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John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland

John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland (1504 – 22 August 1553) was an English general, admiral, and politician, who led the government of the young King Edward VI from 1550 until 1553, and unsuccessfully tried to install Lady Jane Grey on the English throne after the King's death. The son of Edmund Dudley, a minister of Henry VII executed by Henry VIII, John Dudley became the ward of Sir Edward Guildford at the age of seven. Dudley grew up in Guildford's household together with his future wife, Guildford's daughter Jane, with whom he was to have 13 children. Dudley served as Vice-Admiral and Lord Admiral from 1537 until 1547, during which time he set novel standards of navy organisation and was an innovative commander at sea. He also developed a strong interest in overseas exploration. Dudley took part in the 1544 campaigns in Scotland and France and was one of Henry VIII's intimates in the last years of the reign. He was also a leader of the religious reform party at court.

In 1547, Dudley was created Earl of Warwick and, with the Duke of Somerset, England's Lord Protector, distinguished himself in the renewed Scottish war at the Battle of Pinkie Cleugh. During the country-wide uprisings of 1549 Dudley put down Kett's Rebellion in Norfolk. Convinced of the Protector's incompetence, he and other privy councillors forced Somerset out of office in October 1549. Having averted a conservative reaction in religion and a plot to destroy him alongside Somerset, Dudley emerged in early 1550 as de facto regent for the 12-year-old Edward VI. He reconciled himself with Somerset, who nevertheless soon began to intrigue against him and his policies. Somerset was executed on largely fabricated charges, three months after Dudley had been raised to the Dukedom of Northumberland in October 1551.

As Lord President of the Council, Dudley headed a distinctly conciliar government and sought to introduce the adolescent King into business. Taking over an almost bankrupt administration, he ended the costly wars with France and Scotland and tackled finances in ways that led to some economic recovery. To prevent further uprisings he introduced countrywide policing on a local basis, appointing lord-lieutenants who were in close contact with the central authority. Dudley's religious policy was — in accordance with Edward's religion — decidedly Protestant, further enforcing the English Reformation and promoting radical reformers to high Church positions.

The 15-year-old King fell ill in early 1553 and excluded his half-sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, whom he regarded as illegitimate, from the succession, designating non-existent, hypothetical male heirs. As his death approached, Edward changed his will so that his Protestant cousin Lady Jane Grey, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, could inherit the Crown.

To what extent the Duke influenced this scheme is uncertain. The traditional view is that it was Northumberland's plot to maintain his power by placing his family on the throne. Many historians see the project as genuinely Edward's, enforced by Dudley after the King's death. The Duke did not prepare well for this occasion. Having marched to East Anglia to capture Mary, he surrendered on hearing that the Privy Council had changed sides and proclaimed Mary as queen.

Convicted of high treason, Northumberland returned to Catholicism and abjured the Protestant faith before his execution on 22 August 1553. Having secured the contempt of both religious camps, popularly hated, and a natural scapegoat, he became the "wicked Duke" — in contrast to his predecessor Somerset, the "good Duke". Only since the 1970s has he also been seen as a Tudor Crown servant: self-serving, inherently loyal to the incumbent monarch, and an able statesman in difficult times.

Career under Henry VIII
John Dudley was the eldest of three sons of Edmund Dudley, a councillor of Henry VII, and his second wife Elizabeth Grey, daughter of Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Lisle. His father was attainted and executed for high treason in 1510, having been arrested immediately after Henry VIII's accession because the new king needed scapegoats for his predecessor's unpopular financial policies.

In 1512, the seven-year-old John became the ward of Sir Edward Guildford and was taken into his household. At the same time Edmund Dudley's attainder was lifted and John Dudley was restored "in name and blood". The King was hoping for the good services "which the said John Dudley is likely to do".

At about age 15 John Dudley probably went with his guardian to the Pale of Calais to serve there for the next years. He took part in Cardinal Wolsey's diplomatic voyages of 1521 and 1527, and was knighted by Charles Brandon, 1st Duke of Suffolk, during his first major military experience, the 1523 invasion of France. In 1524 Dudley became a Knight of the Body, and from 1534 he was responsible for the King's body armour as Master of the Tower Armoury.

Being "the most skilful of his generation, both on foot and on horseback", he excelled in wrestling, archery, and the tournaments of the royal court, as a French report stated as late as 1546.

In 1525, Dudley married Guildford's daughter Jane, who was four years his junior and his former classmate. The Dudleys belonged to the new evangelical circles of the early 1530s, and their 13 children were educated in Renaissance humanism and science.

Sir Edward Guildford died in 1534 without a written will. His only son having predeceased him, Guildford's nephew, John Guildford, asserted that his uncle had intended him to inherit. Dudley and his wife contested this claim. The parties went to court and Dudley, who had secured Thomas Cromwell's patronage, won the case.

In 1532, he lent his cousin, John Sutton, 3rd Baron Dudley, over £7,000 on the security of the baronial estate. Lord Dudley was unable to pay off any of his creditors, so when the mortgage was foreclosed in the late 1530s Sir John Dudley came into possession of Dudley Castle.

Dudley was present at Henry VIII's meeting with Francis I of France at Calais in 1532. Another member of the entourage was Anne Boleyn, who was soon to be queen. Dudley took part in the christenings of the King's children, Elizabeth and Edward and, in connection with the announcement of the Prince's birth to the Emperor, travelled to Spain via France in October 1537. He sat in the Reformation parliament for Kent, in place of his deceased father-in-law, in 1534–1536, and led one of the contingents sent against the Pilgrimage of Grace in late 1536.

In January 1537, Dudley was made Vice-Admiral and began to apply himself to naval matters. He was Master of the Horse to Anne of Cleves and Catherine Howard, and in 1542 returned to the House of Commons as MP for Staffordshire but was soon promoted to the House of Lords following 12 March 1542, when he became Viscount Lisle after the death of his stepfather Arthur Plantagenet, Henry VIII's uncle, and "by the right of his mother". Being now a peer, Dudley became Lord Admiral and a Knight of the Garter in 1543; he was also admitted to the Privy Council.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Solway Moss in 1542, he served as Warden of the Scottish Marches, and in the 1544 campaign the English force under Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, was supported by a fleet which Dudley commanded. Dudley joined the land force that destroyed Edinburgh, after he had blown the main gate apart with a culverin. In late 1544 he was appointed Governor of Boulogne, the siege of which had cost the life of his eldest son, Henry. His tasks were to rebuild the fortifications to King Henry's design and to fend off French attacks by sea and land. As Lord Admiral, Dudley was responsible for creating the Council for Marine Causes, which for the first time co-ordinated the various tasks of maintaining the navy functioning and thus made English naval administration the most efficient in Europe. At sea, Dudley's fighting orders were at the forefront of tactical thinking: Squadrons of ships, ordered by size and firepower, were to manoeuvre in formation, using co-ordinated gunfire. These were all new developments in the English navy.

In 1545, he directed the fleet's operations before, during, and after the Battle of the Solent and entertained King Henry on the flagship Henri Grace a Dieu. A tragic loss was the sinking of the Mary Rose with 500 men aboard. In 1546 John Dudley went to France for peace negotiations. When he suspected the Admiral of France, Claude d'Annebault, of manoeuvres which might have led to a renewal of hostilities, he suddenly put to sea in a show of English strength, before returning to the negotiating table. He then travelled to Fontainebleau, where the English delegates were entertained by the Dauphin Henri and King Francis. In the Peace of Camp, the French king acknowledged Henry VIII's title as "Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland", a success for both England and her Lord Admiral.

John Dudley, popularly fêted and highly regarded by King Henry as a general, became a royal intimate who played cards with the ailing monarch. Next to Edward Seymour, Prince Edward's maternal uncle, Dudley was one of the leaders of the Reformed party at court, and both their wives were among the friends of Anne Askew, the Protestant martyr destroyed by Bishop Stephen Gardiner in July 1546. Dudley and the Queen's brother, William Parr, 1st Earl of Essex, tried to convince Anne Askew to conform to the Catholic doctrines of the Henrician Church, yet she replied "it was great shame for them to counsel contrary to their knowledge". In September Dudley struck Gardiner in the face during a full meeting of the council. This was a grave offence, and he was lucky to escape with a month's leave from court in disgrace. In the last weeks of the reign Seymour and Dudley played their parts in Henry's strike against the conservative House of Howard, thus clearing the path for a Protestant minority rule. They were seen as the likely leaders of the impending regency —"there are no other nobles of a fit age and ability for the task", Eustache Chapuys, the former Imperial ambassador, commented from his retirement.

From Earl of Warwick to Duke of Northumberland
The 16 executors of Henry VIII's will also embodied the Regency Council that had been appointed to rule collectively during Edward VI's minority. The new Council agreed on making Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford Lord Protector with full powers, which in effect were those of a prince. At the same time the Council awarded themselves a round of promotions based on Henry VIII's wishes; the Earl of Hertford became the Duke of Somerset and John Dudley was created Earl of Warwick. The new Earl had to pass on his post of Lord Admiral to Somerset's brother, Thomas Seymour, but advanced to Lord Great Chamberlain. Perceived as the most important man next the Protector, he was on friendly terms with Somerset, who soon reopened the war with Scotland. Dudley accompanied him as second-in-command with a taste for personal combat. On one occasion he fought his way out of an ambush and, spear in hand, chased his Scottish counterpart for some 250 yards, nearly running him through. In the Battle of Pinkie Dudley led the vanguard, being "one of the key architects of the English victory".

The Protector's agrarian policy and proclamations were inspired by a group of intellectuals sometimes called "the commonwealth men". These were highly critical of landlords and left many commoners with the impression that enclosures were unlawful. As one of England's major landowners, Dudley soon feared that this would lead to serious trouble and discreetly tried to warn Somerset. By the summer of 1549 there was widespread unrest or even rebellion all over England. The Marquess of Northampton had been unable to restore order in and around Norwich, so John Dudley was sent to get hold of Kett's Rebellion. Dudley offered Robert Kett a pardon on the condition that the peasant army disband at once. This was rejected and the next night Dudley stormed the rebel-held city with a small mercenary contingent and drove the rebels out after fierce street fighting; 49 prisoners he had immediately hanged. Two days later Kett, who had his main camp outside the city, confronted the royal army, resulting in a slaughter of over 2,000 peasants. In the following weeks Dudley conducted courts-martial which executed many rebels, perhaps up to 300. For the enraged and humiliated local gentry this was still not enough punishment, so Dudley warned them: "Is there no place for pardon? ... What shall we then do? Shall we hold the plough ourselves, play the carters and labour the ground with our own hands?"

The Lord Protector, in his proclamations, appealed to the common people. To his colleagues, whom he hardly consulted, he displayed a distinctly autocratic and "increasingly contemptuous" face. By autumn 1549 the same councillors who had made him Protector were convinced that he had failed to exercise proper authority and was unwilling to listen to good counsel. Dudley still had the troops from the Norfolk campaign at his disposal, and in October 1549 he joined the Earl of Southampton and the Earl of Arundel, prominent religious conservatives, to lead a coup of councillors to oust the Protector from office. They withdrew from court to London, meeting in Dudley's residence. Starting with the Protector, each side issued proclamations accusing the other of treason and declared to act in defence of the King's safety. Somerset tried in vain to raise a popular force and entrenched himself with the King at the fortress Windsor Castle. Military force near King Edward's presence was unthinkable and, apparently, Dudley and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer brokered an unofficial deal with Somerset, who surrendered. To keep appearances, the 12-year-old King personally commanded his uncle's arrest. For a moment there was hope of a conservative restoration in some quarters. However, Dudley and Cranmer secured the Reformed agenda by persuading Edward to appoint additional Reformed-minded members to the Council and Privy Chamber. In December 1549 Southampton tried to regain predominance by charging Dudley with treason, alongside Somerset, for having been an original ally of the Protector. The scheme misfired when Dudley invited the council to his house and baffled the plotters by exclaiming, with his hand at his sword and "a warlike visage": "my lord, you seek his [Somerset's] blood and he that seeketh his blood would have mine also".

Dudley consolidated his power through institutional manoeuvres and by January 1550 was in effect the new regent. On 2 February 1550 he became Lord President of the Council, with the capacity to debar councillors from the body and appoint new ones. He excluded Southampton and other conservatives, but arranged Somerset's release and his return to the Privy Council and Privy Chamber. In June 1550 Dudley's heir John married Somerset's daughter Anne as a mark of reconciliation. Yet Somerset soon attracted political sympathizers and hoped to re-establish his power by removing Dudley from the scene, "contemplating", as he later admitted, the Lord President's arrest and execution. Relying on his popularity with the masses, he campaigned against and tried to obstruct Dudley's policies. His behaviour increasingly threatened the cohesion vital within a minority regime. In that respect Warwick would take no chances, and he now also aspired to a dukedom. He needed to advertise his power and impress his followers; like his predecessor, he had to represent the King's honour. His elevation as Duke of Northumberland came on 11 October 1551 with the Duke of Somerset participating in the ceremony. Five days later Somerset was arrested, while rumours about supposed plots of his circulated. He was accused of having planned a "banquet massacre", in which the council were to be assaulted and Dudley killed. Somerset was acquitted of treason, but convicted of felony for raising a contingent of armed men without a licence. He was executed on 22 January 1552. While technically lawful, these events contributed much to Northumberland's growing unpopularity. Dudley himself, according to a French eyewitness, confessed before his own end that "nothing had pressed so injuriously upon his conscience as the fraudulent scheme against the Duke of Somerset".

Ruling England

Instead of taking the title of Lord Protector, John Dudley set out to rule as primus inter pares, the working atmosphere being more conciliar and less autocratic than under Somerset. The new Lord President of the Council reshuffled some high offices, becoming Grand Master of the Household himself and giving Somerset's former office of Lord Treasurer to William Paulet, 1st Marquess of Winchester. The office of Grand Master entailed supervising the Royal Household, which gave Dudley the means to control the Privy Chamber and thus the King's surroundings. This was done via his "special friends" (as he called them), Sir John Gates and Lord Thomas Darcy. Dudley also placed his son-in-law Sir Henry Sidney and his brother Sir Andrew Dudley near the King. William Cecil was still in the Duke of Somerset's service when he gradually shifted his loyalty to John Dudley, who made him Secretary of State and thought him "a most faithful servant and by that term most witty [wise] councillor ... as was scarce like in this realm". In this position Cecil was Dudley's trusted right hand, who primed the Privy Council according to the Lord President's wishes. At the same time Cecil had intimate contact with the King because Edward worked closely with the secretaries of state.

Dudley organised Edward's political education so that he should take an interest in affairs and at least appear to influence decisions. He wanted the King to grow into his authority as smoothly as possible. Disruptive conflicts when Edward took over government could thus be minimised, while Dudley's chances to continue as principal minister would be good. From the age of about 14 Edward's signature on documents no longer needed the council's countersignatures, and the King was regularly debriefed in meetings with a Council of his own choosing—the principal administrators and the Duke of Northumberland were among the chosen. Dudley had a warm if respectful relationship with the teenager, who "loved and feared" him according to Jean Scheyfve, the Imperial ambassador. At a dinner Edward discussed with the envoy at length until Northumberland discreetly indicated to the King that he had said enough. Yet the Duke did not necessarily have his way in all things. In 1552–1553 the King's hand can be discerned behind decisions (and omissions) that directly contravened Dudley's wishes. At court, complex networks of influence were at work and Edward listened to more than one voice. Regarding the question to what extent Edward played a role in his own government, Stephen Alford writes: "It is possible to endorse Edward's developing grasp of the business of kingship and accept the still powerful political presence of John Dudley and his colleagues. The structures of ... the ... Council and the royal household began to adapt themselves to the implications of the king's age ... the dynamics of power at the centre were capable of reshaping themselves because the men around the king accepted that, in the circumstances, they should."

Social and economic policy
Dudley set out to restore administrative efficiency and maintain public order to prevent renewed rebellion as seen in 1549. Equipped with a new law "for the punishment of unlawful assemblies", he built a united front of landholders and Privy Council, the government intervening locally at any sign of unrest. He returned to the ancient practice of granting licences to retain liveried followers and installed lord-lieutenants that represented the central government and were to keep ready small bands of cavalry. These measures proved effective and the country was calm for the rest of the reign. In fact, in the summer of 1552—a year before the succession crisis—the cavalry bands were disbanded to save money.

John Dudley also strove to alleviate the social situation. The 1547 "Act for the Punishment of Vagabonds", which had enacted that any unemployed man found loitering was to be branded and given to the "presentor" as a slave, was abolished as too harsh in 1550. In 1552, Northumberland pushed a novel Poor Law through parliament which provided for weekly parish-based collections for the "relief of the poor". Parishes were to register their needy inhabitants as well as the amounts people agreed to give for them, while unwilling contributors were to be "induced" by the parson and, if need be, by the bishop. The years 1549–1551 saw poor harvests and, accordingly, soaring food prices. Dudley tried to intervene against the malpractices of middlemen by official searches for hidden corn and by fixing maximum prices for grain, meat, and other victuals. However, the set prices were so unrealistic that farmers stopped to sell their produce at the open market and the regulations had to be rescinded. The regime's agrarian policy, while giving landlords much freedom to enclose common land, also distinguished between different forms of enclosure. Landlords guilty of illegal enclosures were increasingly prosecuted.

The financial legacy of the Protectorate consisted, apart from crippling Crown debts, of an unprecedentedly debased coinage. On the second day as Lord President of the Council, Dudley began a process to tackle the problems of the mint. He set up a committee that looked into the peculation by the officers of the mint and other institutions. In 1551, the government at the same time tried to yield profit and restore confidence in the coin by issuing yet further debased coinage and "crying it down" immediately afterwards. The result was panic and confusion and, to get hold of the situation, a coin of 92.3% silver content (against 25% silver content in the last debasement) was issued within months. The bad coin prevailed over the good, however, because people had lost confidence. Northumberland admitted defeat and recruited the financial expert Thomas Gresham. After the first good harvest in four years, by late 1552 the currency was stable, prices for foodstuffs had dropped, and a basis for economic recovery had been laid. A process to centralise the administration of Crown revenue was underway and foreign debt had been eliminated.

Religious policy
The use of the Book of Common Prayer became law in 1549. King Edward's half-sister, Mary Tudor, de facto had licence to continue hearing mass in private. So soon as he was in power, Dudley put pressure on her to stop her from allowing her entire household and flocks of visitors to attend. Mary, who in her turn did not tolerate the Book of Common Prayer in any of her residences, was not prepared to make any concessions. She planned to flee the country but then could not make up her mind in the last minute. Mary denied Edward's personal interest in the issue and entirely blamed John Dudley for her troubles. After a meeting with King and Council, in which she was told that what mattered was not her faith but her disobedience to the law, she sent the Imperial ambassador Scheyfve to threaten war on England. The English government could not swallow a war threat from an ambassador who had stepped out of his commission, but at the same time would not risk all-important commercial ties with the Habsburg Netherlands, so an embassy was sent to Brussels and some of Mary's household officers were arrested. On his next visit to the council, Scheyfye was informed by the Earl of Warwick that the King of England had as much authority at 14 as he had at 40—Dudley was alluding to Mary's refusal to accept Edward's demands on grounds of his young age. In the end a silent compromise came into effect: Mary continued to hear mass in a more private manner, while augmenting her landed property by exchanges with the Crown.

Appealing to the King's religious tastes, John Dudley became the chief backer of evangelical Protestants among the clergy, promoting several to bishoprics—for example John Hooper and John Ponet. The English Reformation went on apace, despite its widespread unpopularity. The 1552 revised edition of the Book of Common Prayer rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, and the Forty-two Articles, issued in June 1553, proclaimed justification by faith and denied the existence of purgatory. Despite these being cherished projects of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, he was displeased with the way the government handled their issue. By 1552 the relationship between the primate and the Duke was icy. To prevent the Church from becoming independent of the state, Dudley was against Cranmer's reform of canon law. He recruited the Scot John Knox so that he should, in Northumberland's words, "be a whetstone to quicken and sharp the Bishop of Canterbury, whereof he hath need". Knox refused to collaborate, but joined fellow reformers in a concerted preaching campaign against covetous men in high places. Cranmer's canon law was finally wrecked by Northumberland's furious intervention during the spring parliament of 1553. On a personal level, though, the Duke was happy to help produce a schoolchildren's catechism in Latin and English. In June 1553 he backed the Privy Council's invitation of Philip Melanchthon to become Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University. But for the King's death, Melanchthon would have come to England—his high travel costs had already been granted by Edward's government.

At the heart of Northumberland's problems with the episcopate lay the issue of the Church's wealth, from the confiscation of which the government and its officials had profited ever since the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The most radical preachers thought that bishops, if needed at all, should be "unlorded". This attitude was attractive to Dudley, as it conveniently allowed him to fill up the Exchequer or distribute rewards with Church property. When new bishops were appointed—typically to the sees of deprived conservative incumbents—they often had to surrender substantial land holdings to the Crown and were left with a much reduced income. The dire situation of the Crown finances made the Council resort to a further wave of Church expropriation in 1552–1553, targeting chantry lands and Church plate. At the time and since, the break-up and reorganisation of the Prince-Bishopric of Durham has been interpreted as Dudley's attempt to create himself a county palatine of his own. However, as it turned out, Durham's entire revenue was allotted to the two successor bishoprics and the nearby border garrison of Norham Castle. Dudley received the stewardship of the new "King's County Palatine" in the North (worth £50 p.a.), but there was no further gain for him. Overall, Northumberland's provisions for reorganised dioceses reveal a concern in him that "the preaching of the gospel" should not lack funds. Still, the confiscation of Church property as well as the lay government's direction of Church affairs made the Duke disliked among clerics, whether Reformed or conservative. His relations with them were never worse than when the crisis of Edward's final illness approached.

Peace policy
The war policy 1547–1549 had entailed an extraordinary expenditure of about £350,000 p.a. against a regular Crown income of £150,000 p.a. It was impossible to continue in this way, and Dudley quickly negotiated a withdrawal of the besieged English garrison at Boulogne. The high costs of the garrison could thus be saved and French payments of redemption of roughly £180,000 were a most welcome cash income. The peace with France was concluded in the Treaty of Boulogne in March 1550. There was both public rejoicing and anger at the time, and some historians have condemned the peace as a shameful surrender of English-held territory. A year later it was agreed that King Edward was to have a French bride, the six-year-old Elisabeth of Valois. The threat of war with Scotland was also neutralised, England giving up some isolated garrisons in exchange. In the peace treaty with Scotland of June 1551, a joint commission, one of the first of its kind in history, was installed to agree upon the exact boundary between the two countries. This matter was concluded in August 1552 by French arbitration. Despite the cessation of hostilities, English defences were kept on a high level: nearly £200,000 p.a. were spent on the navy and the garrisons at Calais and on the Scottish border. In his capacity as Warden-General of the Scottish Marches, Northumberland arranged for the building of a new Italianate fortress at Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The war between France and the Emperor broke out once again in September 1551. In due course Northumberland rejected requests for English help from both sides, which in the case of the Empire consisted of a demand for full-scale war based on an Anglo-Imperial treaty of 1542. The Duke pursued a policy of neutrality, a balancing act that made peace between the two great powers attractive. In late 1552, he undertook to bring about a European peace by English mediation. These moves were taken seriously by the rival resident ambassadors, but were ended in June 1553 by the belligerents, the continuance of war being more advantageous to them.

Overseas interest
John Dudley recovered the post of Lord Admiral immediately after the Protector's fall in October 1549, Thomas Seymour having been executed by his brother in March 1549. Dudley passed on the office to Edward, Lord Clinton, in May 1550, yet never lost his keen interest in maritime affairs. Henry VIII had revolutionised the English navy, mainly in military terms. Dudley encouraged English voyages to far-off coasts, ignoring Spanish threats. He even contemplated a raid on Peru with Sebastian Cabot in 1551. Expeditions to Morocco and the Guinea coast in 1551 and 1552 were actually realised. A planned voyage to China via the Northeast Passage under Hugh Willoughby sailed in May 1553. King Edward watched their departure from his window. Northumberland was at the centre of a "maritime revolution", a policy in which, increasingly, the English Crown sponsored long-distance trade directly.

Changing the succession
The 15-year-old King fell seriously ill in February 1553. His sister Mary was invited to visit him, the Council doing "duty and obeisance to her as if she had been Queen of England". The King recovered somewhat, and in April Northumberland restored Mary's full title and arms as Princess of England, which she had lost in the 1530s. He also kept her informed about Edward's condition. About this time a set of drawn-out marriage negotiations came to conclusion. On 21 May 1553 Guildford Dudley, Northumberland's second youngest son, married Lady Jane Grey, the fervently Protestant daughter of the Duke of Suffolk and, through her mother Frances Brandon, a grandniece of Henry VIII. Her sister Catherine was matched with the heir of the Earl of Pembroke, and another Katherine, Guildford's younger sister, was promised to Henry Hastings, heir of the Earl of Huntingdon. Within a month the first of these marriages turned out to be highly significant. Although marked by magnificent festivities, at the time they took place the alliances were not seen as politically important, not even by the Imperial ambassador Scheyfye, who was the most suspicious observer. Often perceived as proof of a conspiracy to bring the Dudley family to the throne, they have also been described as routine matches between aristocrats.

At some point during his illness Edward wrote a draft document headed "My devise for the Succession". Due to his ardent Protestantism Edward did not want his Catholic sister Mary to succeed, but he was also preoccupied with male succession and with legitimacy, which in Mary's and Elizabeth's case was questionable as a result of Henry VIII's legislation. In the first version of his "devise", written before he knew he was mortally ill, Edward bypassed his half-sisters and provided for the succession of male heirs only. Around the end of May or early June Edward's condition worsened dramatically and he corrected his draft such that Lady Jane Grey herself, not just her putative sons, could inherit the Crown. To what extent Edward's document—especially this last change—was influenced by Northumberland, his confidant John Gates, or still other members of the Privy Chamber like Edward's tutor John Cheke or Secretary William Petre, is unclear.

Edward fully endorsed it. He personally supervised the copying of his will and twice summoned lawyers to his bedside to give them orders. On the second occasion, 15 June, Northumberland kept a watchful eye over the proceedings. Days before, the Duke had intimidated the judges who were raising legal objections to the "devise". The next step was an engagement to perform the King's will after his death, signed in his presence by Northumberland and 23 others. Finally, the King's official "declaration", issued as letters patent, was signed by 102 notables, among them the whole Privy Council, peers, bishops, judges, and London aldermen. Edward also announced to have it passed in parliament in September, and the necessary writs were prepared.

It was now common knowledge that Edward was dying. The Imperial ambassador, Scheyfye, had been convinced for years that Dudley was engaged in some "mighty plot" to settle the Crown on his own head. As late as 12 June, though, he still knew nothing specific, despite having inside information about Edward's sickness. France, which found the prospect of the Emperor's cousin on the English throne disagreeable, gave indications of support to Northumberland. Since the Duke did not rule out an armed intervention from Charles V, he came back on the French offer after the King's death, sending a secret and non-committal mission to King Henry II. After Jane's accession in July the ambassadors of both powers were convinced she would prevail, although they were in no doubt that the common people backed Mary. Antoine de Noailles wrote of Guildford Dudley as "the new King", while the Emperor instructed his envoys to arrange themselves with the Duke and to discourage Mary from undertaking anything dangerous.

Whether altering the succession was Edward's own idea or not, he was determinedly at work to exclude his half-sisters in favour of what he perceived as his jeopardised legacy. The original provisions of the "devise" have been described as bizarre and obsessive and as typical of a teenager, while incompatible with the mind and needs of a pragmatical politician. Mary's accession could cost Northumberland his head, but not necessarily so. He tried hard to please her during 1553, and may have shared the general assumption that she would succeed to the Crown as late as early June. Faced with Edward's express royal will and perseverance, John Dudley submitted to his master's wishes—either seeing his chance to retain his power beyond the boy's lifetime or out of loyalty.

Downfall

Edward VI died on 6 July 1553. The next morning Northumberland sent his son Robert into Hertfordshire with 300 men to secure the person of Mary Tudor. Aware of her half-brother's condition, the Princess had only days before moved to East Anglia, where she was the greatest landowner. She began to assemble an armed following and sent a letter to the council, demanding to be recognised as queen. It arrived on 10 July, the day Jane Grey was proclaimed as queen. The Duke of Northumberland's oration, held before Jane the previous day, did not move her to accept the Crown—her parents' assistance was required for that. Dudley had not prepared for resolute action on Mary's part and needed a week to build up a larger force. He was in a dilemma over who should lead the troops. He was the most experienced general in the kingdom, but he did not want to leave the government in the hands of his colleagues, in some of whom he had little confidence. Queen Jane decided the issue by demanding that her father, the Duke of Suffolk, should remain with her and the council. On 14 July Northumberland headed for Cambridge with 1,500 troops and some artillery, having reminded his colleagues of the gravity of the cause, "what chance of variance soever might grow amongst you in my absence".

Supported by gentry and nobility in East Anglia and the Thames Valley, Mary's military camp was gathering strength daily and, through luck, came into possession of powerful artillery from the royal navy. In the circumstances the Duke deemed fighting a hopeless campaign. The army proceeded from Cambridge to Bury St Edmunds and retreated again to Cambridge. On 20 July a letter from the Council in London arrived, declaring that they had proclaimed Mary Queen and commanding Northumberland to disband the army and await events. Dudley did not contemplate resistance. He explained to his fellow-commanders that they had acted on the council's orders all the time and that he did not now wish "to combat the Council's decisions, supposing that they have been moved by good reasons ... and I beg your lordships to do the same." Proclaiming Mary Tudor at the market place, he threw up his cap and "so laughed that the tears ran down his cheeks for grief." The next morning the Earl of Arundel arrived to arrest him. A week earlier Arundel had assured Northumberland of his wish to spill his blood even at the Duke's feet; now Dudley went down on his knees as soon as he caught sight of him.

Northumberland rode through the City of London to the Tower on 25 July, with his guards struggling to protect him against the hostile populace. A pamphlet appearing shortly after his arrest illustrated the general hatred of him: "the great devil Dudley ruleth, Duke I should have said". He was now commonly thought to have poisoned King Edward while Mary "would have been as glad of her brother's life, as the ragged bear is glad of his death". Dumbfounded by the turn of events, the French ambassador Noailles wrote: "I have witnessed the most sudden change believable in men, and I believe that God alone worked it." David Loades, biographer of both Queen Mary and John Dudley, concludes that the lack of fighting clouds the fact that this outcome was a close-run affair, and warns "to explain Mary's triumph over Jane simply in terms of overwhelming spontaneous support. Northumberland ... was completely unprepared for the crisis which eventually overtook him. He was already losing his grip upon the situation before the council defected, and that was why they did it."

Trial and execution
Northumberland was tried on 18 August 1553 in Westminster Hall. The panels of the jury and judges were largely made up of his former colleagues. Dudley hinted that he had acted on the authority of Prince and Council and by warrant of the Great Seal. Answered that the Great Seal of a usurper was worth nothing, he asked "whether any such persons as were equally culpable of that crime ... might be his judges". After sentence was passed, he begged the Queen's mercy for his five sons, the eldest of whom was condemned with him, the rest waiting for their trials. He also asked to "confess to a learned divine" and was visited by Bishop Stephen Gardiner, who had passed most of Edward's reign in the Tower and was now Mary's Lord Chancellor. The Duke's execution was planned for 21 August at eight in the morning; however, it was suddenly cancelled. Northumberland was instead escorted to St Peter ad Vincula, where he took the Catholic communion and professed that "the plagues that is upon the realm and upon us now is that we have erred from the faith these sixteen years." A great propaganda coup for the new government, Dudley's words were officially distributed—especially in the territories of the Emperor Charles V. In the evening the Duke learnt "that I must prepare myself against tomorrow to receive my deadly stroke", as he wrote in a desperate plea to the Earl of Arundel: "O my good lord remember how sweet life is, and how bitter ye contrary." On the scaffold, before 10,000 people, Dudley confessed his guilt but maintained:

""And yet this act wherefore I die, was not altogether of me (as it is thought) but I was procured and induced thereunto by other[s]. I was I say induced thereunto by other[s], howbeit, God forbid that I should name any man unto you, I will name no man unto you, and therefore I beseech you look not for it. ... And one thing more good people I have to say unto you ... and that is to warn you and exhort you to beware of these seditious preachers, and teachers of new doctrine, which pretend to preach God's word, but in very deed they preach their own fancies, ... they know not today what they would have tomorrow, ... they open the book, but they cannot shut it again. ... I could good people rehearse much more ... but you know I have another thing to do, whereunto I must prepare me, for the time draweth away." ... And after he had thus spoken he kneeled down ... and bowing toward the block he said, I have deserved a thousand deaths, and thereupon he made a cross upon the straw, and kissed it, and laid his head upon the block, and so died."

Historical reputation
A black legend about the Duke of Northumberland was already in the making when he was still in power, the more after his fall. From the last days of Henry VIII he was to have planned, years in advance, the destruction of both King Edward's Seymour uncles—Lord Thomas and the Protector—as well as Edward himself. He also served as an indispensable scapegoat: It was the most practical thing for Queen Mary to believe that Dudley had been acting all alone and it was in nobody's interest to doubt it. Further questions were unwelcome, as Charles V's ambassadors found out: "it was thought best not to inquire too closely into what had happened, so as to make no discoveries that might prejudice those [who tried the duke]". By renouncing the Protestantism he had so conspicuously stood for, Northumberland lost every respect and became ineligible for rehabilitation in a world dominated by thinking along sectarian lines. Protestant writers like John Foxe and John Ponet concentrated on the pious King Edward's achievements and reinvented Somerset as the "good Duke"—it followed that there had also to be a "wicked Duke". This interpretation was enhanced by the High and Late Victorian historians, James Anthony Froude and A. F. Pollard, who saw Somerset as a champion of political liberty whose desire "to do good" was thwarted by, in Pollard's phrase, "the subtlest intriguer in English History".

As late as 1968/1970, W.K. Jordan embraced this good duke/bad duke dichotomy in a two-volume study of Edward VI's reign. However, he saw the King on the verge of assuming full authority at the beginning of 1553 (with Dudley contemplating retirement) and ascribed the succession alteration to Edward's resolution, Northumberland playing the part of the loyal and tragic enforcer instead of the original instigator. Many historians have since seen the "devise" as Edward's very own project. Others, while remarking upon the plan's sloppy implementation, have seen Northumberland as behind the scheme, yet in concord with Edward's convictions; the Duke acting out of despair for his own survival, or to rescue political and religious reform and save England from Habsburg domination.

Since the 1970s, critical reassessments of the Duke of Somerset's policies and government style led to acknowledgment that Northumberland revitalised and reformed the Privy Council as a central part of the administration, and that he "took the necessary but unpopular steps to hold the minority regime together". Stability and reconstruction have been made out as the mark of most of his policies; the scale of his motivation ranging from "determined ambition" with G.R. Elton in 1977 to "idealism of a sort" with Diarmaid MacCulloch in 1999. Dale Hoak concluded in 1980: "given the circumstances which he inherited in 1549, the duke of Northumberland appears to have been one of the most remarkably able governors of any European state during the sixteenth century."

Personality
John Dudley's recantation of his Protestant faith before his execution delighted Queen Mary and enraged Lady Jane. The general opinion, especially among Protestants, was that he tried to seek a pardon by this move. Historians have often believed that he had no faith whatsoever, being a mere cynic. Further explanations—both contemporary and modern—have been that Northumberland sought to rescue his family from the axe, that, in the face of catastrophe, he found a spiritual home in the church of his childhood, or that he saw the hand of God in Mary's success. Although he endorsed the Reformation from at least the mid-1530s, Dudley may not have understood theological subtleties, being a "simple man in such matters". The Duke was stung by an outspoken letter he received from John Knox, whom he had invited to preach before the King and in vain had offered a bishopric. William Cecil was informed: "I love not to have to do with men which be neither grateful nor pleasable. I assure you I mind to have no more to do with him but to wish him well ... he cannot tell whether I be a dissembler in religion or not ... for my own part, if I should have passed more upon the speech of the people than upon the service of my master ... I needed not to have had so much obloquy of some kind of men; but the living God, that knoweth the hearts of all men, shall be my judge at the last day with what zeal, faith, and truth I serve my master."

Northumberland was not an old-style peer, despite his aristocratic ancestry and existence as a great lord. He acquired, sold, and exchanged lands, but never strove to build himself a territorial power base or a large armed force of retainers (which proved fatal in the end). His maximum income of £4,300 p.a. from land and a £2,000 p.a. from annuities and fees, was appropriate to his rank and figured well below the annuity of £5,333 p.a. the Duke of Somerset had granted himself, thus reaching an income of over £10,000 p.a. while in office. John Dudley was a typical Tudor Crown servant, self-interested but absolutely loyal to the incumbent sovereign: The monarch's every wish was law. This uncritical stance may have played a decisive role in Northumberland's decision to implement Edward's succession device, as it did in his attitude towards Mary when she had become queen. The fear his services could be inadequate or go unacknowledged by the monarch was constant in Dudley, who also was very sensitive on what he called "estimation", meaning status. Edmund Dudley was unforgotten: "my poor father's fate who, after his master was gone, suffered death for doing his master's commandments", the Duke wrote to Cecil nine months before his own end.

John Dudley was an imposing figure with a strong temperament who could also charm people with his courtesy and a graceful presence. He was a family man, an understanding father and husband who was passionately loved by his wife. Frequent phases of illness, partly due to a stomach ailment, occasioned long absences from court but did not reduce his high output of paperwork, and may have had an element of hypochondria in them. The English diplomat Richard Morrison wrote of his onetime superior: "This Earl had such a head that he seldom went about anything but he had three or four purposes beforehand." A French eyewitness of 1553 described him as "an intelligent man who could explain his ideas and who displayed an impressive dignity. Others, who did not know him, would have considered him worthy of a kingdom."

title: John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland


text:
Himni i Flamurit

"Himni i Flamurit" is the national anthem of Albania, adopted in 1912. Its music is derived from the Romanian patriotic song "Pe-al nostru steag e scris Unire", composed by Ciprian Porumbescu. The lyrics, which are close to the original Romanian lyrics, were written by Albanian poet Asdreni. The anthem was originally titled "Betimi mbi Flamur" ("The Pledge on the Flag").

History
On 21 April 1912, "Betimi mbi Flamur" was first published as a poem in Liri e Shqipërisë (Freedom of Albania), an Albanian newspaper in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was later printed in a volume of poems by Drenova titled Ëndra e lotë (Dreams and tears) which was published in Bucharest. According to Lasgush Poradeci's memoirs, the anthem, created by the adaptation of the text to the music, was not originally intended to be a national anthem, but it was so well liked by the people that it was proclaimed as the national anthem in 1912, and it was with its music that the Albanian flag was raised during the Albanian Proclamation of Independence in Vlore.

Music
A Hungarian composer, György Ligeti, opined that the music composed by Porumbescu is rooted in Germanic and Austrian musical traditions, though this is not a definitive groundbreaking explanation of its influence and later creation. It is a view based on Porumbescu's musical education, since he had studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna. The view has been shared by Albanian musicologist, Ramadan Sokoli.

Lyrics
The second half of each verse is considered refrain and is repeated. Usually only the first stanza of the anthem is performed, such as during sporting events.

In other alphabets
Albanian alphabet has historically been written in a number of different alphabets.

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

title: Himni i Flamurit


text:
Newi

Newi is an acronym for NEw World Infrastructure, a software architecture for software componentry, mostly known as Newi Business Objects which coined the term business object. Newi was developed by Oliver Sims at the software engineering company Integrated Object Systems, England. It was one of the first implemented architectures for software components.

Overview
Newi was what today is called a component container. The concepts behind the Newi middleware can be found in Oliver Sims' book "Business Objects", McGraw-Hill 1994. In spite of the title, the book was about software components.

Newi components were language-neutral. That is, a Newi component could be written in one of a variety of languages that was supported by Newi. At its height, Newi supported software components written in Cobol, Ada, C, C++, Rexx, and Java. Platforms supported included Windows 3.1, Win95, WinNT, three varieties of Unix - and a prototype supporting components written in RPG was running on the AS400.

Newi components were intended to be "objects in the large". There was a form of sub/supertyping which was implemented by the infrastructure through an intelligent delegation mechanism. For example, a component written in C could be "subtyped" by a component written in Cobol. Component names (or types?) were separated from the code implementation module. Messages (both sync and async) were passed using a proprietary form of "tagged data" (a similar concept to today's XML). There was also a notification service. The various system services (including the GUI framework and communications subsystems) were implemented as Newi components. Throughout, there was a rigorous focus on making the programming of application components as simple as possible, with Newi providing many transparencies.

From the start, Newi was targeted at both front-end GUI systems and back-end server systems. The front-end version had a GUI run-time framework implemented as components. The component concept fitted very well with the object-based UI provided. Hence a designer/programmer used the same technical code structure to implement both front-end and back-end business function.

History
The initial concept behind Newi originated in 1989 when Oliver Sims, then working for IBM, saw the need for an infrastructure whereby a given real-world business concept (process or entity) could be implemented as a software module that could be plugged into a running system. Applications would be created by composing an appropriate set of modules. IBM UK funded development of the concept through collaboration with Softwright, a UK bespoke software company.

After several successful prototypes, and an early AS400 production version, a joint venture called Integrated Object Systems (IOS) was created in 1993 to exploit the concept. The first version of Newi was announced and shipped in 1994.

In early 1996, IOS was bought by SSA (System Software Associates, Inc), who saw great potential in Newi. The software was significantly further developed within SSA, in particular in its back-end capability, as well as having its underlying communications function moved to a COTS Corba product that provided the communications "wet string" while maintaining the Newi programming model and loosely coupled component interaction. Tools were also significantly expanded. SSA also announced an early and proprietary form of web services, based on the re-developed Newi, called "Semantic Message Gateways", or SMG.

In 1998, for reasons other than their technology base, SSA had to downsize dramatically; Newi development was halted then abandoned, and the development team (around forty people in UK and US) was dispersed.

title: Newi


text:
Bones (instrument)

The bones, also known as rhythm bones, are a folk instrument that, in their original form, consists of a pair of animal bones, but may also be played on pieces of wood or similar material. Sections of large rib bones and lower leg bones are the most commonly used bones, although wooden sticks shaped like true bones are now more often used. Metal spoons may be used instead, as is common in the United States, known as "playing the spoons". The technique probably arrived in the U.S. via Irish and other European immigrants, and has a history stretching back to ancient China, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They have contributed to many music genres, including 19th century minstrel shows, traditional Irish and Scottish music, the blues, bluegrass, zydeco, French-Canadian music, and music from Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. The clacking of the loose rib bones produces a much sharper sound than the zydeco washboard or frottoir, which mimics rattling a bone up and down a fixed ribcage.

Description
Rhythm bones are typically about 12 cm to 18 cm (5" to 7") in length, but can be much longer, and they are often curved, roughly resembling miniature barrel staves. Bones can also be flat, for example by the cutting of a yardstick. They are played by holding them between one's fingers, convex surfaces facing one another, and moving one's wrist in such a way that they knock against each other. One method involves placing the bones to either side of the middle finger such that approximately two-thirds of their length extends along the palm while the remainder protrudes above the fingers on the backside of the hand. The hand is held in a loose fist with the bones and the curled fingers roughly parallel to the palm, with the bone closest to the ring finger gently held against the palm by the tip of the ring finger placed on its edge, while the other bone is left free to move in the "hinge" formed by the index and middle fingers as they gently hold it. It is also possible to play the "hinge" on the lower (ring finger) bone while locking the top (index finger) bone against the palm.

Technique
A player may use a pair of bones in each hand, or just a single pair in one hand.

A critical element to playing the bones is not trying to force them to make contact with one another through finger manipulation but allowing their momentum to do the work. By moving the hand back and forth across the chest, with just enough force on the bones to keep them from falling out of the hand, a patient learner can produce a triple click. This "click-it-y" sound is the essential ingredient to playing the bones. A double-click can be produced by the same movement of the hand with the addition of a bit of pressure to the bones to suppress the third click. Once these elemental triple and double figures have been mastered, they can be combined to create complex combinations of rhythmic sounds. The effect is further enhanced by the use of two pairs of bones, one in each hand. A skilled practitioner can produce a wide variety of percussive sounds reminiscent of those made by a tap dancer.

The Irish tradition is unique to the island. While North American players are typically two-handed, the Irish tradition finds the vast majority of bones players using only one hand, a distinction in method that has a strong impact on musical articulation.

The comparison of the function of banjo rolls with that of bones within an ensemble suggests that stereotypically a subdivided accompaniment pattern is played on the bones.

The song "This Old Man" describes bone playing, particularly sheep bone playing (hence paddywhack).

Notable bones players

 * Hillar Bergman
 * Brother Bones (1902–1974)
 * Scatman Crothers (1910–1986)
 * Dom Flemons both with and without the Carolina Chocolate Drops
 * Peadar Mercier (1914–1991)
 * Charles "Charlie Bones" Ginsburg (1921–2008)
 * Barry "Bones" Patton
 * Percy Danforth (1900-1992)
 * Len Davies the Bonesman (1919-2000)
 * John Burrill "Mister Bones" (1920-1993)

title: Bones (instrument)


text:
Erwin Strauss

Erwin S. Strauss is an American author, science fiction fan, noted member of the MITSFS, and filk musician, born in Washington, D.C. He frequently is known by the nickname "Filthy Pierre". He was injured descending a stairway at SMOFcon 41in December 2023, and in January 2024 announced his retirement.

Science fiction and writing
Strauss has been chairman of a number of science fiction conventions, such as Boskone 3 in 1966 and RailCon in 1975; and a member of the committee for at least one Worldcon, Noreascon 3, in 1989. He was an early (1964) vice president of the MIT Science Fiction Society. In addition, he was the author of the monthly "SF Convention Calendar" in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction magazine until the March 2024 issue, and his flyer racks ("Filthy boards") were seen at conventions all over the East Coast. He is the author and/or editor of a number of books, articles, and fanzines. He is a frequent Guest of Honor at SF conventions, including Arisia, Boskone, and Albacon. Strauss is the creator of the Voodoo board message board system once used at conventions such as Worldcons, WisCon, and Arisia.

Libertarian publishing
Strauss is most well known in libertarian circles for his longstanding publication of The Connection, an amateur press association (APA). The APA was started under the name The Libertarian Connection by Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw (using pseudonyms) in 1968. Strauss wrote for it as "Filthy Pierre" almost from the beginning, and in 1979 he took over as publisher. Although Strauss dropped the word "libertarian" from the title (to indicate that it was open to all participants), the strong libertarian perspective of the contributors remained. Strauss continued to publish it until 2023.

Honors

 * Magic Carpet Con, 1996 – Co-Filk Guest of Honor
 * ConChord 2002 – Interfilk guest
 * Noreascon 4 (2004) – Special Committee Award
 * Filk Hall of Fame (inducted 1998)
 * Big Heart Award, 2004.
 * Albacon 2012 – Fan Guest of Honor
 * Balticon 2018 — Fan Guest of Honor
 * Asimov Centennial Meetup 2020 — Panelist

Books

 * Filthy Pierre's Songs of MIT
 * Filthy Pierre's Songs of Significance
 * How to Start Your Own Country. Loompanics, 1979.
 * Basement Nukes: The Consequences of Cheap Weapons of Mass Destruction
 * Complete Guide to Science Fiction Conventions
 * The Case Against a Libertarian Political Party. Loompanics, 1980.
 * MIT Science Fiction Society's Index to the S-F Magazines, 1951–1965, 1966

APAs (amateur press association publications)

 * The Connection (OE, 1979 – 2023)

Fanzines

 * SF Convention Register (1974–96)
 * Filthy Pierre's Microfilk (1975–83)

title: Erwin Strauss


text:
Bruno Fuligni

Bruno Fuligni (born 21 May 1968) is a French writer and historian.

Selected works

 * Atlantes des zones extraterrestres (ed.Flammarion, 2017) ISBN 978-88-6722-373-2
 * Atlantes des zones extraterrestres (ed.Flammarion, 2017) ISBN 978-88-6722-373-2
 * Atlantes des zones extraterrestres (ed.Flammarion, 2017) ISBN 978-88-6722-373-2
 * Atlantes des zones extraterrestres (ed.Flammarion, 2017) ISBN 978-88-6722-373-2
 * Atlantes des zones extraterrestres (ed.Flammarion, 2017) ISBN 978-88-6722-373-2

title: Bruno Fuligni


text:
Cartilage

Cartilage is a resilient and smooth type of connective tissue. It is a semi-transparent and non-porous type of tissue. It is usually covered by a tough and fibrous membrane called perichondrium. In tetrapods, it covers and protects the ends of long bones at the joints as articular cartilage, and is a structural component of many body parts including the rib cage, the neck and the bronchial tubes, and the intervertebral discs. In other taxa, such as chondrichthyans and cyclostomes, it constitutes a much greater proportion of the skeleton. It is not as hard and rigid as bone, but it is much stiffer and much less flexible than muscle. The matrix of cartilage is made up of glycosaminoglycans, proteoglycans, collagen fibers and, sometimes, elastin. It usually grows quicker than bone.

Because of its rigidity, cartilage often serves the purpose of holding tubes open in the body. Examples include the rings of the trachea, such as the cricoid cartilage and carina.

Cartilage is composed of specialized cells called chondrocytes that produce a large amount of collagenous extracellular matrix, abundant ground substance that is rich in proteoglycan and elastin fibers. Cartilage is classified in three types, elastic cartilage, hyaline cartilage and fibrocartilage, which differ in relative amounts of collagen and proteoglycan.

Cartilage does not contain blood vessels or nerves, hence it is insensitive. Some fibrocartilage such as the meniscus of the knee does however have blood supply in part. Nutrition is supplied to the chondrocytes by diffusion. The compression of the articular cartilage or flexion of the elastic cartilage generates fluid flow, which assists the diffusion of nutrients to the chondrocytes. Compared to other connective tissues, cartilage has a very slow turnover of its extracellular matrix and is documented to repair at only a very slow rate relative to other tissues.

Development
In embryogenesis, the skeletal system is derived from the mesoderm germ layer. Chondrification (also known as chondrogenesis) is the process by which cartilage is formed from condensed mesenchyme tissue, which differentiates into chondroblasts and begins secreting the molecules (aggrecan and collagen type II) that form the extracellular matrix. In all vertebrates, cartilage is the main skeletal tissue in early ontogenetic stages; in osteichthyans, many cartilaginous elements subsequently ossify through endochondral and perichondral ossification.

Following the initial chondrification that occurs during embryogenesis, cartilage growth consists mostly of the maturing of immature cartilage to a more mature state. The division of cells within cartilage occurs very slowly, and thus growth in cartilage is usually not based on an increase in size or mass of the cartilage itself. It has been identified that non-coding RNAs (e.g. miRNAs and long non-coding RNAs) as the most important epigenetic modulators can affect the chondrogenesis. This also justifies the non-coding RNAs' contribution in various cartilage-dependent pathological conditions such as arthritis, and so on.

Articular cartilage
The articular cartilage function is dependent on the molecular composition of the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM consists mainly of proteoglycan and collagens. The main proteoglycan in cartilage is aggrecan, which, as its name suggests, forms large aggregates with hyaluronan and with itself. These aggregates are negatively charged and hold water in the tissue. The collagen, mostly collagen type II, constrains the proteoglycans. The ECM responds to tensile and compressive forces that are experienced by the cartilage. Cartilage growth thus refers to the matrix deposition, but can also refer to both the growth and remodeling of the extracellular matrix. Due to the great stress on the patellofemoral joint during resisted knee extension, the articular cartilage of the patella is among the thickest in the human body.

Mechanical properties
The mechanical properties of articular cartilage in load-bearing joints such as the knee and hip have been studied extensively at macro, micro, and nano-scales. These mechanical properties include the response of cartilage in frictional, compressive, shear and tensile loading. Cartilage is resilient and displays viscoelastic properties.

Since cartilage has interstitial fluid that is free-moving, it makes the material difficult to test. One of the tests commonly used to overcome this obstacle is a confined compression test, which can be used in either a “creep” or “relaxation” mode. In creep mode, the tissue displacement is measured as a function of time under a constant load, and in relaxation mode, the force is measured as a function of time under constant displacement. In creep mode, the tissue displacement is measured as a function of time under a constant load. During this mode, the deformation of the tissue has two main regions. In the first region, the displacement is rapid due to the initial flow of fluid out of the cartilage, and in the second region, the displacement slows down to an eventual constant equilibrium value. Under the commonly used loading conditions, the equilibrium displacement can take hours to reach.

In both the creep mode and the relaxation mode of a confined compression test, a disc of cartilage is placed in an impervious, fluid-filled container and covered with a porous plate that restricts the flow of interstitial fluid to the vertical direction. This test can be used to measure the aggregate modulus of cartilage, which is typically in the range of 0.5 to 0.9 MPa for articular cartilage,  and the Young’s Modulus, which is typically 0.45 to 0.80 MPa. The aggregate modulus is “a measure of the stiffness of the tissue at equilibrium when all fluid flow has ceased”, and Young’s modulus is a measure of how much a material strains (changes length) under a given stress.

The confined compression test can also be used to measure permeability, which is defined as the resistance to fluid flow through a material. Higher permeability allows for fluid to flow out of a material’s matrix more rapidly, while lower permeability leads to an initial rapid fluid flow and a slow decrease to equilibrium. Typically, the permeability of articular cartilage is in the range of 10^-15 to 10^-16 m^4/Ns. However, permeability is sensitive to loading conditions and testing location. For example, permeability varies throughout articular cartilage and tends to be highest near the joint surface and lowest near the bone (or “deep zone”). Permeability also decreases under increased loading of the tissue.

Indentation testing is an additional type of test commonly used to characterize cartilage. Indentation testing involves using an indentor (usually <0.8 mm) to measure the displacement of the tissue under constant load. Similar to confined compression testing, it may take hours to reach equilibrium displacement. This method of testing can be used to measure the aggregate modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and permeability of the tissue. Initially, there was a misconception that due to its predominantly water-based composition, cartilage had a Poisson’s ratio of 0.5 and should be modeled as an incompressible material. However, subsequent research has disproven this belief. The Poisson’s ratio of articular cartilage has been measured to be around 0.4 or lower in humans and ranges from 0.46 - 0.5 in bovine subjects.

The mechanical properties of articular cartilage are largely anisotropic, test-dependent, and can be age-dependent. These properties also depend on collagen-proteoglycan interactions and therefore can increase/decrease depending on the total content of water, collagen, glycoproteins, etc. For example, increased glucosaminoglycan content leads to an increase in compressive stiffness, and increased water content leads to a lower aggregate modulus.

Tendon-bone interface
In addition to its role in load-bearing joints, cartilage serves a crucial function as a gradient material between softer tissues and bone. Mechanical gradients are crucial for your body’s function, and for complex artificial structures including joint implants. Interfaces with mismatched material properties lead to areas of high stress concentration which, over the millions of loading cycles experienced by human joins over a lifetime, would eventually lead to failure. For example, the elastic modulus of human bone is roughly 20 GPa while the softer regions of cartilage can be about 0.5 to 0.9 MPa. When there is a smooth gradient of materials properties, however, stresses are distributed evenly across the interface, which puts less wear on each individual part.

The body solves this problem with stiffer, higher modulus layers near bone, with high concentrations of mineral deposits such as hydroxyapatite. Collagen fibers (which provide mechanical stiffness in cartilage) in this region are anchored directly to bones, reducing the possible deformation. Moving closer to soft tissue into the region known as the tidemark, the density of Chondrocytes increases and collagen fibers are rearranged to optimize for stress dissipation and low friction. The outermost layer near the articular surface is known as the superficial zone, which primarily serves as a lubrication region. Here cartilage is characterized by a dense extracellular matrix and is rich in proteoglycans (which dispel and reabsorb water to soften impacts) and thin collagen oriented parallel to the joint surface which have excellent shear resistant properties.

Osteoarthritis and natural aging both have negative effects on cartilage as a whole as well as the proper function of the materials gradient within. The earliest changes are often in the superficial zone, the softest and most lubricating part of the tissue. Degradation of this layer can put additional stresses on deeper layers which are not designed to support the same deformations. Another common effect of aging is increased crosslinking of collagen fibers. This leads to stiffer cartilage as a whole, which again can lead to can lead to early failure as stiffer tissue is more susceptible to fatigue based failure. Aging in calcified regions also generally leads to a larger number of mineral deposits, which has a similarly undesired stiffening effect. Osteoarthritis has more extreme effects and can entirely wear down cartilage, causing direct bone-to-bone contact.

Frictional properties
Lubricin, a glycoprotein abundant in cartilage and synovial fluid, plays a major role in bio-lubrication and wear protection of cartilage.

Repair
Cartilage has limited repair capabilities: Because chondrocytes are bound in lacunae, they cannot migrate to damaged areas. Therefore, cartilage damage is difficult to heal. Also, because hyaline cartilage does not have a blood supply, the deposition of new matrix is slow. Over the last years, surgeons and scientists have elaborated a series of cartilage repair procedures that help to postpone the need for joint replacement. A tear of the meniscus of the knee cartilage can often be surgically trimmed to reduce problems.

Biological engineering techniques are being developed to generate new cartilage, using a cellular "scaffolding" material and cultured cells to grow artificial cartilage. Extensive researches have been conducted on freeze-thawed PVA hydrogels as a base material for such a purpose. These gels have exhibited great promises in terms of biocompatibility, wear resistance, shock absorption, friction coefficient, flexibility, and lubrication, and thus are considered superior to polyethylene-based cartilages. A two-year implantation of the PVA hydrogels as artificial meniscus in rabbits showed that the gels remain intact without degradation, fracture, or loss of properties.

Disease
Several diseases can affect cartilage. Chondrodystrophies are a group of diseases, characterized by the disturbance of growth and subsequent ossification of cartilage. Some common diseases that affect the cartilage are listed below.
 * Osteoarthritis: Osteoarthritis is a disease of the whole joint, however, one of the most affected tissues is the articular cartilage. The cartilage covering bones (articular cartilage—a subset of hyaline cartilage) is thinned, eventually completely wearing away, resulting in a "bone against bone" within the joint, leading to reduced motion, and pain. Osteoarthritis affects the joints exposed to high stress and is therefore considered the result of "wear and tear" rather than a true disease. It is treated by arthroplasty, the replacement of the joint by a synthetic joint often made of a stainless steel alloy (cobalt chromoly) and ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). Chondroitin sulfate or glucosamine sulfate supplements, have been claimed to reduce the symptoms of osteoarthritis, but there is little good evidence to support this claim. In osteoarthritis, increased expression of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines cause aberrant changes in differentiated chondrocytes function which leads to an excess of chondrocyte catabolic activity, mediated by factors including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and aggrecanases.
 * Traumatic rupture or detachment: The cartilage in the knee is frequently damaged but can be partially repaired through knee cartilage replacement therapy. Often when athletes talk of damaged "cartilage" in their knee, they are referring to a damaged meniscus (a fibrocartilage structure) and not the articular cartilage.
 * Achondroplasia: Reduced proliferation of chondrocytes in the epiphyseal plate of long bones during infancy and childhood, resulting in dwarfism.
 * Costochondritis: Inflammation of cartilage in the ribs, causing chest pain.
 * Spinal disc herniation : Asymmetrical compression of an intervertebral disc ruptures the sac-like disc, causing a herniation of its soft content. The hernia often compresses the adjacent nerves and causes back pain.
 * Relapsing polychondritis: a destruction, probably autoimmune, of cartilage, especially of the nose and ears, causing disfiguration. Death occurs by asphyxiation as the larynx loses its rigidity and collapses.

Tumors made up of cartilage tissue, either benign or malignant, can occur. They usually appear in bone, rarely in pre-existing cartilage. The benign tumors are called chondroma, the malignant ones chondrosarcoma. Tumors arising from other tissues may also produce a cartilage-like matrix, the best-known being pleomorphic adenoma of the salivary glands.

The matrix of cartilage acts as a barrier, preventing the entry of lymphocytes or diffusion of immunoglobulins. This property allows for the transplantation of cartilage from one individual to another without fear of tissue rejection.

Imaging
Cartilage does not absorb X-rays under normal in vivo conditions, but a dye can be injected into the synovial membrane that will cause the x-rays to be absorbed by the dye. The resulting void on the radiographic film between the bone and meniscus represents the cartilage. For In vitro x-ray scans, the outer soft tissue is most likely removed, so the cartilage and air boundary are enough to contrast the presence of cartilage due to the refraction of the x-ray.

Cartilaginous fish
Cartilaginous fish (chondrichthyes) or sharks, rays and chimaeras have a skeleton composed entirely of cartilage.

Invertebrate cartilage
Cartilage tissue can also be found among some arthropods such as horseshoe crabs, some mollusks such as marine snails and cephalopods, and some annelids like sabellid polychaetes.

Arthropods
The most studied cartilage in arthropods is the branchial cartilage of Limulus polyphemus. It is a vesicular cell-rich cartilage due to the large, spherical and vacuolated chondrocytes with no homologies in other arthropods. Other type of cartilage found in Limulus polyphemus is the endosternite cartilage, a fibrous-hyaline cartilage with chondrocytes of typical morphology in a fibrous component, much more fibrous than vertebrate hyaline cartilage, with mucopolysaccharides immunoreactive against chondroitin sulfate antibodies. There are homologous tissues to the endosternite cartilage in other arthropods. The embryos of Limulus polyphemus express ColA and hyaluronan in the gill cartilage and the endosternite, which indicates that these tissues are fibrillar-collagen-based cartilage. The endosternite cartilage forms close to Hh-expressing ventral nerve cords and expresses ColA and SoxE, a Sox9 analog. This is also seen in gill cartilage tissue.

Mollusks
In cephalopods, the models used for the studies of cartilage are Octopus vulgaris and Sepia officinalis. The cephalopod cranial cartilage is the invertebrate cartilage that shows more resemblance to the vertebrate hyaline cartilage. The growth is thought to take place throughout the movement of cells from the periphery to the center. The chondrocytes present different morphologies related to their position in the tissue. The embryos of Sepia officinalis express ColAa, ColAb, and hyaluronan in the cranial cartilages and other regions of chondrogenesis. This implies that the cartilage is fibrillar-collagen-based. The Sepia officinalis embryo expresses hh, whose presence causes ColAa and ColAb expression and is also able to maintain proliferating cells undiferentiated. It has been observed that this species presents the expression SoxD and SoxE, analogs of the vertebrate Sox5/6 and Sox9, in the developing cartilage. The cartilage growth pattern is the same as in vertebrate cartilage.

In gastropods, the interest lies in the odontophore, a cartilaginous structure that supports the radula. The most studied species regarding this particular tissue is Busycotypus canaliculatus. The odontophore is a vesicular cell rich cartilage, consisting of vacuolated cells containing myoglobin, surrounded by a low amount of extra cellular matrix containing collagen. The odontophore contains muscle cells along with the chondrocytes in the case of Lymnaea and other mollusks that graze vegetation.

Sabellid polychaetes
The Sabellid polychaetes, or feather duster worms, have cartilage tissue with cellular and matrix specialization supporting their tentacles. They present two distinct extracellular matrix regions. These regions are an acellular fibrous region with a high collagen content, called cartilage-like matrix, and collagen lacking a highly cellularized core, called osteoid-like matrix. The cartilage-like matrix surrounds the osteoid-like matrix. The amount of the acellular fibrous region is variable. The model organisms used in the study of cartilage in sabellid polychaetes are Potamilla sp and Myxicola infundibulum.

Plants and fungi
Vascular plants, particularly seeds, and the stems of some mushrooms, are sometimes called "cartilaginous", although they contain no cartilage.

title: Cartilage


text:
Talk:Cartilage

Untitled
Note: took in text from public domain article at http://www.nidr.nih.gov/spectrum/NIDCR4/4textsec8.htm

Some of this article is taken from public domain text from Gray's Anatomy dated 1918, so probably needs updating.

Dec 20 rewrite
I know some parts are still lean but I plan to add more soon and redirect/move info in/out of stubs. --jag123 01:47, 21 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Questioning the Doubled section
A question, why does this subsection about firbocartilage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartilage#Fibrocartilage, and this subsection http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartilage#Fibrocartilage_2, have almost the same points rewritten?

I'd edit it myself but my knowledge on this subject isn't strong enough. -- Tylerttts 17:30, 12 Jun 2005 (GMT)

 * I just stumbled on this duplication, too, which obviously has gone unnoticed (?) for over 9 (nine) months. I'll see if I find out about some central page "articles in need of brushing up" or some other to-do-list to draw the attention of a competent writer. — Nol Aders 09:20, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

Removed text
I may do some more research into this bit, but thought I'd remove it to here for discussion and safekeeping in case either is warranted. "It has been said that the cartilage in ears and noses continues to grow in size throughout adult life; however, this seems to be an urban myth which is not substantiated by research.

The cartilage in the ears and nose DO begin to grow with age as the production of sex hormones lowers." Figma 03:40, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

Bit removed from article page
This was on the article page. I'm putting it here in case there's something to be done about it, 'though that seems unlikely.

Hey everyone, i need the organelles and their structure and function. so if u could do me a favor, and add those to this article. not that its really going to help becaues i have to do my presentaion in biology tomorrow. but for futher reference people might need that information. so if u could please so that. please && thankss Figma 03:58, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I just wrote the German cartilage article and inserted a picture of chondrones which I wanted to insert here as well. But there is nothing concerning the cells. Maybe someone could add these information...

Reversion of recent edits
I reverted a multitude of edits made in the last week by various editors, mainly anonymous. Their aim was to turn this basic science article into another Articular cartilage damage and Articular cartilage repair article. Sorry if your useful contribution was deleted in the process. Please re-introduce it. Emmanuelm (talk) 15:42, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

? what is cartilage?
okay i dont understand this page i mean its realy good but i wanna know wht the pupose or job of cartilage in the bone is. i know that it is a flezible tissue bu is less flexible then a muscle. i am doing a science project and need to know. this page doesnt tell me —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.194.168.159 (talk) 15:24, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Yes, this article badly needs TLC. Your question about the role of cartilage in bone is a bit unclear.  Cartilage is often present on the ends of bones (inside your joints) where it forms a spongy cushion to help absorb shock.  Some bones in your body (such as the long bones of your arms and legs) originally start out as cartilage 'templates' or anlagens.  These are eventually replaced by bone tissue in a process called endochondral ossification.  Hope that's some help at least.  Ka Faraq Gatri (talk) 17:16, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

Negative health effects of cycling?
Can information be added to the article on the negative effects of regular cycling on cartilage in the knee joints? Does long-term regular cycling permanently or temporarily wear out the cartilage? Wsmss (talk) 13:37, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

Holy carp, there are parts of this that aren't even English. Broken sentences, missing words, the works.dB (talk) 05:17, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

Cartilage: Healing ability
I want to point out a certain article: [http://www.americanarthritis.org/portal/loader.php?seite=can_cartilage_heal? Can Cartilage Heal?] The article describes a study which showed that cartilage was able to heal completely, albeit slowly. Maybe the ability of cartilage to heal should be investigated further.

TheColorOfMidnight (talk) 05:38, 9 April 2014 (UTC)

 * Indeed, cartilage has the ability to heal; however, its avascular nature greatly increases time for regeneration to take place. --Jelly Bean MD (talk) 01:26, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
 * What does your confidence result from ? Menschoid (talk) 18:48, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Recipes based on cartilage?
Should we add a section on livestock cartilage here? Sure, it may deserve its own article, but since it is related to the topic of cartilage, we might as well add that here. That way, people can get an idea that cartilage can actually be eaten. SSS (talk) 00:14, 23 February 2015 (UTC)

Cartilage: Meniscus & blood supply
Meniscus (Anatomy) says the meniscus is made of Fibrocartilaginous material. It also says "The blood flow of the meniscus is from the periphery (outside) to the central meniscus. Blood flow decreases with age and the central meniscus is avascular by adulthood, leading to very poor healing rates." Cartilage says "Cartilage does not contain blood vessels (it is avascular) or nerves (it is aneural)." It seems there is conflict between Meniscus )anatomy) and Cartilage and that either: 1.the statement in cartilage needs qualification or change or removal, or 2.clarification that a structure of fibrocartilaginous material like the Menisucs(Anatomy) is not considered Cartilage. I believe the correct response is as in 1. above. There may also need to be similar thought about whether the same problem exists in relation to nerves in Cartilage dinghy (talk) 00:22, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cartilage


text:
Talk:Help!

Rock music
I think Rock should be added to the infobox, since every song on the album falls into the genre of rock or one of it's subgenres (for example folk rock, rock and roll, etc.) Plus it's pretty obvious to anyone with a working pair of ears that this is a rock album. Mrwallace05 (talk) 19:19, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

 * If you read British rock The Beatles are included in the rock genre and given that this album came as part of the British Invasion, I agree.--Egghead06 (talk) 19:33, 15 November 2013 (UTC)

 * I'm not sure that the 'British Invasion' has anything to do with the categorisation of musical genre. The album didn't "come as part of the British Invasion" - it was simply released. It depends, perhaps, on your perspective. However, the world isn't the USA, and the USA isn't the world! ;) --98.122.20.56 (talk) 23:58, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

 * If you read WP:SUBJECTIVE and WP:PSTS, you'd see that articles should include interpretations of creative works by reliable authors rather than Wikipedia editors. Dan56 (talk) 21:53, 16 November 2013 (UTC)

Genre
, is this the Unterberger source that you said was good enough to add folk-rock to the infobox? GabeMc (talk|contribs)  00:46, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Yep, page 272 under discography. "Pop rock, folk rock" (with the sources), clearly defines the sound on the album and shows a clear transition leading onto the next album. From what I've read from Unterberger, "folk rock" comes into its own in 1965; with preceding albums merely having subtle folk influences. The way he discusses Help! and Rubber Soul are almost similar, with the latter leaning more towards "folk rock". Rvd4life (talk) 16:47, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
 * So, do you think that this source is sufficient to add folk rock to the infobox, because I certainly do. GabeMc  (talk|contribs)  16:56, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Most definitely, I'll add it now. Rvd4life (talk) 17:00, 27 January 2014 (UTC)
 * Great! You have my full support! GabeMc  (talk|contribs)  17:09, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Help! (album). Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20141129061718/http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/53037/help.html to http://www.blender.com/guide/back-catalogue/53037/help.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 00:36, 29 August 2015 (UTC)

Editing "Help! (album)#Personnel"
I just edited the personnel section to say that George Harrison sang the lead vocals on both I Need You and You Like Me Too Much and played the guiro on Tell Me What You See. Additionally, I also edited this section in regards to "Tell Me What You See" to say that the song featured John Lennon on tambourine and Ringo Starr on claves. This is consistent with I Need You (Beatles song), You Like Me Too Much and Tell Me What You See. I hope this was helpful but if anyone wants to revert my edit, feel free.--Kevjgav (talk) 20:33, 20 October 2015 (UTC)

Comment seen on Beatles Bible about the US cover; add my remarks about British cover
(Here on Wikipedia, it's noted that the Beatles were shifted from how they appeared on the British album cover, and Beatles Bible has this explanation; wish I'd had it sooner:) The Beatles appear just above the word HELP. George is above the H (his last name is Harrison), John is above the L (his last name is Lennon), Paul is above the P (first name Paul --- the full name James Paul McCartney is not involved here), and Ringo is above the E (no letters of HELP appear in "Ringo Starr").Carlm0404 (talk) 19:30, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

 * Without a source saying it was done on purpose that's just a coincidence - and the fact that two are last names, one is a first name and one isn't anything indicates that it's an accident. This is the sort of thing that is cited as a "clue" to Paul being dead. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 19:38, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

That is from Beatles Bible message from polishrocker93. Carlm0404 (talk) 19:40, 20 December 2020 (UTC)

As for the British cover, I noticed the Beatles are in alphabetical order, and this is either by first or last name! For Paul, ignore the "James".Carlm0404 (talk) 19:56, 21 December 2020 (UTC)

 * Sorry, without a primary source - a statement from somebody involved with making the album cover - it's just somebody noticing a coincidence. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 01:46, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

Genre, again
As with a lot of Beatles music, there is tendency to overpopulate genres in the infobox. I think genres should be limited, even if they are sourced. Recently, "pop" was added, making three genres (pop rock, folk rock, pop). I think we should choose between pop rock and pop, but I'm open to suggestion. Pinging frequent editors. Sundayclose (talk) 17:39, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the ping, . It's somewhat silly, since genres are not as easily defined as other infobox items, hence the constant arguments and WP:GENREWARRIORs. I agree though that it's better to limit ballooning genre sections, and the approach I've settled on is that if there are two similar possibilities, it's usually better to go with the narrower case. The current version of the page lists both pop rock and pop. In this case, I think pop rock is narrower than pop, and so it's better to simply go with pop rock since that implies a belonging to the broader genre of pop.  Tkbrett  (✉) 14:55, 10 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Agree with Tkbrett on this. – zmbro (talk) (cont) 23:15, 10 January 2022 (UTC)

Why is actual information printed on disc label unnecessary ?
Hello, there is an actual header on the label of side one of this album's original British vinyl LPs that explicitly says "Songs from the film "HELP!"" (as with A Hard Day's Night)! How can this be unnecessary? And the fact that Australia's version declares erroneously that the songs from side two of A Hard Day's Night to be from the film seems to me also relevant. I realise that this was not taken from a published author's research, but a picture from the actual labels (i.e. from Discog) should suffice for information that is well established. I respectfully do not agree with the suppression. Regards, JeanPaulGRingault (talk) 14:36, 13 August 2022 (UTC)

 * 2405:9800:BA90:7B6:597C:58BC:BB23:4E4D (talk) 00:35, 6 November 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Help!


text:
Aleksandër Stavre Drenova

Aleksandër Stavre Drenova (11 April 1872 – 11 December 1947), commonly known by the pen name Asdreni, was an Albanian poet, rilindas, translator, writer and the author of the poem which later became the national anthem of Albania. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of the 20th century and composed most of his Albanian Renaissance-inspired known works during that period. Born in the village of Drenovë, Asdreni completed his academic studies at the University of Bucharest in Romania where he enthusiastically committed himself to the Independence of Albania from the Ottoman Empire. He maintained close liaison with fellow Gjergj Fishta and Lasgush Poradeci and was notably inspired by the patriots Girolamo de Rada and Naim Frashëri. Rreze dielli, a collection of 99 poems, was his first prominent work which he dedicated to the national hero of Albania Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg. Devoted to Edith Durham a friend of Albania, his second collection of again 99 poems, Ëndrra e lotë, displayed a wider range of themes and motifs as well as his more astonishing maturity.

On the 30th of June 2021 the new 10000 Lekë banknote was issued by the Bank of Albania with the main portrait being that of Asdreni.

Life and career
Asdreni was born as Aleksandër Stavre Drenova on 11 April 1872 into an Albanian peasant family of Eastern Orthodox faith in the village of Drenovë close to the city of Korçë in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Albania. In his native village he properly received his early formal education at a Greek primary school and had just started secondary school in Korçë subsequently his father, Stavri Thimiu, died leaving him fatherless.

The surrounding region Korçë had been a prime source of Albanian migration which was additionally strengthened by an earthquake in 1879. He consequently migrated to Bucharest in 1885 and rejoined his more elderly brothers where he also commenced his short-living studies at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Bucharest.

In the new country, Asdreni came into liaison with other Albanian intellectuals and writers with whom he started to strengthen the Albanian diaspora in Romania for the struggle of national liberation. Prior to that, he was strongly inspired by Girolamo de Rada and Naim Frashëri as well as by the Albanian Renaissance in which the Albanians came to acknowledge themselves as a nation deserving the right to govern themselves.

Writings and publication

The literary career of Asdreni blossomed simultaneously with the beginning of the 20th century. In his first work, a collection of 99 poems known as the Rreze dielli dedicated to the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg who led a successful resistance to Ottoman expansion into Europe, he followed the literary traditions of Naim Frashëri and raised his love for the motherland encouraging his compatriots to enter the struggle for liberation from the Ottoman Empire.

Ëndrra e lotë, his second work also composed of 99 poems dedicated to Edith Durham who travelled extensively across Albania, is characterised by a wealth of poetic values. He instantly expressed his democratic values, his interests in societal problems at the time as well as his critical discourses on foreign domination. It was an important step from Romanticism towards Realism which was characterised by the historical time frame and reference, and writing about events and situations that happened in real life. His poem "Kënga e bashkimit" (The Song of Unity), published in the volume Ëndrra [dh]e lotë ("Dreams and tears", 1912), is a clear adaptation of the Romanian song "Hora Unirii" by Vasile Alecsandri.

title: Aleksandër Stavre Drenova


text:
Albanian

Albanian may refer to:

 * Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
 * Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
 * Albanian language
 * Albanian culture
 * Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country
 * Pertaining to other places:
 * Albania (disambiguation)
 * Albany (disambiguation)
 * St Albans (disambiguation)

 * Albanian cattle
 * Albanian horse

 * The Albanian, a 2010 German-Albanian film

title: Albanian