019) a journalist, writer and military historian
 * Angela Groothuizen (born 1959) a Dutch singer, artist and TV personality
 * Karin Bloemen (born 1960) is a Dutch actress and singer
 * Lorena Kloosterboer (born 1962) a Dutch-Argentine artist who paints using trompe-l'œil
 * Joost Zwagerman (1963–2015) a Dutch writer, poet and essayist
 * Marco Borsato (born 1966) a Dutch singer
 * Edwin Brienen (born 1971) a Dutch film director, actor, producer and journalist
 * Hellen van Meene (born 1972) a Dutch photographer known for her portraits
 * Tom Six (born 1973) a Dutch horror filmmaker, writer and actor
 * Roderick Teerink (born 1976) a Dutch-Argentine actor and music producer
 * Melissa Venema (born 1995) a Dutch trumpet player

Science & business

 * Petrus Forestus (1521–1597) a prominent physician of the Dutch Republic
 * Adriaan Anthonisz (1527–1607) a mathematician, surveyor, cartographer, military engineer and burgomaster of Alkmaar
 * Willem Blaeu (1571–1638) a Dutch cartographer, atlas maker and publisher
 * Adriaan Metius (1571–1635) a Dutch geometer and astronomer
 * Cornelis Drebbel (1572–1633) a Dutch engineer, in 1620 built the first navigable submarine
 * Jan Leeghwater (1575 in De Rijp – 1650) a Dutch architect, mill builder and hydraulic engineer
 * Joan Blaeu (1598–1673) a Dutch cartographer
 * Adriaan Reland (1676 in De Rijp – 1718) a Dutch Orientalist scholar and cartographer
 * Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom (1854–1907) a Dutch chemist who studied phase behaviour in physical chemistry
 * Alfred Peet (1920–2007) founder of American coffee retailer Peet's Coffee & Tea
 * Jacob Gelt Dekker (1948 in Oterleek– 2019) a Dutch businessman, philanthropist and writer

Sport

 * Harm Ottenbros (born 1943) a former Dutch road bicycle racer, 1969 world champion
 * Dick Quax (1948–2018) a Dutch-born New Zealand long-distance runner
 * Hans Nijman (1959–2014) a Dutch former mixed martial artist and professional wrestler
 * Richard Goulooze (born 1967) a Dutch former professional footballer with 351 club caps
 * Michel Vonk (born 1968) a Dutch former professional footballer with 342 club caps
 * Jakko Jan Leeuwangh (born 1972) a former speed skater
 * Macha van der Vaart (born 1972) a Dutch field hockey player, team bronze and silver medallist at the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics
 * Steven de Jongh (born 1973) a Dutch former road bicycle racer
 * brothers Yuri Cornelisse (born 1975) & Tim Cornelisse (born 1978) Dutch retired footballers with 371 and 445 club caps
 * Jochem Verberne (born 1978) rower, team silver medallist in the 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Maarten van der Weijden (born 1981) a Dutch long distance and marathon swimmer; Dutch Sportsman of the year 2008
 * Theo Bos (born 1983) a Dutch road and track cyclist
 * Wesley Harms (born 1984) a Dutch professional darts player
 * Gago Drago (born 1985) an Armenian-Dutch welterweight kickboxer
 * Dewi Claire Schreefel (born 1985) a Dutch female professional golfer on the LPGA Tour
 * Tom Büdgen (born 1985) a Dutch professional wrestler who previously worked in WWE, currently signed to All Elite Wrestling under the ring name Malakai Black
 * Yvonne Hak (born 1986) a Dutch middle-distance runner, won gold at the 2010 European Athletics Championships
 * Nycke Groot (born 1988) a Dutch handball player, 141 caps with the women's national team
 * Joyce Sombroek (born 1990) a Dutch field hockey goalkeeper, team gold and silver medallist at the 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics
 * Indy Dontje (born 1992) a Dutch racing driver

Twin towns—sister cities

Alkmaar is twinned with:

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

title: Alkmaar


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Nils Torvalds

Nils Ole Hilmer Torvalds  (born 7 August 1945) is a Finnish politician who has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2012. He is a member of the Swedish People's Party of Finland, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.

Swedo-Finnish Torvalds is the son of the poet Ole Torvalds, and the father of the software engineer Linus Torvalds of Linux kernel fame.

Education and experience
Torvalds was a member of the Communist Party of Finland from 1969 to 1982. He studied economics in Moscow and was the editor of the taistoist magazine Arbetartidningen Enhet. Torvalds has later described his communism as "rebellion". Between 1995 and 2004 Torvalds worked as a foreign correspondent for the Finnish Broadcasting Company in Moscow and Washington.

Torvalds is fluent in Swedish, Finnish, English, German, and Russian. And he also understands Flemish, Danish and Norwegian.

Career in national politics
In 2006, Torvalds joined the Swedish People's Party, and the following year he was elected to the post of the third vice chairperson. This upset some party voters due to Torvalds' past. In 2008, he was elected to Helsinki City Council for term 2009–2012.

On 11 June 2017 the Swedish People's Party chose Torvalds as the party candidate for the 2018 presidential election. Some of his campaign themes were education, technology and the environment. Torvalds was the only candidate who openly supported Finland's NATO membership during his campaign. In the election, Torvalds placed last with 1.5 percent of the votes, while the incumbent president Sauli Niinistö went on to secure his second term.

Member of the European Parliament
Torvalds was a candidate for European Parliament election in 2009 on the Swedish People's Party list. He received 14,044 votes which was insufficient for a seat. However, on 5 July 2012, he was installed in the European Parliament, when Carl Haglund left his seat to join the Katainen Cabinet as Minister of Defence. In the 2014 European Parliament election Torvalds received about 29,000 votes and was elected.

As an MEP his positions have included vice-chair of the Fisheries committee (PECH) and member of the committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE). Since 2021, he has been part of the Parliament's delegation to the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Torvalds has served as shadow rapporteur on the circular economy and on the biofuels directive (which became directive 2015/1513 ) and as rapporteur of the annual report 2018 on the European banking union.

Torvalds opposed the Copyright Directive (2019) since it was first proposed, considering it unbalanced especially because of its article 13 (i.e. 17).

In addition to his committee assignments, Torvalds is part of the MEPs Against Cancer group and the European Parliament Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages.

Following the 2019 elections, Torvalds was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's five-year work program on economic and fiscal policies as well as trade.

In June 2023, Torvalds was the recipient of the Environment and Climate Action Award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards

Linux kernel statement
Nils' son Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, joked during a LinuxCon keynote on 18 September 2013 that the National Security Agency, the creators of SELinux, wanted a backdoor in the kernel. However, later, Linus's father revealed that the NSA had actually asked for the installation of backdoors in Linux. "When my oldest son [Linus Torvalds] was asked the same question: “Has he been approached by the NSA about backdoors?” he said “No”, but at the same time he nodded. Then he was sort of in the legal free. He had given the right answer, [but] everybody understood that the NSA had approached him."

- Nils Torvalds

Other activities

 * Reimagine Europa, Member of the Advisory Board

Honors

 * FIN Order of the Lion of Finland 4Class BAR.svg Order of the Lion of Finland (Finland, 2021)

title: Nils Torvalds


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Amersfoort

Amersfoort is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands. As of 31 January 2023, the municipality had a population of 160,902, making it the second-largest of the province and fifteenth-largest of the country. Amersfoort is also one of the largest Dutch railway junctions with its three stations—Amersfoort Centraal, Schothorst and Vathorst—due to its location on two of the Netherlands' main east to west and north to south railway lines. The city was used during the 1928 Summer Olympics as a venue for the modern pentathlon events. Amersfoort marked its 750th anniversary as a city in 2009.

History
Hunter gatherers set up camps in the Amersfoort region in the Mesolithic period. Archaeologists have found traces of these camps, such as the remains of hearths, and sometimes microlithic flint objects, to the north of the city.

Antiquity
Remains of settlements dating to 1000 BC have been found in the Amersfoort area. The name Amersfoort, after a ford in the Amer River, today called the Eem, first appeared in the 11th century. The city grew around what is now the Hof, where the Bishops of Utrecht established a court in order to control the "" area. It was granted city rights in 1259 by the bishop of Utrecht, Henry I van Vianden. A first defensive wall, made of brick, was completed around 1300 but expansion led to the construction of a new wall in 1380, which was completed around 1450. The Koppelpoort, a combined land and water gate, is part of this second wall. The first wall was demolished and houses were built in its place. Today's Muurhuizen (wallhouses) Street is located where the first wall stood.

The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwentoren (Tower of Our Lady) is one of the tallest medieval church towers in the Netherlands at 98 m. When it was built, it was the middle point of The Netherlands, it was exactly built in the center and a reference for the Dutch grid system. The nickname of the tower is Lange Jan ('Long John').

The construction of the tower and the church was started in 1444. The church was destroyed by an explosion in 1787, but the tower survived, and the layout of the church still can be discerned today through the use of different types of stone in the pavement of the open space that was created. It is now the reference point of the RD coordinate system, the coordinate grid used by the Dutch topographical service: the RD coordinates are (155.000, 463.000).

The inner city of Amersfoort has been preserved well since the Middle Ages. Apart from the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwetoren, the Koppelpoort, and the Muurhuizen (Wall-houses), there is also the Sint-Joriskerk (Saint George's church), the canal-system with its bridges, as well as medieval and other old buildings; many are designated as national monuments. In the Middle Ages, Amersfoort was an important centre for the textile industry, and there were a large number of breweries. Jews also lived in Amersfoort in the Middle Ages, before being expelled from the province in 1546 and beginning to return to the city in 1655.

Origin of the Keistad
The nickname for Amersfoort, Keistad (boulder-city), originates in the Amersfoortse Kei, a 9 t boulder that was dragged from the Soest moors into the city in 1661 by 400 people because of a bet between two landowners. The people got their reward when the winner bought everyone beer and pretzels. Other nearby towns then nicknamed the people of Amersfoort Keientrekker (boulder-puller). This story embarrassed the inhabitants, and they buried the boulder in the city in 1672, but after it was found again in 1903 it was placed in a prominent spot as a monument. There are not many boulders in the Netherlands, so it can be regarded as an icon.

Nieuw Amersfoort
One of the six Dutch towns established in the 17th century in what is now Brooklyn was called "Nieuw Amersfoort" (New Amersfoort). The original patentees were Wolfert Gerritse van Kouwenhoven and Andries Hudde. Unlike other Dutch names which were retained up to the present, Nieuw Amersfoort is now called "Flatlands".

In the 18th century, the city flourished because of the cultivation of tobacco, but from about 1800 onwards began to decline.

The decline was halted by the establishment of the first railway connection in 1863, and some years later, by the building of a substantial number of infantry and cavalry barracks, which were needed to defend the western cities of the Netherlands.

After the 1920s, growth stalled again; in 1970, the national government designated Amersfoort, then numbering some 70,000 inhabitants, as a "growth city".

First World War
During the First World War, the area of Amersfoort with nearby Soesterberg and Zeist was one of the places in The Netherlands where many refugees from Belgium were sheltered. The "Belgenmonument", located in the vicinity of the former refugee camp Elisabethdorp, commemorates this period and the hardships of the Belgian refugees.

Second World War
Since Amersfoort was the largest garrison town in the Netherlands before the outbreak of the Second World War, with eight barracks, and part of the main line of defence, the whole population of then 43,000 was evacuated at the start of the invasion by the Germans in May 1940. After four days of battle, the population was allowed to return.

There was a functioning Jewish community in the town, at the beginning of the war numbering about 700 people. Half of them were deported and killed, mainly in Auschwitz and Sobibor. In 1943, the synagogue, dating from 1727, was severely damaged on the orders of the then Nazi-controlled city government. It was restored and opened again after the war, and has been served since by a succession of rabbis.

There was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Amersfoort during the war. The camp, officially called Polizeiliches Durchgangslager Amersfoort (Police Transit Camp Amersfoort), better known as Kamp Amersfoort, was actually located in the neighbouring municipality of Leusden.

After the war the leader of the camp, Joseph Kotälla, served a life sentence in prison. He died in captivity in 1979. Some of the victims of the camp are buried in Rusthof cemetery near the town.

Among the victims were prisoners of war from the Soviet Union, including 101 Central Asians, mostly Uzbeks. Locals would commemorate them, but the identity of the 101 soldiers was not known, until journalist Remco Reiding started investigating this case in 1999, after hearing about the cemetery. Amongst the few remaining people who witnessed the 101 soldiers is Henk Broekhuizen.

Museums

 * The Mondriaan House: birthplace of the painter Piet Mondriaan. Exhibits a lifesize reconstruction of his workshop in Paris. Some temporary shows and work by artists inspired by the painter.
 * Flehite: historic, educational and temporary exhibitions behind a splendid facade. The museum closed in 2007 due to asbestos contamination. It was refurbished and reopened in May 2009.
 * Zonnehof: small elegant modernist building designed by Gerrit Rietveld on an eponymous square just south of the centre with temporary exhibitions of mostly contemporary art. (closed)
 * Armando Museum: work by the painter Armando who lived in Amersfoort as a child in a renovated church building. Most of the church and the art on exhibition was destroyed in a fire on 22 October 2007.
 * Dutch Cavalry Museum: museum in 475 years old barracks. Most other military museums in the Netherlands got absorbed into the National Military Museum (Nationaal Militair Museum), but the cavalry museum has stood strong. It shows Dutch cavalry and tanks.
 * Culinary Museum (was closed in 2006).
 * Kunsthal KAdE: a modern art exhibition hall.

Sports
Amersfoort had its own professional football (soccer) club named HVC Amersfoort. It was founded on 30 July 1973, but disbanded on 30 June 1982 because of financial problems. The city also hosted the riding part of the modern pentathlon event for the 1928 Summer Olympics. Amersfoort also hosted the Dutch Open (tennis) tournament from 2002 until its end in 2008.

The city is also home to the baseball and softball club Quick Amersfoort. The club's top men's baseball team plays in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse, the highest level of Dutch baseball.

Landmarks
The DierenPark Amersfoort zoo was founded in 1948.

Demographics
As of 2020, Amersfoort had a total population of 157,276 people.

Bus
Bus services are provided by 2 firms: U-OV and Syntus. Syntus provides services in town and the entirety of the province Utrecht, save for the bus to the city Utrecht, which is provided by U-OV.

Rail
Amersfoort has three railway stations:
 * Amersfoort Centraal, the main station, located on the western edge of the city at the crossing of the Amsterdam–Zutphen and Utrecht–Kampen railways
 * Amersfoort Schothorst, located northeast of the city centre on the Utrecht–Kampen railway
 * Amersfoort Vathorst, located in the extreme northeast of the city on the Utrecht–Kampen railway

All three serve direct trains to Utrecht Centraal and Zwolle. Amersfoort Centraal and Amersfoort Schothorst also have direct service to Den Haag Centraal, Amsterdam Centraal, and Amsterdam Zuid. Amersfoort Centraal further serves direct trains to Enschede, Rotterdam Centraal, Schiphol Airport, Leeuwarden, Groningen, Ede–Wageningen and Berlin Hauptbahnhof.

Road
Two major motorways pass Amersfoort:
 * along the north, the A1 motorway (Amsterdam–Apeldoorn)
 * along the east, the A28 motorway (Utrecht–Groningen)

Water
The river Eem (pronounced roughly "aim") begins in Amersfoort, and the town has a port for inland water transport. The Eem connects to the nearby Eemmeer (Lake Eem). The Valleikanaal drains the eastern and joins with other sources to form the Eem in Amersfoort.

Local government
The municipal council of Amersfoort consists of 39 seats. The municipal council elections are held every 4 years. As of 2022, the seats are divided as follows:

 * D66 – 6 seats (5 seats in 2018)
 * GroenLinks – 6 seats (6 seats in 2018)
 * CDA – 5 seats (6 seats in 2018)
 * ChristenUnie – 4 seats (4 seats in 2018)
 * VVD – 4 seats (6 seats in 2018)
 * Amersfoort2014 – 4 seats (3 in 2018)
 * PvdA – 2 seats (2 seats in 2018)
 * Partij voor de Dieren – 2 seats (not represented in 2018)
 * SP – 2 seats (3 seats in 2018)
 * Beter Amersfoort - 1 seat (not represented in 2018)
 * Burger Partij Amersfoort – 1 seat (2 seats in 2018)
 * Amersfoort voor Vrijheid - 1 seat (not represented in 2018)
 * Denk – 1 seat (1 seat in 2018)

The city has a court of first instance (kantongerecht).

Economy
The city is a main location for several international companies:
 * Royal VolkerWessels Stevin N.V., a major European construction-services business.
 * FrieslandCampina, a Dutch dairy cooperative.
 * Royal HaskoningDHV, consultants and engineers.
 * Golden Tulip Hospitality Group, international hotel chain Golden Tulip Hotels, Inns and Resorts.
 * Nutreco, animal feed and human foodstuffs
 * Yokogawa Electric, an electrical engineering and software company, the European headquarters for which are located in Amersfoort

It also has a number of non-governmental organizations and foundations:
 * Christian Union, a Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands.
 * Oikocredit, headquarters of global cooperative society, financing economic development focused on poverty alleviation.
 * Socialist Party, a left-wing social-democratic political party in The Netherlands.
 * KNLTB, the Dutch national lawn-tennis association.
 * Vereniging Eigen Huis, the largest home-owners association in the Netherlands; with 700,000 members, it is also the largest in the world

Notable residents

 * Paulus Buys (1531–1594) – Grand Pensionary
 * Johan van Oldenbarnevelt (1547–1619) – statesman.
 * Piet Mondriaan (1872–1944) – painter, pioneer of 20th century abstract art
 * Dirk Fok van Slooten (1891–1953) – botanist
 * Willem Sandberg (1897–1984) – graphic designer, Stedelijk Museum director
 * Jan van Hulst (1903-1975) – recognised as Righteous Among the Nations
 * Johannes Heesters (1903–2011) – actor and singer
 * Ben Pon (senior) (1904–1968) – car importer and developer of the Volkswagen Type 2
 * Victor Kaisiepo (1948–2010) – advocate for West Papuan self-determination.
 * Paul Cobben (born 1951) – philosopher
 * Gino Vannelli (born 1952) – Canadian singer, songwriter, musician and composer
 * Carolein Smit (born 1960) – Dutch ceramic art sculptor
 * Father Roderick Vonhögen (born 1968) – television host and podcaster
 * Blaudzun (born 1974) – singer and filmmaker, stage name of Johannes Sigmond
 * Sarah Wiedenheft (born 1993) – anime dubbing actress

 * Sport
 * Ben Pon (1936-2019) – sports car racing driver
 * Loet Geutjes (born 1943) – water polo player
 * Feike de Vries (born 1943) – water polo player
 * Ton van Heugten (1945–2008) – former sidecarcross world champion
 * Anke Rijnders (born 1956) – swimmer
 * Frank Drost (born 1963) – swimmer
 * Joop Kasteel (born 1964) – Professional Fighter and Bodybuilder
 * Jan Wagenaar (born 1965) – water polo player
 * John van den Brom (born 1966) – a former professional footballer and manager
 * Arie van de Bunt (born 1969) – water polo goalkeeper
 * Valentijn Overeem (born 1976) – mixed martial artist
 * Alistair Overeem (born 1980) – mixed martial artist & kickboxer
 * Marco van Ginkel (born 1992) – Dutch football player for Milan & the Netherlands national team
 * Bart Ramselaar (born 1996) Dutch professional footballer for FC Utrecht
 * Femke Bol (born 2000) Dutch field and track athlete

Sister city

 * 🇨🇿 Liberec, Czech Republic

title: Amersfoort


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Wageningen

Wageningen is a municipality and a historic city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. It is famous for Wageningen University, which specialises in life sciences. The municipality had a population of 0 in, of which many thousands are students from over 150 countries.

Inhabitants by nationality
71,68% is Dutch, 28,32% has a migration background.

Geography
Wageningen is situated on the north bank of the Nederrijn (the Dutch portion of the Lower Rhine) part of the and the Veluwe, of which the southwest hill is called the Wageningse Berg. Wageningen can be reached by car from highways A12 via the N781, A15 via the N233 and N225, and A50 via the N225, and from the Ede-Wageningen railway station via a 20-minute bus drive to the Wageningen central terminal (see below). ,

Topographic map of the municipality of Wageningen, July 2013 (click to enlarge)

History

The oldest known settlements in the Wageningen area were located north of today's town centre. They were mentioned as early as 828. During the early Middle Ages a small church was built on the hill east of the town. Several wood farms have been found near the top of the hill. In the twelfth century people settled at what is currently the Bergstraat. Close to Hotel de Wereld a stone floor has been found dating back to this period. After the construction of a dike to protect the city from the acidic water from the moors that then occupied the Gelderse Vallei (the current Hoogstraat), the oldest part of the present city was built to the south. The parts of the city north of the Hoogstraat were built later. Wageningen received city rights in 1263. The city was protected by a city wall and a moat, and in 1526 a castle was built. The castle was dismantled during the 18th century, but the foundations of three of the towers and part of the wall remain visible today.

The people, city, and institutions of Wageningen suffered greatly during World War II. The central part of Wageningen was destroyed by artillery fire soon after the German invasion of the country in May 1940. The town is also famous for its role at the end of the war: Wageningen was the site of the surrender of Oberbefehlshaber Niederlande supreme commander Generaloberst Johannes Blaskowitz, to I Canadian Corps commander Lieutenant-General Charles Foulkes, on 5 May 1945, officially ending the war in the Netherlands. The generals negotiated the terms of surrender in the Hotel de Wereld, near the center of the city. Now, each year on 5 May, celebrated as Liberation Day in the Netherlands, Wageningen hosts a large festival. On this occasion, veteran soldiers parade through the city and are honoured for their service, and around 120,000 people visit the pop-podia around the city.

Education and research
In 1918 the town acquired its first institution of higher education, the Landbouwhogeschool Nederland (Netherlands Agricultural College), which was based on the previous agricultural college founded in 1876, and which later became Wageningen University. This initiated the development from a small historical town into a modern technological community, a process which still continues today.

Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), including associated institutes, now employs about 7400 people.

Today, Wageningen is also the central city in Food Valley, the Dutch food & nutrition cluster concentrated around WUR, and comprising many institutes, companies and facilities in the food & nutrition field. Food Valley is regarded as the largest food & nutrition Research & Development cluster in the world. One such firm, Keygene, a plant research company in Wageningen, developed AFLP in the early 1990s and collaborated with Beijing Genomics Institute to sequence the entire genome of Brassica napus.

Sports teams
The city had its own professional football (soccer) club, FC Wageningen, which won the KNVB Cup twice. The club went bankrupt in 1992 and played its last match in May 1992 against NAC Breda.

The city is also home to the largest Korfball club in the country, KV Wageningen.

Traffic and transport
Wageningen is situated on the N225 provincial road, between Driebergen and Arnhem. The N781 provincial road connects Wageningen to the A12 national highway, to the north of the city. A small ferry (for cars, bikes, and pedestrians) crosses the Nederrijn to the south of the city, at Lexkesveer; from there, drivers can connect to the A15 national highway, via the N836 provincial road.

Several firms provide public bus service in and to Wageningen. From the Wageningen central bus terminal, lines connect to Rhenen, Tiel, Veenendaal, Utrecht, Oosterbeek, and Arnhem, and the Ede-Wageningen railway station. Further connections via bus, including to the Hoge Veluwe National Park and the Kröller-Müller Museum, also may be made at the Ede-Wageningen station. Bus service includes the following:

Municipal council
Composition of the Wageningen municipal council since 1982: * Participated in 1986 with the name PPCE, the abbreviation of PSP-PPR-CPN-EVP.
 * Participated in 1998 as a combination of the RPF and the GPV.

Mayor
Wageningen's mayor Floor Vermeulen (m) (VVD), will be installed on Friday 18 June 2021.

Notable residents

 * Johannes de Raey (1622 in Wageningen – 1702) a Dutch philosopher, an early Cartesian
 * Gerrit Zegelaar (1719 – 1794 in Wageningen) a Dutch painter
 * August Falise (1875 in Wageningen – 1936) was a Dutch sculptor and minter of medals
 * Li Edelkoort (born 1950 in Wageningen) a Dutch fashion and design trend forecaster
 * Eline Flipse (born 1954 in Wageningen) a film director of documentaries
 * Alexander Pechtold (born 1965), politician, former local Mayor, lives in Wageningen
 * Jeroen Dijsselbloem (born 1966) a Dutch politician and economist, went to Wageningen University 1985/1991
 * Lisa Hordijk (born 1987 in Wageningen) a Dutch singer, won the second season of X Factor.
 * Nikkie de Jager (born 1994 in Wageningen) a Dutch makeup artist, beauty vlogger, and co-host of Eurovision Song Contest 2021
 * Volkert van der Graaf (born 1969 in Middelburg, Zeeland), environmental activist and convicted left-wing terrorist and murderer, attended Wageningen University and lived at the Droevendaal student commune. In 2002, shot and killed politician Pim Fortuyn.

Sport

 * Aletta van Manen (born 1958 in Wageningen) a retired Dutch field hockey defender, team gold medallist at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Ed van Es (born 1959 in Wageningen) a former water polo player, competed at the 1984 Summer Olympics
 * Annelies Maas (born 1960 in Wageningen) freestyle swimmer, bronze medallist at the 1980 Summer Olympics
 * Jacqueline Toxopeus (born 1964 in Wageningen) a former Dutch field hockey goalkeeper
 * Bart Voskamp (born 1968 in Wageningen) a retired road bicycle racer
 * Annemiek van Vleuten (born 1982 in Vleuten) a Dutch road racing cyclist
 * Botic van de Zandschulp (born 1995 in Wageningen) a Dutch tennis player, was in the quarterfinals 2021 US Open

Places of interest
(Including nearby)
 * International Club Association
 * Airborne Museum 'Hartenstein', Oosterbeek
 * Botanical Gardens in Wageningen
 * De Casteelse Poort Museum
 * Het Depot Museum
 * Hoge Veluwe National Park, Ede
 * Hotel de Wereld
 * Kröller-Müller Museum, Ede/Otterlo
 * Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem
 * Ouwehands Zoo, Rhenen
 * Wageningen University Campus

Twin towns
Wageningen has two twin towns: The city has a project relation with the towns: Zhangzhou, China and Ndiza, (Rwanda).

title: Wageningen


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Waalwijk

Waalwijk is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of 0 in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former municipality of Sprang-Capelle) and Waspik together with the city of Waalwijk form the municipality of Waalwijk. The city has an old town center, which has recently been modernized.

Population centers
• Capelle

• Vrijhoeve-Capelle

• Sprang

• Waalwijk

• Waspik

The city of Waalwijk
Waalwijk is a city in North Brabant that lies north of Tilburg and west of 's-Hertogenbosch. To its north runs the Bergse Maas canal, with the River Waal further to the north.

Waalwijk used to be known for its shoe business.

Waalwijk was granted city rights in 1303. The professional football team RKC plays in Waalwijk.

Waalwijk is also known for an event in the city and surroundings: the "80 van de langstraat", held every September, in which a few thousand people make an 80-km walk through all towns that are part of the Langstraat region.

Some other events:
 * Waalwijk Modestad (Waalwijk Fashion City), a weekend full of fashion
 * Nacht van het levenslied (Night of the "Dutch song"), where Dutch and local singers perform
 * Straattheaterfestival (street theatre festival), a weekend full of street performers and theatre acts

Twin towns — sister cities
Waalwijk is twinned with:

Notable people from Waalwijk

 * Valensia, a Dutch composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist. Grew up in Waalwijk.
 * Willem Hendrik Johan van Idsinga (1822 in Baardwijk – 1896), politician and Governor of the Dutch Gold Coast and Surinam
 * Hendrikus Chabot (1894 in Sprang – 1949), painter and sculptor
 * Martinus J. G. Veltman (born 1931 in Waalwijk – 2021), theoretical physicist, joint winner of the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics for work on particle theory
 * René Mioch (born 1959 in Waalwijk), journalist, presenter for radio and TV and actor
 * Jan-Hein Kuijpers (born 1968 in Waalwijk), lawyer and columnist
 * Wieki Somers (born 1976 in Sprang-Capelle), designer
 * Olcay Gulsen (born 1980 in Waalwijk), fashion designer
 * Ariën van Weesenbeek (born 1980 in Waalwijk), drummer with the Dutch metal band Epica
 * Bas van Daalen (born 1996 in Waalwijk), known as Will Grands, record producer, singer and songwriter

Sport

 * Frans Slaats (born 1912 in Waalwijk – 1993), professional cyclist who broke the world hour record
 * Ramon van Haaren (born 1972 in Waalwijk), former footballer with 291 club caps
 * Patrick van Balkom (born 1974 in Waalwijk), former sprinter, competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics
 * Jos van Nieuwstadt (born 1979 in Waalwijk), former footballer with 310 club caps
 * Yuri van Gelder (born 1983 in Waalwijk), gymnast on the rings, competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics
 * Frank van Mosselveld (born 1984 in Waalwijk), former footballer with 266 club caps

title: Waalwijk


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Roosendaal

Roosendaal is both a city and a municipality in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant.

Towns/villages of the municipality

 * Roosendaal (population: 66,760)
 * Wouw (4,920)
 * Heerle (1,900)
 * Nispen (1,440)
 * Wouwse Plantage (1,230)
 * Moerstraten (660)

The city of Roosendaal
Under King Louis Bonaparte of the Kingdom of Holland, Roosendaal received city rights in 1809.

Nispen merged with Roosendaal to form the municipality Roosendaal en Nispen. On 1 January 1997 the municipalities Roosendaal en Nispen and Wouw merged into the municipality now simply known as Roosendaal.

History
Roosendaal goes back to the 12th and 13th century. The name Rosendaele was first mentioned in a document of 1268. Roosendaal was always a part of North Brabant. In the Middle Ages, Roosendaal grew as a result of the turf business, but the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) put an end to the growth as Roosendaal and Wouw were suffering from itinerant combat troops that plundered and ravaged everything they came across. For decades the countryside of Roosendaal was abandoned.

During the German occupation (World War II), the occupiers operated a subcamp of the Herzogenbusch concentration camp for Jews in the city.

Sports
The leading football team of Roosendaal is RBC.

Military
The Korps Commandotroepen have their headquarters and main garrison, the Engelbrecht van Nassaukazerne, in Roosendaal. The Royal Marechaussee used to have a brigade in the city. The first brigade was placed in the city on 16 July 1818 and was disbanded on 1 March 1943. On 2 September 1946 the brigade returned to the city, to be disbanded again on 1 September 1989. The Marechaussee would keep a small office on the railway station, due to the station being one of few to directly lead into Belgium.

Transport

 * Railway station: Roosendaal

The city serves as a regional railway hub: the Zwolle-Roosendaal Intercity service starts and ends here, the IC from Amsterdam to Vlissingen (Flushing) stops at the station, as did the international Intercity train from Amsterdam to Brussels until 2018, when that train was rerouted via Breda and the HSL-Zuid. There is still an hourly stop-train service to Antwerp.

Medical care
The Bravis Ziekenhuis Roosendaal is the main general hospital for residents of Roosendaal and surrounding areas. Bravis Ziekenhuis offers specialised medical care provided by a broad team of medical specialists. Special units include: Cardiology, Dermatology, Gynaecology, Oncology, Ophthalmology and Intensive Care.

Events in Roosendaal

 * Carnaval
 * Draai van de Kaai cycling race
 * Annual "International ABBA Day" – A weekend-long event, normally each April, operated by ABBA's official Fan Club which is based in Roosendaal.

Notable residents

 * Cornelis of Glymes (1458 in Wouw – 1508/1509), Admiral of the Netherlands
 * Hendrick Lonck (1568–1634), first Dutch sea captain to reach the New World
 * Léon Orthel (1905–1985), classical pianist and composer
 * Fons Rademakers (1920–2007), actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter
 * Jean Defraigne (1929-2016), Belgian liberal politician
 * Jack Jersey (1941–1997), singer-songwriter and producer of light music
 * Jan Ridders (born 1941), machinist
 * Joe de Bruyn (born 1949), Australian trade union official
 * Ad Konings (born 1956), ichthyologist, researches African rift lake cichlids
 * Joost Lagendijk (born 1957), politician and former journalist and MEP
 * Ben van Beurden (born 1958), CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc
 * Ronny Moorings (born 1961), musician, works with darkwave band Clan of Xymox
 * Frans Bauer (born 1973), singer of Dutch Schlager music
 * Jeroen van Koningsbrugge (born 1973), actor, comedian, singer, director and presenter
 * Harmen Fraanje (born 1976), jazz pianist and composer
 * Jesse Klaver (born 1986), political leader of GreenLeft

Sport

 * Harry Broos (1898–1954), sprinter, team bronze medallist in the 1924 Summer Olympics
 * Antoine Mazairac (1901–1966), cyclist, silver medallist in the 1928 Summer Olympics
 * George Knobel (1922–2012), football manager
 * Theo Laseroms (1940–1991), footballer, over 400 club caps
 * Jacques van Meer (born 1958), retired cyclist, competed at the 1980 Summer Olympics
 * Jolanda van Dongen (born 1966), road racing cyclist, national time trial champion, 2003
 * Henk Vos (born 1968), footballer with 600 club caps, now a coach
 * Ingrid van Lubek (born 1971), triathlete, competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Bram Lomans (born 1975), hockey player, twice team gold medallist at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics
 * Tim van Rijthoven (born 1997), tennis player
 * Niek van der Velden (born 2000), snowboarder & 2017 Roosendaal Sportsman of the Year

title: Roosendaal


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Barranyi (North Island) National Park

Barranyi (North Island) National Park is in the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Northern Territory of Australia, 737 km southeast of Darwin.

title: Barranyi (North Island) National Park


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Charles Darwin National Park

Charles Darwin National Park is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, 4 km southeast of Darwin. It is notable for its World War II–era concrete bunkers, one of which has been converted into a visitors centre and display of World War II memorabilia. It also has lookouts towards the city of Darwin. It contains middens used by the Larrakia people.

The park has extensive fire trails suitable for bush walking, as well as a mountain bike trail maintained by the Darwin Off-Road Cyclists Club. Regular events held in the park include the Earthdance festival.

title: Charles Darwin National Park


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Maurice, Prince of Orange

Maurice of Orange (Maurits van Oranje; 14 November 1567 – 23 April 1625) was stadtholder of all the provinces of the Dutch Republic except for Friesland from 1585 at the earliest until his death in 1625. Before he became Prince of Orange upon the death of his eldest half-brother Philip William in 1618, he was known as Maurice of Nassau.

Maurice spent his youth in Dillenburg in Nassau, and studied in Heidelberg and Leiden. He succeeded his father William the Silent as stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, and became stadtholder of Utrecht, Guelders and Overijssel in 1590, and of Groningen in 1620. As Captain-General and Admiral of the Union, Maurice organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt and won fame as a military strategist. Under his leadership and in cooperation with the Land's Advocate of Holland Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, the Dutch States Army achieved many victories and drove the Spaniards out of the north and east of the Republic. Maurice set out to revive and revise the classical doctrines of Vegetius and pioneered the new European forms of armament and drill. During the Twelve Years' Truce, a religious dispute broke out in the Republic, and a conflict erupted between Maurice and Van Oldenbarnevelt, which ended with the latter's decapitation. After the Truce, Maurice failed to achieve more military victories. He died without legitimate children in The Hague in 1625 and was succeeded by his younger half-brother Frederick Henry.

Life
Maurice was the son of William the Silent and Anna of Saxony and was born at the castle of Dillenburg. He was named after his maternal grandfather, the Elector Maurice of Saxony, who was also a noted general.

Maurice never married but was the father of illegitimate children by Margaretha van Mechelen (including Willem of Nassau, Lord of the Lek, and Louis of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd) and Anna van de Kelder. He was raised in Dillenburg by his uncle Johan of Nassau ("Jan the Old"). Together with his cousin, Willem Lodewijk, he studied in Heidelberg and later in Leiden where he met Simon Stevin. The States of Holland and Zeeland paid for his studies, as their father had run into financial problems after spending his entire fortune in the early stages of the Dutch revolt.

Only 16 when his father was murdered in Delft in 1584, he soon was appointed to his father's office of stadtholder (Stadhouder). The monarchs of England and France had been requested to accept sovereignty but had refused. This had left Maurice as the only acceptable candidate for the position of Stadtholder. He became stadtholder of Holland and Zeeland in 1585, of Guelders, Overijssel and Utrecht in 1590 and of Groningen and Drenthe in 1620 (following the death of Willem Lodewijk, who had been stadtholder there and in Friesland).

Protestant Maurice was preceded as Prince of Orange (not a Dutch title) by his Roman Catholic eldest half-brother Philip William, Prince of Orange, deceased 1618. However, Philip William was in the custody of Spain, remaining so until 1596, and was thus unable to lead the Dutch independence cause.

Maria of Nassau (1556–1616) was a full sister of Philip William from the first marriage of William I, Prince of Orange, (assassinated 1584), to wealthy and powerful aristocrat Anna van Egmont (1533–1558), and a contender to Maurice over the estate of their father.

He was appointed captain-general of the army in 1587, bypassing the Earl of Leicester, who returned to England on hearing this news.

Military career

Maurice organized the rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt. He reorganized the Dutch States Army together with Willem Lodewijk, studied military history, strategy and tactics, mathematics and astronomy, and proved himself to be among the best strategists of his age. The Eighty Years' War was a challenge to his style, so he could prove himself a good leader by taking several Spanish outposts. Paying special attention to the siege theories of Simon Stevin, he took valuable key fortresses and towns during a period known as the Ten Glory Years: Breda in 1590, Zutphen, Knodsenburg in 1591, Steenwijk and Coevorden in 1592, Geertruidenberg in 1593, and Groningen in 1594. In 1597 he went on a further offensive and took Rheinberg, Meurs, Groenlo, Bredevoort, Enschede, Ootmarsum, and Oldenzaal and closed off the year with the capture of Lingen. These victories rounded out the borders to the Dutch Republic, solidifying the revolt and allowing a national state to develop behind secure borders. They also established Maurice as the foremost general of his time. Many of the great generals of the succeeding generation, including his brother Frederick Henry and many of the commanders of the English Civil War, learned their trade under his command.

For a series of maps showing Maurice's campaigns to extend and consolidate the borders of the Republic, see Gallery of Maps of the 80 Years War (in Dutch).

His victories in the pitched battles at Turnhout (1597) and at Nieuwpoort (1600) were dependent on his innovation of cooperation between arms, with his cavalry playing a major role. The victories earned him military fame and acknowledgement throughout Europe. Despite these successes, the House of Orange did not attain great respect among European royalty, as the Stadtholdership was not inheritable.

The training of his army was especially important to early modern warfare and the Military Revolution of 1560–1650. Previous generals had made use of drill and exercise in order to instill discipline or to keep the men physically fit, but for Maurice, they "were the fundamental postulates of tactics."

This change affected the entire conduct of warfare, since it required the officers to train men in addition to leading them, decreased the size of the basic infantry unit for functional purposes since more specific orders had to be given in battle, and the decrease in herd behavior required more initiative and intelligence from the average soldier. One major contribution was the introduction of volley fire, which enabled soldiers to compensate for the inaccuracy of their weapons by firing in a large group. It was first used in European combat at the battle of Nieuwpoort in 1600. As part of his efforts to find allies against Spain, Maurice received Moroccan envoys such as Al-Hajari. They discussed the possibility of an alliance between Holland, the Ottoman Empire, Morocco and the Moriscos, against the common enemy Spain. Al-Hajari's journey chronicles, authored in 1637, mentions in detail the discussion for a combined offensive against Spain.

Maurice was known in his time and by historians as the first general of his age. His reputation rests not as much on his ability to win and exploit field battles as it does on his expertise as a siege commander, military organizer, and innovator. Of his two great adversaries, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, and Ambrogio Spinola, he cautiously never allowed himself to be brought to battle with Parma and did not follow up chances to offer Spinola battle with forces in his favour on the Yssel in 1606. He was, however, dealt a defeat by the Spanish general at the battle of Mülheim in October 1605. Based on his preference for sieges and small-scale actions, historian David Trim states that it is difficult to reach a verdict on his ability as a tactician. Jonathan Israel notes that on one of the rare occasions when he did have to fight a major battle in the open – the 1600 Battle of Nieuwpoort – it did end with a Dutch victory, but this outcome was highly risky, and Maurice took care to extricate his army and avoid a second such battle.

Maurice founded a whole new school of military professional practice. These pointed the way to the professional armies of the future by reapplying Roman tactics and innovating in the fields of logistics, training, and economics (e.g. paying troops regularly and on time). Many graduates of service under Maurice, such as his nephew, the Marshal Turenne, or his disciples such as Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, applied the Mauritian reforms to great effect in the remainder of the 17th century.

Maurice and Oldenbarnevelt

Maurice started out as the protégé of Landsadvocaat (Land's Advocate, i.e. secretary to the nobility of Holland and legal counsel to the States of Holland, but functioning as de facto chief minister of Holland and the States-General) Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, but gradually tensions rose between these two men. Against Maurice's advice, and despite his protests, Van Oldenbarnevelt decided to sign the Twelve Years' Truce with Spain, which lasted from 1609 to 1621. The required funds to maintain the army and navy and the general course of the war were other topics of constant struggle.

With the religious troubles between Gomarists (strict Calvinists) and the Remonstrants (Arminians), the struggle between Van Oldenbarnevelt and Maurice reached a climax. Van Oldenbarnevelt was arrested, tried and decapitated despite numerous requests for mercy. Important municipal regents such as Jacob Dircksz de Graeff and Cornelis Hooft from Amsterdam were temporarily removed from office by Moritz' powerful supporter Reynier Pauw. From 1618 till his death Maurice now enjoyed uncontested power over the Republic. He expanded the Stadtholder's palace at the Binnenhof in the Hague. The Maurice Tower is now part of the building complex of the Senate of the Netherlands. In 1618, he also succeeded his elder half-brother Philip William as Prince of Orange, a title he seems rarely to have used.

Maurice urged his cadet half brother Frederick Henry to marry in order to preserve the dynasty.

Thirty Years' and Eighty Years' War
Historian Jonathan Israel places upon Maurice part of the responsibility for the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in which Germany was devastated and a large part of its population killed. As noted by Israel, German Protestants were not eager for an all-out confrontation with the Catholics. Maurice significantly helped precipitate such a confrontation by persuading his nephew Frederick V, Elector Palatine, to accept the Bohemian Crown, as well as actively encouraging the Bohemians to confront Habsburg rule, providing them 50,000 guilders as well as sending Dutch troops to fight in the doomed Battle of the White Mountain. This ill-considered decision proved disastrous to the Bohemians, who were thereby plunged into prolonged oppression, and to Frederick who lost his ancestral lands. It also worsened the Dutch Republic's own strategic position.

In 1621 the war with Spain resumed after a 12-year period of truces. The Spanish, led by Ambrogio Spinola, had notable successes, including the Siege of Breda, the old Nassau family residence, in 1625.

Maurice died on 23 April 1625, with the siege still underway. Justin of Nassau surrendered Breda in June 1625 after a costly eleven-month siege.

List of battles
Maurice participated in these battles as principal commander of Dutch forces:

 * Axel
 * 1st Bergen op Zoom, 1588
 * Medemblik, 1588
 * 3rd Breda, 1590
 * 2nd Steenbergen, 1590
 * 3rd Zutphen, 1591
 * 2nd Deventer, 1591
 * Delfzijl, 1591
 * Knodsenburg, 1591
 * Hulst, 1591
 * Nijmegen, 1591
 * Steenwijk, 1592
 * 1st Coevorden, 1592
 * Gertrudenberg, 1593
 * 2nd Coevorden, 1593
 * Groningen, 1594
 * 2nd Groenlo, 1595
 * 1st Hulst, 1596
 * Turnhout, 1597
 * 2nd Venlo, 1597
 * 2nd Rheinberg, 1597
 * 1st Meurs, 1597
 * 3rd Groenlo, 1597
 * 1st Bredevoort, 1597
 * Enschede, 1597
 * Ootmarsum, 1597
 * 1st Oldenzaal, 1597
 * 1st Lingen, 1597
 * 2nd Meurs, 1598
 * 3rd Rheinberg, 1598
 * Doetinchem
 * Rees, 1599
 * Zaltbommel (1599)
 * San Andreas
 * Nieuwpoort, 1600
 * Ostend, 1601
 * Siege of 's-Hertogenbosch (1601)
 * Siege of Sluis (1604)
 * 2nd Oldenzaal, 1605
 * 2nd Lingen, 1605
 * Mülheim, 1605
 * Wachtendonk
 * Krakau Castle
 * 2nd Bredevoort, 1606
 * 4th Rheinberg, 1606
 * 4th Groenlo, 1606
 * 3rd Venlo, 1606
 * Jülich, 1621–22
 * 2nd Bergen op Zoom, 1622
 * 3rd Steenbergen, 1622
 * 4th Breda, 1624

Namesakes

 * The island nation of Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean, was named after him. The island was named in the prince's honour by Wybrant Warwijck in 1598 and Dutch emigrants first settled it in May 1638.
 * In 1611, the Dutch variously named what is now known as the Hudson River the Mauritius River or the Mauritz River, in honour of the prince. It was also similarly referred to as the Nassau River.

Coat of arms and titles

Maurice, besides being stadtholder of several provinces and Captain-General, both non-hereditary and appointive titles, was the hereditary sovereign of the principality of Orange in what is today Provence in France. He also was the lord of many other estates, which formed his wealth:
 * Marquis of Veere and Vlissingen
 * Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, Buren, Leerdam, Katzenelnbogen, and Vianden
 * Viscount of Antwerp and Besançon
 * Baron of Aggeris, Breda, Cranendonck, Lands of Cuijk, Daesburg, Eindhoven, City of Grave, Lek, IJsselstein, Diest, Grimbergen, Herstal, Warneton,, Bentheim-Lingen, Moers, Arlay, and Nozeroy; Lord of Dasburg, Geertruidenberg, Hooge en Lage Zwaluwe, Klundert, Montfort, Naaldwijk, Niervaart, Polanen, Steenbergen, Sint-Maartensdijk, Willemstad, Bütgenbach, Sankt Vith, and Besançon.

During his lifetime he kept using the arms as during his father's life-time shown here, and never changed to the simpler arms used by his father and half brothers.

Descendants
Maurice never married but was the father of several illegitimate children:

by Margaretha van Mechelen:
 * Willem of Nassau, Lord of the Lek (1601–1627)
 * Louis of Nassau, Lord of De Lek and Beverweerd (Lodewijk) (1604–1665)
 * Maurice (Maurits) (1604–1617)

by Cornelia Jacobsdochter:
 * Anna (?–1673)

by Ursula de Rijck:
 * Elisabeth (1611–1679)
 * Karl (Carel) (ca. 1612–1637)

by Anna van de Kelder:
 * Karl (Carel) Maurice

by Deliana de Backer:
 * Eleonora (?–1673)

title: Maurice, Prince of Orange


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Iytwelepenty / Davenport Range National Park

Iytwelepenty / Davenport Range, or Davenport Ranges National Park (Iytwellepenty), previously the Davenport Murchison National Park, is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia about 1033 km south-east of the territorial capital of Darwin, occupying around 1,120 km2s of the Davenport Range. It lies within the Davenport Murchison Ranges bioregion, an area of 58,050 km2, with a climate ranging from semiarid to subtropical.

The mountains were caused by a tectonic event hundreds of millions of years ago, but recent images from space have shown that erosion occurred that exposed the ridges and valleys only around 100 million years ago. Amelia Creek crater, an ancient eroded impact crater lies within the Davenport Range in the area.


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Djukbinj National Park

Djukbinj National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 66 km east-south-east of the territory capital of Darwin.

The national park was proclaimed on 3 April 1997 over land which has previous protected area status and which was part of the Wulna Land Claim - portion 1386 which was the former Escape Cliffs Historical Reserve, portion 2012 which was the former Cape Hotham Forest Reserve, portion 2017 which was the former Cape Hotham Conservation Reserve, and portions 4498, 4499 and 4707 which were parts of the former Marrakai Conservation Reserve.

After the settlement of the land claim, the Limilngan-Wulna Aboriginal Corporation leased the land back to the former Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory for it to use for "the purposes of a national park" following the signing of a joint management agreement on 7 November 1994.

Part of the land within the former Escape Cliffs Historical Reserve includes the site of the first attempt by the Government of South Australia to create a settlement in the Northern Territory and which was listed on the Northern Territory Heritage Register on 12 January 2000 under the name of Escape Cliffs.

title: Djukbinj National Park


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Dulcie Range National Park

Dulcie Range is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, 220 km north-east of Alice Springs and 1235 km southeast of territorial capital of Darwin. The park lies along the south-western edge of Dulcie Range. It was first declared in 1991 and again in July 2012. A draft Plan of Management was published by the Parks and Wildlife Commission of the Northern Territory in May 2001.

History
The first recorded European visitor to the area was Charles Winnecke in 1878. In 1916 the chief surveyor of the Northern Territory, T. E. Day surveyed the range and named it Dulcie after one of his daughters. Around 1920 an early pastoral lease was taken out at Old Huckitta station, the remains of which are within the southern boundary of the park. There was an established population of traditional aboriginal Akarre Arrernte people, evidenced by numerous rock art sites in the Dulcie Range. A plentiful supply of food resources and water supported the clans.

Description
The Range is a sandstone plateau standing from 50 to 150 metres above the surrounding plain in the Georgina Basin. Typical of the plains flora are mulga shrub-lands, mallee eucalypt, open woodland and spinifex. The plateau comprises steep sided cliffs, gorges and scree of the predominant Dulcie Sandstone, with numerous watercourses. Recorded in the park are 105 species of bird, 32 of reptiles, 2 of frogs and 3 of fish.

title: Dulcie Range National Park


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Elsey National Park

Elsey is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia, extending from 2 km to 19 km east of Mataranka and 378 km southeast of Darwin.

Features of the park include Mataranka Falls, and the Mataranka Thermal Pools

The thermal springs are home to a well known colony of the little red fruit-bat, species Pteropus scapulatus, an attraction that has also been discouraged from inhabiting the site for the strong odour of their camps. These fruit eating bats roost during the day at the stands of bamboo, often in large numbers, and leave at night to feed on nectar from trees.

title: Elsey National Park


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Finke Gorge National Park

Finke Gorge National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia located about 1318 km south of the territory capital of Darwin. The national park covers an area of 458 km2, and includes the desert oasis Palm Valley, home to a diverse range of plant species, many of which are rare and unique to the area. There are good opportunities for bushwalking and bushcamping in the national park.

Heritage
The national park is noted for its ancient palms and Aboriginal cultural sites. The Central Australian Cabbage Palm is found only in Palm Valley and prolifically here. There are around 3000 full grown palms and thousands of small seedlings sprinkled across the park which can get easily trampled by the visitors. Thus the visitors are required to walk along the marked paths to avoid destroying the seedlings. The Finke River is claimed to be one of the oldest catchments in the world, with areas dating back 350 million years.

The national park and nearby areas hold cultural significance to the Western Arrernte Aboriginal people and there is also evidence of early European settlement.

In 1980, it was listed on the now-defunct Register of the National Estate.

Access
A four-wheel-drive route down the Finke River to Illamurta Springs and Watarrka National Park begins at Finke Gorge. Bush walking is another common activity. Kalaranga lookout is an easy 20 minute climb, with views of the rock amphitheatre encircled by rugged cliffs. The Mpaara Walk introduces the mythology of the Western Arrernte Aboriginal culture. In Palm Valley, the Arankaia Walk and the longer Mpulungkinya Walk meander among slender palms, returning across a scenic plateau.

title: Finke Gorge National Park


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Garig Gunak Barlu National Park

Garig Gunak Barlu is a national park in the Northern Territory of Australia on the Cobourg Peninsula and some adjoining waters about 216 km north-east of the territory capital of Darwin.

It was established by joining the former Gurig National Park and the Cobourg Marine Park. Its name derives from the local Garig language, and the words gunak 'land' and barlu 'deep water'.

The national park consists of all land of the Cobourg Peninsula, of Burford Island, the Sir George Hope Islands (from west to east Greenhill, Wangoindjung, Warldagawaji, Morse, Wunmiyi), Mogogout Island and Endyalgout Island (117.4 km2) to the south of the peninsula, and of adjacent waters. Croker Island, although close east of the peninsula, is not part of the park.

It is categorized as an IUCN Category II protected area.

All six species of Australian marine turtle live in the area of ocean which is included in the park—green sea turtles, hawksbill sea turtles, flatback sea turtles, leatherback sea turtles, and olive ridley sea turtles. The surrounding ocean is also inhabited by sharks and cetaceans, and saltwater crocodiles live near the coast. On land, over 200 species of bird are found in the park, as are several species of mammal.

title: Garig Gunak Barlu National Park