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twnenglish · 1 year

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World’s Most Expensive Bodyguards: Unveiling the Sky-High Cost of Elite Security

In a world shaped by fame, power, and wealth, the need for premium personal security is paramount. A-list celebrities, tycoons, and powerful personalities often find their peace of mind in the assurance of high-end bodyguards - the knights of the 21st century.

The cost of such elite protection can be astronomical, reflecting the immense value these guards provide.

Let's delve into the extravagant world of the world's most expensive bodyguards, unveiling the sky-high costs and the intriguing details behind these formidable figures.

From Hollywood stars to royal families, the clients these bodyguards serve are as impressive as their paychecks. We lift the curtain on the astronomical annual protection costs, the impressive net worth of these stars, and the countries that are home to these remarkable security details. Read on to discover the world's most expensive bodyguards and the glitz, glamour, and danger that comes with the job.

Cost of Elite Security: The World's Most Expensive Bodyguards

When it comes to personal security, the world's ultra-rich spare no expense. Hiring top-notch bodyguards for round-the-clock protection is considered a necessity, not a luxury. The cost of such elite security can easily skyrocket, especially for the world's most famous and wealthy figures.

The High-End Market for Elite Security

There's a high-end market for bodyguards, and it doesn't come cheap. These professionals are not your everyday security guards. They're highly trained, often with a background in the military or law enforcement, and they're tasked with the extreme responsibility of protecting a person's life.

The Cost of Protection

The annual cost of such protection can range from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars, depending on the individual's level of fame or wealth, potential threats, and the number of guards needed.

For example, tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg reportedly spends $23 million a year on his security detail.

In addition to the cost of the bodyguard's salary, there are also other costs associated with hiring an expensive bodyguard, such as travel expenses, training expenses, and equipment expenses.

The cost of hiring an expensive bodyguard can vary depending on the level of security required. For example, a bodyguard who is responsible for protecting a celebrity in a high-risk location will likely cost more than a bodyguard who is responsible for protecting a politician in a low-risk location.

The most expensive bodyguards typically work for celebrities, politicians, and other high-profile individuals. However, there are also some wealthy individuals who hire expensive bodyguards for their own protection.

Stars and Their Big Spenders

Not surprisingly, celebrities and high-profile individuals are big spenders when it comes to personal protection. For instance, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, during their time together, reportedly spent around $2 million a year on security. Among the most notable past clients of high-end bodyguards include stars like Elton John, Julia Roberts, and Johnny Depp.

Country-Wise Spending

While these figures may seem astronomical to the average person, they represent just a fraction of the world's elite security market. The U.S. leads the way in spending, but other countries are not far behind. In the UK, for example, the Beckhams reportedly shell out around £1 million annually for security.

World’s Most Expensive Bodyguards : Unveiling the Sky-High Cost of Elite Security

1. Jennifer Aniston

Star's Net Worth: Jennifer Aniston's net worth is estimated to be $300 million.

Annual Protection Cost: Aniston's bodyguard is said to cost her $1 million per year.

Country: Aniston's bodyguard is based in the United States, but he also travels with her when she is working or on vacation.

Name of Bodyguard: Aniston's bodyguard is named Gavin de Becker.

Other Stars Protected: Gavin de Becker has also protected other celebrities, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Oprah Winfrey.

De Becker is a former LAPD officer who founded his own security firm, Gavin de Becker & Associates, in 1976. He is considered to be one of the most respected security experts in the world, and his firm has protected some of the biggest names in Hollywood.

Sheldon is a former Secret Service agent who has been working as Aniston's bodyguard for many years. He is said to be a "highly skilled and experienced" professional, and he is trusted by Aniston implicitly. He has been described as "calm and discreet," and he is said to be "always aware of his surroundings."

In addition to providing physical security, Sheldon also helps Aniston to manage her public image and to deal with the media. He is said to be "very good at keeping her safe and keeping her life private."

Aniston is one of many celebrities who hire bodyguards for their own protection. These bodyguards are highly trained professionals who are dedicated to keeping their clients safe. They often have extensive experience in law enforcement or the military, and they are skilled in martial arts and weapons training.

Bodyguards are an important part of the security team for many celebrities. They help to protect their clients from physical harm, and they also help to manage their public image. For celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, who are constantly in the public eye, a bodyguard can be a valuable asset.

2 . Halle Berry

Star's Net Worth: Halle Berry's net worth is estimated to be $90 million.

Annual Protection Cost: Berry's bodyguards are said to cost her $500,000 per year.

Country: Berry's bodyguards are based in the United States, but they also travel with her when she is working or on vacation.

Details of her bodyguards: Berry has had several bodyguards over the years, but her current bodyguards are a team of four men who are former members of the United States Secret Service.

Name of other stars protected earlier: Berry's bodyguards have also protected other celebrities, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Oprah Winfrey.

Among the glitterati that have chosen to invest heavily in their personal safety is international film icon, Halle Berry. The renowned actress, best known for her roles in blockbuster films like 'Monster's Ball' and 'Catwoman', resides in the United States, where she employs an elite team of bodyguards for her protection.

Berry is one of many celebrities who hire bodyguards for their own protection. These bodyguards are highly trained professionals who are dedicated to keeping their clients safe. They often have extensive experience in law enforcement or the military, and they are skilled in martial arts and weapons training.

Bodyguards are an important part of the security team for many celebrities. They help to protect their clients from physical harm, and they also help to manage their public image. For celebrities like Halle Berry, who are constantly in the public eye, a bodyguard can be a valuable asset.

In addition to her bodyguards, Berry also has a home security system that includes cameras, alarms, and motion sensors. She also has a team of security guards who patrol her property.

Berry has been the target of several stalkers over the years, and she has taken her security very seriously. She is determined to protect herself and her family from harm.

Read This Full ARTICLE, Click Here

#bodyguards #elitesecurity #skyhighcosts #hollywoodstars

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shoutmonishere · 2 years

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Name: Amory Gavin

Age: 30

Pronouns: They/Them

Height: 6'2"

Info: Amory is an Elite Knight of Kanterbury Kingdom.

Their exceptional swordsmanship along with their strong affinity with dark element magic makes them nothing short of formidable to face off with, which eventually led them to acquiring the nickname "The Shadow Warden" amongst their colleagues.

Although they may appear grim and ruthless to many outsiders and newer Guardians, they are anything but- a gentle giant, essentially.

They are kindhearted but stern, often looking like they carry patience of a saint, but when it's stretched way too thin, be prepared to meet the Warden's signature blade, Black Thorn— or getting the meanest side eye and somewhat passive aggressive comments.

However, following the collapse of Kanterbury along with all out invasion from an unknown enemy, Amory and the Princess of said kingdom had been tasked to sought out the 13 Champions from across the globe to stop these unknown invaders.

It was going relatively good until....

Well...

Complications came their way and landed them somewhere entirely different.

Appearance:

You can find them under the ♠️[The Shadow Warden]♠️ tag

#♠️[The Shadow Warden]♠️#oc #ocs #admin's bullshittery #rp #{all hands on deck}#i have finally lost it and Amory's now on the muse list #i am not tagging it in the G/T tag because who the hell would wanna see this #long story short; collab event /j

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enkisstories · 4 years

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Tina: “I’m bored, guys! Let’s rough up the prisoners a little!”

Chris: “Can’t. One is something like a Force-powered elite battle droid and the other is Hank’s weird kiddo!”

Tina: “Even so, Connor should make himself useful! Like, serve us Blue Milk and Yobshrimp Salad.”

Gavin: “I wouldn’t eat or drink any of that. You never know what he’ll put in it. I don’t trust that lightsaber toting bastard with his doe-eyes one bit!”

And suddenly it all snaps into place. These friends of his father’s, Connor thinks, are just like the Knights of Ren, only without superpowers. There must be a lesson here…

Or maybe I just wanted to shoot yet another version of an iconic DBH scene ;-)

#sims4 dbh star wars #sims 4 #simblr #sims 4 jtb #sims 4 journey to batuu

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tasksweekly · 4 years

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[TASK 200: ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA]

In celebration of June being Caribbean American Heritage Month, there’s a masterlist below compiled of over 170+ Antiguan and/or Barbudan faceclaims categorised by gender with their occupation and ethnicity denoted if there was a reliable source. If you want an extra challenge use random.org to pick a random number! Of course everything listed below are just suggestions and you can pick whichever faceclaim or whichever project you desire.

Any questions can be sent here and all tutorials have been linked below the cut for ease of access! REMEMBER to tag your resources with #TASKSWEEKLY and we will reblog them onto the main! This task can be tagged with whatever you want but if you want us to see it please be sure that our tag is the first five tags, @ mention us or send us a messaging linking us to your post!

THE TASK - scroll down for FC’s!

STEP 1: Decide on a FC you wish to create resources for! You can always do more than one but who are you starting with? There are links to masterlists you can use in order to find them and if you want help, just send us a message and we can pick one for you at random!

STEP 2: Pick what you want to create! You can obviously do more than one thing, but what do you want to start off with? Screencaps, RP icons, GIF packs, masterlists, PNG’s, fancasts, alternative FC’s - LITERALLY anything you desire!

STEP 3: Look back on tasks that we have created previously for tutorials on the thing you are creating unless you have whatever it is you are doing mastered - then of course feel free to just get on and do it. :)

STEP 4: Upload and tag with #TASKSWEEKLY! If you didn’t use your own screencaps/images make sure to credit where you got them from as we will not reblog packs which do not credit caps or original gifs from the original maker.

THINGS YOU CAN MAKE FOR THIS TASK - examples are linked!

Stumped for ideas? Maybe make a masterlist or graphic of your favourite faceclaims. A masterlist of names. Plot ideas or screencaps from a music video preformed by an artist. Masterlist of quotes and lyrics that can be used for starters, thread titles or tags. Guides on culture and customs.

Screencaps

RP icons [of all sizes]

Gif Pack [maybe gif icons if you wish]

PNG packs

Manips

Dash Icons

Character Aesthetics

PSD’s

XCF’s

Graphic Templates - can be chara header, promo, border or background PSD’s!

FC Masterlists - underused, with resources, without resources!

FC Help - could be related, family templates, alternatives.

Written Guides.

and whatever else you can think of / make!

MASTERLIST!

Anna Maria Horsford (1948) Afro-Antiguan, Limba, Dominican - actress.

Patsy Moore (1964) Afro-Antiguan / Unspecified - singer and poet.

Marianne Jean-Baptiste (1967) Afro-Antiguan / Afro-Saint Lucian - actress.

Drena De Niro (1967) Antiguan, African, Creole / Unknown - actress and producer.

Rozonda Thomas (1971) African-American, 1/16th Bengali Indian, 1/16th Afro-Antiguan, possibly Unspecified Native American - actress, dancer and singer.

June Ambrose (1972) Afro-Antiguan - tv personality and stylist.

Fay Wolf (1978) Afro-Antiguan / Ashkenazi Jewish - actress, singer and pianist.

Claudette Peters (1979) Afro-Antiguan - singer.

Javine Hylton (1981) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan, White - singer.

Gemma Hunt (1982) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - presenter.

Masaba Gupta (1988) Indian / Antiguan - fashion designer.

London Hughes (1989) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - comedian and presenter.

Xiea Hull (1993) Afro-Antiguan - model.

Aaron Philip (2001) Afro-Antiguan - model. - Has Cerebral Palsy - Trans!

Au/Ra / Jamie Lou Stenzel (2002) Antiguan / German - singer-songwriter.

Donalia Jones (?) Afro-Antiguan - actress.

Nicoya Henry (?) Afro-Antiguan - model.

Mara (?) Afro-Antiguan - instagrammer (mara_mac).

Tamzin (?) Afro-Antiguan, Nigerian, British - singer (instagram: tamzinmusic).

Catherine Melenciano (?) Afro-Antiguan - instagrammer (cathiimedialuna).

Melisa N. Charles (?) Afro-Barbudan - model.

Desiree Heslop / Princess (?) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - singer.

F - Athletes:

Ruperta Charles (1962) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Jocelyn Joseph (1964) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Laverne Bryan (1965) Antiguan or Barbudan - middle-distance runner.

Heidi Lehrer (1966) Antiguan [White] - canoer.

Monica Stevens (1967) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Heather Samuel (1970) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Charmaine Gilgeous (1971) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Barbara Selkridge (1971) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Charmaine Thomas (1974) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Dine Potter (1975) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Kevinia Francis (1978) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Sonia Williams (1979) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Amy Harris-Willock (1987) Afro-Antiguan - long jumper and Miss Caribbean UK.

Priscilla Frederick (1989) Afro-Antiguan / African-American - high jumper.

Christal Clashing (1989) Afro-Antiguan / Costa Rican - swimmer.

Samantha Edwards (1990) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Amelia Green (1991) Antiguan - footballer.

Tamiko Butler (1991) Antiguan - cyclist.

Afia Charles (1992) Afro-Antiguan / Unknown - sprinter.

Karin O'Reilly Clashing (1992) Afro-Antiguan / Costa Rican - swimmer.

Satara Murray (1993) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan, Afro-Jamaican, Afro-Guyanese, English - footballer.

Desirèe Henry (1995) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Guyanese - sprinter.

Sabrina Frederick (1996) Afro- Antiguan, Jamaican - footballer.

Kaila Charles (1998) Afro-Antiguan / Trinidadian - basketball player.

Samantha Roberts (2000) Afro-Antiguan - swimmer.

Sher-Rhonda Greenaway (?) Afro-Antigua - IFBB Elite Pro Athlete and Miss Antigua overall Bodyfitness Champion 2017.

King Short Shirt / Sir MacLean Emanuel (1942) Afro-Antiguan - singer.

Romeo Challenger (1950) Afro-Antiguan - musician.

Kool DJ Red Alert / Frederick Crute (1956) Afro-Antiguan - disc jockey.

Jazzie B / Trevor Beresford Romeo (1963) Afro-Antiguan - DJ and music producer.

Shashi Balooja (1968) Antiguan - actor and filmmaker.

Andrew Keoghan (1980) Antiguan - singer-songwriter.

Tian Winter (1985) Afro-Antiguan - singer-songwriter.

Ricardo Drue (1985) Afro-Antiguan - singer-songwriter.

JB Gill / Jonathan Benjamin Gill (1986) Afro-Antiguan - singer.

Killian Lyrik (1991) Algonquian, Antiguan, Jamaican, Dutch, German - singer, model and writer.

Lucien Laviscount (1992) Afro-Antiguan / English - actor and singer.

Kirk Knight (1996) Afro-Antiguan / Grenadian - rapper.

Quan The Supreme (1997) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - tiktoker (quanthesupreme).

KneeCaps (1998) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - youtuber.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason (1999) Afro-Antiguan / Sierra Leonean - cellist.

Clifton Joseph (?) Afro-Antiguan - dub poet.

Shirville Jarvis (?) Afro-Antiguan - actor and model.

M - Athletes:

Maurice Hope (1951) Afro-Antiguan - boxer.

Andy Roberts (1951) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Viv Richards (1952) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Cuthbert Jacobs (1952) Antiguan, Barbudan - sprinter.

Maxwell Peters (1955) Antiguan, Barbudan - triple jumper.

Everton Cornelius (1955) Antiguan, Barbudan - sprinter.

Leon Richardson (1957) Antiguan - cyclist.

Elisha Hughes (1959) Antiguan - cyclist.

Alfred Browne (1959) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - sprinter.

Eldine Baptiste (1960) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Brian Lyn (1961) Antiguan - cyclist.

Richie Richardson (1962) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Oral Selkridge (1962) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - sprinter.

Curtly Ambrose (1963) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Lester Benjamin (1963) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - long jumper.

Howard Lindsay (1963) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan, Afro-Jamaican - middle-distance runner.

Jacob Lehrer (1964) Antiguan [White] - canoer.

Ira Fabian (1964) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Dale Jones (1964) Antiguan - middle-distance runner.

Winston Benjamin (1964) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Pieter Lehrer (1965) Antiguan [White] - canoer and footballer.

Rolston Williams (1965) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Daryl Joseph (1966) Antiguan, Barbudan - boxer.

James Browne (1966) Antiguan, Barbudan - long jumper.

Mitchell Browne (1966) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - sprinter.

Neil Lloyd (1966) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Kenny Benjamin (1967) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Ridley Jacobs (1967) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Anthony Henry (1967) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Robert Marsh (1968) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Reuben Appleton (1968) Afro-Antiguan - middle-distance runner.

Derrick Edwards (1968) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Robert Peters (1970) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Kenmore Hughes (1970) Antiguan or Barbudan - sprinter.

Hamish Anthony (1971) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Michael Terry (1973) Afro-Antiguan, Afro-Barbudan - middle-distance runner.

N'Kosie Barnes (1974) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Adam Sanford (1975) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - cricketer.

Marc Joseph (1976) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Ben Challenger (1978) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - high jumper.

Emile Heskey (1978) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Speedy Claxton (1978) Afro-Antiguan - basketball player.

Kieron Dyer (1978) Afro-Antiguan / English - footballer.

Rory Gonsalves (1979) Antiguan - cyclist.

Shannon Falcone (1981) Antiguan [White] - sailor.

Robbie Joseph (1982) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Joel Anthony (1982) Afro-Antiguan / Unknown - basketball player.

Mikele Leigertwood (1982) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Justin Cochrane (1982) Afro-Antiguan / Saint Lucian - footballer.

Gavin Tonge (1983) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Brendan Christian (1983) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Julius Hodge (1983) Afro-Antiguan - basketball player.

Kurt Looby (1984) Afro-Antiguan - basketball player.

Damien Farrell (1984) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Peter Byers (1984) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Ronayne Marsh-Brown (1984) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

James Grayman (1985) Afro-Antiguan - high jumper.

Ayata Joseph (1985) Afro-Antiguan - triple jumper.

Colin Kazim-Richards (1986) Afro-Antiguan / Turkish Cypriot - footballer.

Dexter Blackstock (1986) 1/4th Afro-Antiguan, Unknown - footballer.

Colin Kazim-Richards (1986) Afro-Antiguan / Turkish - footballer.

Daniel Bailey (1986) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

James Walker (1987) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Moses Ashikodi (1987) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Luke Blakely (1988) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Myles Weston (1988) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Marvin McCoy (1988) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Malique Williams (1988) Afro-Antiguan - swimmer.

Orlando Peters (1988) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Justin Athanaze (1988) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - cricketer.

Keiran Murtagh (1988) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Jyme Bridges (1989) Afro-Antiguan - cyclist.

Devon Thomas (1989) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Josh Parker (1990) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Kemba Walker (1990) Afro-Antiguan / Antiguan [Antiguan, Crucian] - basketball player.

Kiernan Hughes-Mason (1991) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Jamol Pilgrim (1991) Afro-Antiguan - paralympic sprinter.

Nathaniel Jarvis (1991) Afro- Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Hayden Walsh Jr. (1992) Crucian [Afro-Antiguan / Unknown] - cricketer.

Keanu Marsh-Brown (1992) Guyanese, Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Quinton Griffith (1992) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Kareem Valentine (1992) Afro-Antiguan - swimmer.

Zaine Francis-Angol (1993) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Rahkeem Cornwall (1993) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Norvel Pelle (1993) Afro-Antiguan - basketball player.

Calaum Jahraldo-Martin (1993) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Rhys Browne (1995) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Mahlon Romeo (1995) Afro-Antiguan / Unknown - footballer.

Cejhae Greene (1995) Afro-Antiguan - sprinter.

Ché Adams (1996) Afro-Antiguan / Unspecified - footballer.

Blaize Punter (1996) Afro-Antiguan / Unspecified - footballer.

Connor Peters (1996) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Alzarri Joseph (1996) Afro-Antiguan - cricketer.

Courtney Wildin (1996) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

AJ George (1996) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Vashami Allen (1997) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Luther Wildin (1997) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1998) Afro-Antiguan / Unspecified White - basketball player.

DJ Buffonge (1998) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Daniel Bowry (1998) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Noah Mascoll-Gomes (1999) Afro-Antiguan - swimmer.

Stefano Mitchell (1999) Antiguan - swimmer.

Zayn Hakeem (1999) Afro-Antiguan - footballer.

Thomasi Gilgeous-Alexander (2000) Afro-Antiguan / Unspecified White - basketball player.

TJ Bramble (2001) Afro-Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Patrick Spencer (?) Antiguan - cyclist.

Rowan Benjamin (?) Antiguan or Barbudan - footballer.

Problematic:

Conrad Mainwaring (1951) Afro-Antiguan - hurdler. - Sexual assault allegations.

Mohammed George (1982) Afro-Antiguan / Afro-Jamaican - actor. - Assault allegations.

#antiguan fc #barbudan fc #poc fc #fc list #rph #task: 200 #task: antigua and barbuda

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weavingthetapestry · 5 years

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21st September 1513: Coronation of King James V of Scotland in Stirling

(The Honours of Scotland- the sceptre and sword were both gifts to James V’s father. Not my picture)

On this day in 1513, the young James V was crowned King of Scots in the chapel of Stirling Castle. Not yet eighteen months old, he had fallen heir to the throne a fortnight earlier after the death of his father James IV at the Battle of Flodden. After over twenty years of comparative stability under a popular adult monarch, Scotland now faced a long minority. While this was not an unusual occurrence in Scottish history, James V’s especially troubled minority would provide ample cause for the chronicler Adam Abell, writing twenty years later, to have recourse to that age-old complaint, “Wa is þe kinrik quar þe king is ane barne, ffor þan nowder pece nor iustice rang.” *

The future James V had been born at Linlithgow in April 1512, the fifth of King James IV’s legitimate children by his queen Margaret Tudor. None of the previous babies had survived infancy (though James IV had several living illegitimate children). Despite James IV’s hopeful observation that the new prince “gives promise of living to succeed” in a letter announcing the birth to his uncle the king of Denmark, and the English ambassador’s comment in 1513 that the Prince “is a right fair child, and a large of his age”, there was no way anyone could really be certain. His parents probably hoped for further children anyway, and by the end of August 1513, Margaret Tudor was again pregnant.

This time, however, other issues took precedence. Relations between Scotland and its neighbour England had recently deteriorated to the point where war seemed inevitable. Following on from James IV’s successful campaigns on the border in the 1490s, a Treaty of Perpetual Peace between England and Scotland had been signed in 1502. Within a decade, however, the fledgling peace was under threa. Political events on the continent had begun to impinge directly on the affairs of James IV’s small kingdom on the edges of Europe. James IV had generally enjoyed profitable relations with the papacy but now Pope Julius II had formed the Holy League with Spain, the Holy Roman Empire, Venice, and the Swiss. This was an alliance against Scotland’s ancient ally France. This placed the King of Scots in a bind and a bad situation was only made worse when the young Henry VIII of England (Queen Margaret’s younger brother), eager to make a name for himself on the European stage, was induced to join the Holy League. The king of England eventually led an invasion of France in summer 1513. When France appealed to Scotland for help, James IV was forced to choose between an old ally and the fragile truce. Deciding in France’s favour, he raised one of the largest armies Scotland had ever furnished and invaded the north of England in August 1513.**

The campaign initially went well for the Scots, who captured the Bishop of Durham’s great castle of Norham after a siege of only five days, and then took the smaller castles of Etal and Ford. But the Earl of Surrey had been appointed lieutenant of the north while the king of England was on the continent and hurried north from Yorkshire as soon as he heard of the invasion, arriving in Northumberland with his army in early September. James IV was willing to stand and fight, as he held a position of strategic advantage on top of Flodden Hill and his army had superior numbers and artillery. But Surrey outflanked him by marching his army to nearby Branxton hill on the morning of 9th September 1513, blocking the Scots’ retreat north. A pitched battle then ensued on the waterlogged fields in between the hills. The result was not only a defeat for the Scots, but one of the worst military catastrophes in Scottish history. The death toll as enormous, not least among the Scottish nobility and clergy: among the dead were the archbishop of St Andrews, the bishop of the Isles and the abbots of Kilwinning and Inchaffray; the earls of Argyll, Bothwell, Morton, Lennox, Cassilis, Caithness, Montrose, Erroll, Crawford, and Rothes; lords Elphinstone, Maxwell, Avondale, Borthwick, Ross, and Seton and many other lords, knights, and common soldiers. Worst of all, the king of Scots himself had been killed. The loss of so many men, and especially leading members of the political elite, was to have a lasting effect on Scotland’s political and cultural experience for decades to come.

(The memorial cross on Piper’s Hill overlooking the site of the Battle of Flodden. Source Wikimedia commons)

News of the appalling catastrophe spread gradually- disturbing rumours had reached Edinburgh by the next day, while confused stories continued to filter across Europe for some months. Shock, anguish, and denial seem to have been the immediate reactions back in Scotland, and for decades rumours would persist that James IV himself had not died, but had escaped somehow and might yet return. The news must have been particularly heavy for the young Queen Margaret, a widow at twenty-three and an English princess now mother to the new king of Scots, an infant who represented the hopes of an entire kingdom. As the full scale of the crisis became clear, the political community had to come to terms with the new situation swiftly, and ensure that the work of government, trade, justice, and domestic life carried on.

Not much is recorded of the government’s immediate reaction to the disaster, but by 19th of September 1513, a large number of lords and prelates had assembled at the castle of Stirling, a secure fortress which was further from the border than Linlithgow or Edinburgh and therefore a better seat of government in the face of possible English invasion. There the lords took measures to restore normality and reestablish authority; most importantly, the new king must be crowned as soon as possible. Despite his infancy, and the existence of adult male cousins just behind him in the line of succession who might have seemed more appealing as leaders during such a disturbed period, there is no evidence that the young James V’s claim to the throne was ever seriously questioned. In the immediate aftermath of Flodden, the political community rallied around the boy king and his mother, and it was arranged that his coronation would take place two days later on 21st September. In the meantime, the general council nominated over thirty nobles and churchmen to sit in daily council to advise on the government of the kingdom, with at least three spiritual and three temporal to remain in attendance always “as it lykis the queyn to command”.

The coronation went ahead as planned on Wednesday 21st September, “in the kirk of the castell of Striveling”. This would be the first occasion on which a coronation took place in Stirling, though the town was later to host the coronations of James V’s daughter Mary I (in the Chapel Royal) and grandson James VI (in the burgh kirk of the Holy Rude). It was a significant choice: while the coronations of the boy kings James II and James III had broken with the age-old tradition of inaugurating a King of Scots at Scone, James IV had restored this tradition upon his accession in 1488. However, the nobles who had placed the then fifteen year old James IV on the throne had come to power following a rebellion against the king’s father, James III, and Scone was probably chosen on that occasion to lend legitimacy to the new regime. By contrast, in 1513 the government’s priorities seem to have been security and speed in the face of any possible English invasions or public unrest. The infant king was therefore crowned in Stirling Castle’s chapel. It is usually assumed that this was the Chapel Royal, dedicated to St Mary the Virgin and St Michael, which had recently been erected to the status of a collegiate church and promoted as the chapel royal of the realm by James IV. However, due to reasons of space it is possible that the older chapel in the castle was used instead since, for all the attention lavished on it by James IV, the new Chapel Royal may have been too small to house large numbers of guests.

Not much is known about the coronation proceedings, but the surviving evidence gives the impression that it was a hastily planned affair. In the absence of an archbishop of St Andrews (the previous archbishop, James V’s older half-brother, having died at Flodden), the archbishop of Glasgow, James Beaton, was placed in charge of the proceedings “and all uther necessar provisioun”. Meanwhile, the music for the coronation may have been recycled from a previous Michaelmas celebration- it has been argued that Robert Carver’s beautiful “Missa Dum Sacrum Mysterium” was reworked for this purpose. The honours of Scotland- i.e. the crown jewels- were probably used in the ceremony, including the papal sword and sceptre which had been presented to the new king’s late father, though the toddler king may only have touched them from his position in the arms of an usher. But neither the glittering honours nor the soaring heights of the mass seem to have been enough to lift the spirits of the assembled guests, many of whom had lost fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons at Flodden. Not for nothing has this event become known in modern times as the “mourning coronation”.

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(Robert Carver’s “Missa Dum Sacrum Mysterium”, thought to have been used at James V’s coronation in 1513)

Life had to go on however. Widows and orphans had to be provided for, and unrest and crime suppressed. Flodden was a military disaster, but it had not robbed Scotland of its entire political community. The wily James Beaton was soon made chancellor; Gavin Dunbar remained as clerk register; the ubiquitous Patrick Paniter- who had once been described as “the man who dooth all” about James IV- continued as secretary; and the aged yet dependable and experienced William Elphinstone still held the privy seal, while the government was soon pressing for him to be promoted to the vacant see of St Andrews. The chief alteration was in the official head of government. Soon after Flodden, Margaret Tudor had been recognised as tutrix testamentar and therefore regent for her young son, and she was exercising power in this capacity as early as 23rd September. Unlike Mary of Guise thirty years later, Margaret Tudor, though pregnant, was not yet in confinement at the time of her husband’s death and she was able to grasp the chance to become regent with both hands. Previous examples of Scottish queenship had permitted such regency, and Mary of Guelders at least had filled the role admirably (though she did not have a very good reputation in the early sixteenth century). While some among the Scottish political community might have preferred a man at the head of government during this crucial period, rather than a young English widow, and although the Earl of Arran and Lord Fleming had already tried persuading the young James V’s cousin and heir, the Duke of Albany, to return from France in order to lead Scotland during the minority, Margaret’s official rights to govern for her son would prevail, for the time being at least. It was a task which would have been daunting to even the most experienced statesman, but as yet it remained to be seen what she would make of it.

(King James V as an adult- born in 1512 and crowned in 1513, he would die at the age of thirty in 1542 and be succeeded in turn by another child monarch, his daughter Mary, Queen of Scots)

Notes and references beneath the cut.

*Basically “woe to the land where the king is a child”, a common adaptation of Ecclesiastes 10:16

**The breakdown in Anglo-Scottish relations in 1513 and the run-up to the Battle of Flodden is actually a lot more complex than this, however I was trying to be brief.

*** It’s quite interesting to compare James V’s coronation with that of his daughter Mary- there are some eerie similarities, but there are also some important differences, that I think shed more light on each individual situation.

*Selected* References:

“The Roit or Quheil of Tyme”, by Adam Abell, ed. S.M. Thorson

“The Historie of Scotland”, by John Leslie, translated into Scots by Father James Dalrymple

“The Historie and Cronicles of Scotland...” by Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie”, ed. Aeneas Mackay

“Acts of the Lords of Council in Public Affairs, 1501-1554″, ed. R.K. Hannay

“The Register of the Great Seal of Scotland”, volume III, ed. J. Balfour-Paul and J. Maitland Thomson

“The Letters of James IV”, calendered by R.K. Hannay

“The Minority of King James V, 1513-1528″, by W.K. Emond

“James IV”, by Norman McDougall

“Crown Imperial: Coronation Ritual and Regalia in the Reign of James V”, by Andrea Thomas, in “Sixteenth Century Scotland: Essays in Honour of Michael Lynch”, ed. Julian Goodare and Alastair A. MacDonald

“Glory and Honour: The Renaissance in Scotland”, by Andrea Thomas- this was also my source for the connection between Robert Carver’s Missa Dum Sacrum Mysterium and James V’s coronation. It is not a direct source- I believe the connection is explored in more death in “Musick Fyne” by Dr James Ross, but I was not able to access that book sadly.

#Scottish history #British history #James V #coronation #today in history #sixteenth century #James IV #Margaret Tudor #James Beaton Archbishop of Glasgow #Battle of Flodden #the Stewarts #kings and queens #Honours of Scotland #Robert Carver #Music #Stirling #Chapel Royal

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chewie-redbird · 5 years

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Country Love : Part 1 “Home Again”

Author : chewie-redbird

Word Count : 2,397

Warnings : none

Summary : Havana ‘H’ West returns to her hometown of Spence’s Bridge, the home she avoided since her mom’s death two years before. Havana comes back for a much needed vacay, her family’s 39th Annual Weekend Business Break. Back to Ruth’s Inn and Bar, which is run by her family’s friends, the Daniels. Back to where she left her heart, back to the one who is her whole world. Back to him, back to Alex Daniels, back to her ex and his family. The family she cut all ties with after her mom and then her breakup with Alex. Havana is nervous as it will be the first time she will see him since he left her in Kamloops.

Characters : all OC characters (Havana ‘H’ West, Alexander ‘Alex’ Daniels, Ashley ‘Ash’ Daniels, Ruth Daniels, Geogre Daniels, Magnolia Bree, Sam Keller, Heath James, Talia Knight, Angel West, Marisa Yamelst, Tom Yamelst, Ray Yamelst, Hannah Yamelst, Faye Roberts, Ethan Garcia & Aaron Hansen)

A/N : Uh this was a dream I had and thought it be a kewl (cool) story and decided to share it, so hope y’all enjoy it!!!

Wow…

I haven’t been home in forever…

I miss it…

As I drive by the familiar Fruit Stand on the side of the highway that soon overlooks the small town. I can see my Grandpa Tom’s place on the other side of the river on the rez. My home where I grew up, where my heart is and where I never ever want to leave again after coming here.

As I drive up to the turn off that leads to the middle of this small town called Spence’s Bridge. Nothing big, just a small town where people pass by as the highway runs along the side. You can see the whole town from the highway, it spread into three parts.

The Yamelst Rez is the rez my family lives on, it’s the first part you see when you come into Spence’s Bridge. Its located on the other side of the Thompson River and its where the Thompson and Nicola rivers connect. My grandpa’s house is visible from the highway, the only blue house in the front line of the rez. Up top is my Aunty Barb and Uncle Cliff’s place, with some family spread in between.

The “downtown” area is just the Baits Motel where a scene was shot there for the movie An Unfinished Life. Some homes, the Log Cabin biker bar and then the main attraction, Ruth’s Inn & Bar. The bridge the town’s known for connects the downtown with the other side. A road before the bridge goes down to the post office that used to be the old school.

On the other side of the bridge towards the south is the other rez, simply the South Rez. Here is the Spence’s Bridge Inn, the Community Hall, a thrift shop run by my Aunty Vera. Further down, is the rez part, home to my Aunty Vera’s house and some other homes. Another little thrift shop is here, also a common playground, the old church and a community place.

Ruth’s Inn & Bar was two buildings, a three story inn consisting of twenty rooms; five of which were the presidential suites on the top floor. The Daniel’s bought the land from the Cook’s Ferry Band a long time ago, like seven generations ago. The band office was here but it moved to where the old post office was that also hosts the baseball field. Ruth’s Inn expanded into where people’s homes were, buying them out about four generations ago. Then the bar was built, becoming a separate building itself out back, with a balcony walkway connecting the two buildings. The driveway was connected to the main road, which it went down and snaked back along the bottom of the hill the road was on. Which then leads to a small parking lot, I pulled up to a spot I claimed for myself when I was a teenager. That was located towards the hill near the highway in the far southeast corner.

I parked my beautiful sparkly black with bright red interior 1963 Mercury Comet Convertible. God, I love this car, my Mom bought me this when she went down to Vancouver before my 16th birthday. I have been taken care of it ever since…. Wow... that was like five years ago. A lot has changed since then, my Mom died of sickness two years ago, and I lost the one person I thought was gonna be there for me forever a month after.

I grab my wine red purse I bought my Mom when she was in the hospital, I’ve claimed as to keep her near me. Even though I have her rings on my necklace I bought off the internet, a replica of The Vampire Diaries necklace Elena had. I also got a gold version too, but the chain broke so I keep it at home among the other jewelry. I grab the red and black suitcases that were my Moms, and wheel them into the lobby.

I look around, memories flying at me as I walk through the beautiful sky blue front doors. I look around drinking in the familiar feeling of being here again, it’s been a while. I barely notice when this person comes up to me asking something,

“What? I’m sorry, I was distracted by looking around. My name is Havana West, I have a reservation” I say reaching my hand out to shake theirs,

“Oh you’re Havana! I’ve heard so much about you already, my name is Magnolia Bree. I started to work here a year ago, when my family moved here. Here are your keys, you have three of the presidential suites booked. Everyone is ablazed with talk of the infamous Havana West returning to Ruth’s” Magnolia tells me, with a kind smile as her shoulder length sunshine wavy blonde hair moves every time she does. Her sapphire blue eyes sparkled even inside the lobby. She's wearing a yellow crop top, a size-to-big black and white plaid shirt open over it with white jean shorts. Complete with simple brown boots, a cute gold star necklace and a beautiful small sapphire ring.

“Um, not to seem rude and all, but can you please not call me Havana, it’s the name my Mom had gavin’ me and it’s just...” I simply say with my eyes glossing over, as it was the first time someone called me that since my Mom herself,

“Oh my god. I’m so sorry! I completely forgot what happened! Please forgive me, I just got so excited to meet you I ended up putting my foot in my mouth” Magnolia apologises while smiling sadly as her shoulders tense up,

“It’s okay. You didn’t know, it’s all good, just call me H” I tell her as she seems to relax again.

I smile back at her, seeing as I turn to start to walk up stairs when I hear Magnolia say,

“Sam! Come get H’s bags for her will ya!” she smiles when someone comes into her view, I’ve known that smile,

I’m about to protest when this tall as hell teenager came running up wearing a white tank top, dark wash jeans and cowboy boots. He is sharing her smile as well and it’s clear there is a connection. He’s dark brown hair long enough to cover his hazel eyes messy and all over like he didn’t care.

“No need, I can take my bags up Sam” I try to tell him,

“No, it’s my job ma’am” Sam says grabbing my suitcases as keep Magnolia’s stare,

“Thanks and don’t call me ma’am, I'm only twenty-one” I say laughing walking up the stairs as I hear him fallow,

“Yes ma’am” he says laughing following me up the stairs.

We make it to the little lobby area right above the lobby, meant for the presidential suites. I walk in the middle looking around, seeing the country feel mixed perfectly with the elite taste of a New Yorker.

“Here” I say turning to Sam handing him a twenty dollar bill,

“Thanks H” Sam says smiling, as he turns to head downstairs,

“Hey Sam, take care of her,” I say to him as he looked confused, then understanding what I meant,

“How? And I will” Sam says as he looks at me,

“The smile, I’ve known that smile,” I say as he returns downstairs, leaving me to look around.

Oh yeah I guess I should explain myself abit, my name is Havana West but everyone calls me H, I never felt like an Ava or Ana. I got my name from Cuba’s capital, cause my Mom loved Dirty Dancing : Havana Nights and was apparently conceived from her late B-Day vacay. I was an only child of Angel West, we were very close, everyone says we were more like sisters than mother and daughter. So it devastated me when she got sick and the horrible moment where I had to pull the plug and let her go. Now before you get judgy on me, just know it was a promise I made to my Mom, she told me if it ever came to the point if she lived on a machine or was let go, to let her go because she didn’t want to live on a machine.

I look at the golden keys, we had rooms 3, 4 and 5 to me and my family. I look at them all, rooms 3 and 4 were okay, but room 5 took my breath away. The room was like a dream come true, it was filled with an amazing red with gold and silver highlights throughout the room.

The room leads to a large queen sized bed, covered in a red silk sheet, with gold-sheer curtains over head. Near the door, was the door that lead to the big bathroom, fit for a queen. It had red and gold marble flooring, the counter was the same. The sink was a deep wine red same with the toilet. The towels were red with gold fleur de lis and silver leaves and vines wrapping around them. I look as the walk-in shower’s tiles were red, with silver speckle and big enough to fit five people. Even came with a seat attached to the wall…..huh…..wonder what stories this shower would say if it could.

I leave the bathroom, walking to the middle of the room, seeing the cherry red-stained-wood dressers next to the bed. They had gold handles with silver fleur de lis on the drawers. I start to unpack as I look around, see the wine red couch in front of a big screen TV attached to the wall. A beautiful gold chandelier was above the room making it look classy and elegant.

There was a double doors that lead to a small balcony, the curtains were sheer deep-red with gold fleur de lis and silver leaves and vines wrapping around them. I opened the door, and walked out, looking around as a breeze sent my shoulder-length dark brown roots and platinum-light blonde hair and the curtains to blow around like in a music video. I smile as memories were coming at me like fans when outside a concert of their favourite singer.

I turn to go back in, deciding on walking around for a bit before letting the family who owns this place know I'm here. I leave my room and head downstairs, seeing Magnolia and Sam flirting back and forth. Ah, to be a teen in love again, I know it wasn’t so long since I have been there. But it feels like eons past since I seen him, or even talked with him. It feels weird to no to talk with him... even being this close to him after what happened.

But I shake my head, he’s not the reason I came home, it was my family’s annual get together. But sadly a lot of them can’t make it due to obligations to the family company, W&Y Industries. So it just be my Grandpa Tom, Aunty Marisa, Uncle Stephan, Grandma Darlene, Uncle Raymond and Aunty Hannah. My little cousins Peyton, Ramsey and baby Julia are being taken cared by my assistant Klare at my Grandpa’s for the night. It’s only a five minute drive from here, so it is not bad, they need a night away.

I left the lobby area, it's really this long hallway from the front doors pointing east, towards the back doors that lead to a walk. It was a balcony/cover walkway, with the balcony/cover that lead to the little lobby upstairs for the presidential suites. The balcony/cover walkway leads to the bar out back, I spent many nights here back in highschool. It was the only bar that let sixteen and over, since the other bar, The Log Cabin, was strictly eighteen and over.

But before I went in, I walked the perimeter, a huge field basically of soft grass fenced off. There were flowers and trees all over, my favourite was the willow trees and roses. Rose bushes were lined along the buildings with lavender planted every now and then. Towards the south, there was my favourite spot, it was a fake-natural pool, with two willow trees on the right and left. It wasn’t huge, but not small either, but it was big enough for thirty people to use it…..don’t ask me how I know.

I went to sit at the edge, took off my brown boots, rolled up my jeans and dipped my feet in the warm water. Ahhhh, I haven’t done this since, basically two years ago, after my Mom died. I have been busy with schooling, attending Thompson Rivers University, a business diploma program, which was hard work. But I may have thrown myself into it after my Mom, making me lose touch with everyone. Even the one I didn’t mean to cut out, the one I wanted to be near me.

After sitting there for a while, listening to Shania Twain, I got up, shook my legs, rolling down my jeans and put on my boots. I walked into the bar, looking around as memories flooded my mind again. The dance floor was basically the whole floor, with red booths along the walls, big corner booths, a small stage a little ways to the left across from the front door. The bar was still the cherry-red-stained wood, the stools a bright red with silver legs. I see the red door down south from the front door, that lead to the kitchen in the back toward the east.

I look over to the right, see the red stairs that lead up to the VIP section up top. There were two big rooms above the kitchen for groups of people, me and my friends used them for celebrations. Upstairs was also a door that lead to the balcony/walkway that lead outside and connected the Inn with the Bar. Along the room with the dance floor, it was lined with red couches facing the dance floor. With some small gold side tables on the ends of the couches so people could place their drinks or food. I just looked around, still the same old black paint, covered in memories from years uses.

I was lost in thought when I heard a loud scream, a loud thud and then this person comes running and almost tackled me to the ground…..

masterlist : @daydreamingfairy @mummybear @bilesbilinskix @mrs-mitch-rapp93 @obrosey-af @hayley-noelle-salvatore19 @seashellrosekitty uh if you want just ask to be added!!

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exitinertianovella · 4 years

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The True Story of the ‘Free State of Jones’

A new Hollywood movie looks at the tale of the Mississippi farmer who led a revolt against the Confederacy By Richard Grant.

With two rat terriers trotting at his heels, and a long wooden staff in his hand, J.R. Gavin leads me through the woods to one of the old swamp hide-outs. A tall white man with a deep Southern drawl, Gavin has a stern presence, gracious manners and intense brooding eyes. At first I mistook him for a preacher, but he’s a retired electronic engineer who writes self-published novels about the rapture and apocalypse. One of them is titled Sal Batree, after the place he wants to show me.

I’m here in Jones County, Mississippi, to breathe in the historical vapors left by Newton Knight, a poor white farmer who led an extraordinary rebellion during the Civil War. With a company of like-minded white men in southeast Mississippi, he did what many Southerners now regard as unthinkable. He waged guerrilla war against the Confederacy and declared loyalty to the Union.

In the spring of 1864, the Knight Company overthrew the Confederate authorities in Jones County and raised the United States flag over the county courthouse in Ellisville. The county was known as the Free State of Jones, and some say it actually seceded from the Confederacy. This little-known, counterintuitive episode in American history has now been brought to the screen in Free State of Jones, directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, The Hunger Games) and starring a grimy, scruffed-up Matthew McConaughey as Newton Knight.

Knight and his men, says Gavin, hooking away an enormous spider web with his staff and warning me to be careful of snakes, “had a number of different hide-outs. The old folks call this one Sal Batree. Sal was the name of Newt’s shotgun, and originally it was Sal’s Battery, but it got corrupted over the years.”

We reach a small promontory surrounded on three sides by a swampy, beaver-dammed lake, and concealed by 12-foot-high cattails and reeds. “I can’t be certain, but a 90-year-old man named Odell Holyfield told me this was the place,” says Gavin. “He said they had a gate in the reeds that a man on horseback could ride through. He said they had a password, and if you got it wrong, they’d kill you. I don’t know how much of that is true, but one of these days I’ll come here with a metal detector and see what I can find.”

We make our way around the lakeshore, passing beaver-gnawed tree stumps and snaky-looking thickets. Reaching higher ground, Gavin points across the swamp to various local landmarks. Then he plants his staff on the ground and turns to face me directly.

“Now I’m going to say something that might offend you,” he begins, and proceeds to do just that, by referring in racist terms to “Newt’s descendants” in nearby Soso, saying some of them are so light-skinned “you look at them and you just don’t know.”

I stand there writing it down and thinking about William Faulkner, whose novels are strewn with characters who look white but are deemed black by Mississippi’s fanatical obsession with the one-drop rule. And not for the first time in Jones County, where arguments still rage about a man born 179 years ago, I recall Faulkner’s famous axiom about history: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

After the Civil War, Knight took up with his grandfather’s former slave Rachel; they had five children together. Knight also fathered nine children with his white wife, Serena, and the two families lived in different houses on the same 160-acre farm. After he and Serena separated—they never divorced—Newt Knight caused a scandal that still reverberates by entering a common-law marriage with Rachel and proudly claiming their mixed-race children.

The Knight Negroes, as these children were known, were shunned by whites and blacks alike. Unable to find marriage partners in the community, they started marrying their white cousins instead, with Newt’s encouragement. (Newt’s son Mat, for instance, married one of Rachel’s daughters by another man, and Newt’s daughter Molly married one of Rachel’s sons by another man.) An interracial community began to form near the small town of Soso, and continued to marry within itself.

“They keep to themselves over there,” says Gavin, striding back toward his house, where supplies of canned food and muscadine wine are stored up for the onset of Armageddon. “A lot of people find it easier to forgive Newt for fighting Confederates than mixing blood.”

I came to Jones County having read some good books about its history, and knowing very little about its present-day reality. It was reputed to be fiercely racist and conservative, even by Mississippi standards, and it had been a hotbed for the Ku Klux Klan. But Mississippi is nothing if not layered and contradictory, and this small, rural county has also produced some wonderful creative and artistic talents, including Parker Posey, the indie-film queen, the novelist Jonathan Odell, the pop singer and gay astronaut Lance Bass, and Mark Landis, the schizophrenic art forger and prankster, who donated fraudulent masterpieces to major American art museums for nearly 30 years before he was caught.

Driving toward the Jones County line, I passed a sign to Hot Coffee—a town, not a beverage—and drove on through rolling cattle pastures and short, new-growth pine trees. There were isolated farmhouses and prim little country churches, and occasional dilapidated trailers with dismembered automobiles in the front yard. In Newt Knight’s day, all this was a primeval forest of enormous longleaf pines so thick around the base that three or four men could circle their arms around them. This part of Mississippi was dubbed the Piney Woods, known for its poverty and lack of prospects. The big trees were an ordeal to clear, the sandy soil was ill-suited for growing cotton, and the bottomlands were choked with swamps and thickets.

There was some very modest cotton production in the area, and a small slaveholding elite that included Newt Knight’s grandfather, but Jones County had fewer slaves than any other county in Mississippi, only 12 percent of its population. This, more than anything, explains its widespread disloyalty to the Confederacy, but there was also a surly, clannish independent spirit, and in Newt Knight, an extraordinarily steadfast and skillful leader.

On the county line, I was half-expecting a sign reading “Welcome to the Free State of Jones” or “Home of Newton Knight,” but the Confederacy is now revered by some whites in the area, and the chamber of commerce had opted for a less controversial slogan: “Now This Is Living!” Most of Jones County is rural, low- or modest-income; roughly 70 percent of the population is white. I drove past many small chicken farms, a large modern factory making transformers and computers, and innumerable Baptist churches. Laurel, the biggest town, stands apart. Known as the City Beautiful, it was created by Midwestern timber barons who razed the longleaf pine forests and built themselves elegant homes on oak-lined streets and the gorgeous world-class Lauren Rogers Museum of Art.

The old county seat, and ground zero for the Free State of Jones, is Ellisville, now a pleasant, leafy town of 4,500 people. Downtown has some old brick buildings with wrought-iron balconies. The grand old columned courthouse has a Confederate monument next to it, and no mention of the anti-Confederate rebellion that took place here. Modern Ellisville is dominated by the sprawling campus of Jones County Junior College, where a semiretired history professor named Wyatt Moulds was waiting for me in the entrance hall. A direct descendant of Newt Knight’s grandfather, he was heavily involved in researching the film and ensuring its historical accuracy.

A large, friendly, charismatic man with unruly side-parted hair, he was wearing alligator-skin cowboy boots and a fishing shirt. “I’m one of the few liberals you’re going to meet here, but I’m a Piney Woods liberal,” he said. “I voted for Obama, I hunt and I love guns. It’s part of the culture here. Even the liberals carry handguns.”

He described Jones County as the most conservative place in Mississippi, but he noted that race relations were improving and that you could see it clearly in the changing attitudes toward Newt Knight. “It’s generational,” he said. “A lot of older people see Newt as a traitor and a reprobate, and they don’t understand why anyone would want to make a movie about him. If you point out that Newt distributed food to starving people, and was known as the Robin Hood of the Piney Woods, they’ll tell you he married a black, like that trumps everything. And they won’t use the word ‘black.’”

His current crop of students, on the other hand, are “fired up” about Newt and the movie. “Blacks and whites date each other in high school now, and they don’t think it’s a big deal,” said Moulds. “That’s a huge change. Some of the young guys are really identifying with Newt now, as a symbol of Jones County pride. It doesn’t hurt that he was such a badass.”

Knight was 6-foot-4 with black curly hair and a full beard—“big heavyset man, quick as a cat,” as one of his friends described him. He was a nightmarish opponent in a backwoods wrestling match, and one of the great unsung guerrilla fighters in American history. So many men tried so hard to kill him that perhaps his most remarkable achievement was to reach old age.

“He was a Primitive Baptist who didn’t drink, didn’t cuss, doted on children and could reload and fire a double-barreled, muzzle-loading shotgun faster than anyone else around,” said Moulds. “Even as an old man, if someone rubbed him the wrong way, he’d have a knife at their throat in a heartbeat. A lot of people will tell you that Newt was just a renegade, out for himself, but there’s good evidence that he was a man of strong principles who was against secession, against slavery and pro-Union.”

Those views were not unusual in Jones County. Newt’s right-hand man, Jasper Collins, came from a big family of staunch Mississippi Unionists. He later named his son Ulysses Sherman Collins, after his two favorite Yankee generals, Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman. “Down here, that’s like naming your son Adolf Hitler Collins,” said Moulds.

When secession fever swept across the South in 1860, Jones County was largely immune to it. Its secessionist candidate received only 24 votes, while the “cooperationist” candidate, John H. Powell, received 374. When Powell got to the secession convention in Jackson, however, he lost his nerve and voted to secede along with almost everyone else. Powell stayed away from Jones County for a while after that, and he was burned in effigy in Ellisville.

“In the Lost Cause mythology, the South was united, and secession had nothing to do with slavery,” said Moulds. “What happened in Jones County puts the lie to that, so the Lost Causers have to paint Newt as a common outlaw, and above all else, deny all traces of Unionism. With the movie coming out, they’re at it harder than ever.”

Although he was against secession, Knight voluntarily enlisted in the Confederate Army once the war began. We can only speculate about his reasons. He kept no diary and gave only one interview near the end of his life, to a New Orleans journalist named Meigs Frost. Knight said he’d enlisted with a group of local men to avoid being conscripted and then split up into different companies. But the leading scholar of the Knight-led rebellion, Victoria Bynum, author of The Free State of Jones, points out that Knight had enlisted, under no threat of conscription, a few months after the war began, in July 1861. She thinks he relished being a soldier.

In October 1862, after the Confederate defeat at Corinth, Knight and many other Piney Woods men deserted from the Seventh Battalion of Mississippi Infantry. It wasn’t just the starvation rations, arrogant harebrained leadership and appalling carnage. They were disgusted and angry about the recently passed “Twenty Negro Law,” which exempted one white male for every 20 slaves owned on a plantation, from serving in the Confederate Army. Jasper Collins echoed many non-slaveholders across the South when he said, “This law...makes it a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.”

Returning home, they found their wives struggling to keep up the farms and feed the children. Even more aggravating, the Confederate authorities had imposed an abusive, corrupt “tax in kind” system, by which they took what they wanted for the war effort— horses, hogs, chickens, corn, meat from the smokehouses, homespun cloth. A Confederate colonel named William N. Brown reported that corrupt tax officials had “done more to demoralize Jones County than the whole Yankee Army.”

In early 1863, Knight was captured for desertion and possibly tortured. Some scholars think he was pressed back into service for the Siege of Vicksburg, but there’s no solid evidence that he was there. After Vicksburg fell, in July 1863, there was a mass exodus of deserters from the Confederate Army, including many from Jones and the surrounding counties. The following month, Confederate Maj. Amos McLemore arrived in Ellisville and began hunting them down with soldiers and hounds. By October, he had captured more than 100 deserters, and exchanged threatening messages with Newt Knight, who was back on his ruined farm on the Jasper County border.

On the night of October 5, Major McLemore was staying at his friend Amos Deason’s mansion in Ellisville, when someone—almost certainly Newt Knight—burst in and shot him to death. Soon afterward, there was a mass meeting of deserters from four Piney Woods counties. They organized themselves into a company called the Jones County Scouts and unanimously elected Knight as their captain. They vowed to resist capture, defy tax collectors, defend each other’s homes and farms, and do what they could to aid the Union.

Neo-Confederate historians have denied the Scouts’ loyalty to the Union up and down, but it was accepted by local Confederates at the time. “They were Union soldiers from principle,” Maj. Joel E. Welborn, their former commanding officer in the Seventh Mississippi, later recalled. “They were making an effort to be mustered into the U.S. Service.” Indeed, several of the Jones County Scouts later succeeded in joining the Union Army in New Orleans.

In March 1864, Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk informed Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, that Jones County was in “open rebellion” and that guerrilla fighters were “proclaiming themselves ‘Southern Yankees.’” They had crippled the tax collection system, seized and redistributed Confederate supplies, and killed and driven out Confederate officials and loyalists, not just in Jones County but all over southeast Mississippi. Confederate Capt. Wirt Thompson reported that they were now a thousand strong and flying the U.S. flag over the Jones County courthouse—“they boast of fighting for the Union,” he added.

That spring was the high-water mark of the rebellion against the Rebels. Polk ordered two battle-hardened regiments into southeast Mississippi, under the command of Piney Woods native Col. Robert Lowry. With hanging ropes and packs of vicious, manhunting dogs, they subdued the surrounding counties and then moved into the Free State of Jones. Several of the Knight company were mangled by the dogs, and at least ten were hanged, but Lowry couldn’t catch Knight or the core group. They were deep in the swamps, being supplied with food and information by local sympathizers and slaves, most notably Rachel.

After Lowry left, proclaiming victory, Knight and his men emerged from their hide-outs, and once again, began threatening Confederate officials and agents, burning bridges and destroying railroads to thwart the Rebel Army, and raiding food supplies intended for the troops. They fought their last skirmish at Sal’s Battery, also spelled Sallsbattery, on January 10, 1865, fighting off a combined force of cavalry and infantry. Three months later, the Confederacy fell.

In 2006, the filmmaker Gary Ross was at Universal Studios, discussing possible projects, when a development executive gave him a brief, one-page treatment about Newton Knight and the Free State of Jones. Ross was instantly intrigued, both by the character and the revelation of Unionism in Mississippi, the most deeply Southern state of all.

“It led me on a deep dive to understand more and more about him and the fact that the South wasn’t monolithic during the Civil War,” says Ross, speaking on the phone from New York. “I didn’t realize it was going to be two years of research before I began writing the screenplay.”

The first thing he did was take a canoe trip down the Leaf River, to get a feel for the area. Then he started reading, beginning with the five (now six) books about Newton Knight. That led into broader reading about other pockets of Unionism in the South. Then he started into Reconstruction.

“I’m not a fast reader, nor am I an academic,” he says, “although I guess I’ve become an amateur one.” He apprenticed himself to some of the leading authorities in the field, including Harvard’s John Stauffer and Steven Hahn at the University of Pennsylvania. (At the urging of Ross, Stauffer and co-author Sally Jenkins published their own book on the Jones County rebellion, in 2009.) Ross talks about these scholars in a tone of worship and adulation, as if they’re rock stars or movie stars—and none more so than Eric Foner at Columbia, the dean of Reconstruction experts.

“He is like a god, and I went into his office, and I said, ‘My name’s Gary Ross, I did Seabiscuit.’ I asked him a bunch of questions about Reconstruction, and all he did was give me a reading list. He was giving me no quarter. I’m some Hollywood guy, you know, and he wanted to see if I could do the work.”

Ross worked his way slowly and carefully through the books, and went back with more questions. Foner answered none of them, just gave him another reading list. Ross read those books too, and went back again with burning questions. This time Foner actually looked at him and said, “Not bad. You ought to think about studying this.”

“It was the greatest compliment a person could have given me,” says Ross. “I remember walking out of his office, across the steps of Columbia library, almost buoyant. It was such a heady experience to learn for learning’s sake, for the first time, rather than to generate a screenplay. I’m still reading history books all the time. I tell people this movie is my academic midlife crisis.”

In Hollywood, he says, the executives were extremely supportive of his research, and the script that he finally wrestled out of it, but they balked at financing the film. “This was before Lincoln and 12 Years a Slave, and it was very hard to get this sort of a drama made. So I went and did Hunger Games, but always keeping an eye on this. ”

Matthew McConaughey thought the Free State of Jones script was the most exciting Civil War story he had ever read, and knew immediately that he wanted to play Newt Knight. In Knight’s defiance of both the Confederate Army and the deepest taboos of Southern culture McConaughey sees an uncompromising and deeply moral leader. He was “a man who lived by the Bible and the barrel of a shotgun,” McConaughey says in an email. “If someone—no matter what their color—was being mistreated or being used, if a poor person was being used by someone to get rich, that was a simple wrong that needed to be righted in Newt’s eyes....He did so deliberately, and to the hell with the consequences.” McConaughey sums him up as a “shining light through the middle of this country’s bloodiest fight. I really kind of marveled at him.”

The third act of the film takes place in Mississippi after the Civil War. There was a phase during early Reconstruction when blacks could vote, and black officials were elected for the first time. Then former Confederates violently took back control of the state and implemented a kind of second slavery for African-Americans. Once again disenfranchised, and terrorized by the Klan, they were exploited through sharecropping and legally segregated. “The third act is what makes this story feel so alive,” says McConaughey. “It makes it relevant today. Reconstruction is a verb that’s ongoing.”

Ross thinks Knight’s character and beliefs are most clearly revealed by his actions after the war. He was hired by the Reconstruction government to free black children from white masters who were refusing to emancipate them. “In 1875, he accepts a commission in what was essentially an all-black regiment,” says Ross. “His job was to defend the rights of freed African-Americans in one of Mississippi’s bloodiest elections. His commitment to these issues never waned.” In 1876, Knight deeded 160 acres of land to Rachel, making her one of very few African-American landowners in Mississippi at that time.

Much as Ross wanted to shoot the movie in Jones County, there were irresistible tax incentives to film across the border in Louisiana, and some breathtaking cypress swamps where various cast members were infested with the tiny mites known as chiggers. Nevertheless, Ross and McConaughey spent a lot of time in Jones County, persuading many county residents to appear in the film.

“I love the Leaf River and the whole area,” says Ross. “And I’ve grown to love Mississippi absolutely. It’s a very interesting, real and complicated place.”

On the website of Jones County Rosin Heels, the local chapter of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, an announcement warned that the film will portray Newt Knight as a civil rights activist and a hero. Then the writer inadvertently slips into the present tense: “He is actually a thief, murderer, adulterer and a deserter.”

Doug Jefcoate was listed as camp commander. I found him listed as a veterinarian in Laurel, and called up, saying I was interested in his opinions on Newt Knight. He sounded slightly impatient, then said, “OK, I’m a history guy and a fourth-generation guy. Come to the animal hospital tomorrow.”

The receptionist led me into a small examining room and closed both its doors. I stood there for a few long minutes, with a shiny steel table and, on the wall, a Bible quotation. Then Jefcoate walked in, a middle-aged man with sandy hair, glasses and a faraway smile. He was carrying two huge, leather-bound volumes of his family genealogy.

He gave me ten minutes on his family tree, and when I interrupted to ask about the Rosin Heels and Newt Knight, he stopped, looked puzzled, and began to chuckle. “You’ve got the wrong Doug Jefcoate,” he said. “I’m not that guy.” (Turns out he is Doug Jefcoat, without the “e.”)

He laughed uproariously, then settled down and gave me his thoughts. “I’m not a racist, OK, but I am a segregationist,” he said. “And ol’ Newt was skinny-dipping in the wrong pool.”

The Rosin Heel commander Doug Jefcoate wasn’t available, so I went instead to the law offices of Carl Ford, a Rosin Heel who had unsuccessfully defended Sam Bowers, the imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, in his 1998 trial for the 1966 murder of civil rights activist Vernon Dahmer. Ford wasn’t there, but he’d arranged for John Cox, a friend, colleague and fellow Rosin Heel, to set me straight about Newt Knight.

Cox, an animated 71-year-old radio and television announcer with a long white beard, welcomed me into a small office crammed with video equipment and Confederate memorabilia. He was working on a film called Free State of Jones: The Republic That Never Was, intended to refute Gary Ross’ film. All he had so far was the credits (Executive Producer Carl Ford) and the introductory banjo music.

“Newt is what we call trailer trash,” he said in a booming baritone drawl. “I wouldn’t have him in my house. And like all poor, white, ignorant trash, he was in it for himself. Some people are far too enamored of the idea that he was Martin Luther King, and these are the same people who believe the War Between the States was about slavery, when nothing could be further from the truth.”

There seemed no point in arguing with him, and it was almost impossible to get a word in, so I sat there scribbling as he launched into a long monologue that defended slavery and the first incarnation of the Klan, burrowed deep into obscure Civil War battle minutiae, denied all charges of racism, and kept circling back to denounce Newt Knight and the simpering fools who tried to project their liberal agendas on him.

“There was no Free State of Jones,” he concluded. “It never existed.”

Joseph Hosey is a Jones County forester and wild mushroom harvester who was hired as an extra for the movie and ended up playing a core member of the Knight Company. Looking at him, there’s no reason to ask why. Scruffy and rail-thin with piercing blue eyes and a full beard, he looks like he subsists on Confederate Army rations and the occasional squirrel.

He wanted to meet me at Jitters Coffeehouse & Bookstore in Laurel, so he could show me an old map on the wall. It depicts Jones County as Davis County, and Ellisville as Leesburg. “After 1865, Jones County was so notorious that the local Confederates were ashamed to be associated with it,” he says. “So they got the county renamed after Jefferson Davis, and Ellisville after Robert E. Lee. A few years later, there was a vote on it, and the names were changed back. Thank God, because that would have sucked.”

Like his grandfather before him, Hosey is a great admirer of Newt Knight. Long before the film, when people asked where he was from, he would say, “The Free State of Jones.” Now he has a dog named Newt, and describes it as a “Union-blue Doberman.”

Being in the film, acting and interacting with Matthew McConaughey, was a profound and moving experience, but not because of the actor’s fame. “It was like Newt himself was standing right there in front of me. It made me really wish my grandfather was still alive, because we were always saying someone should make a movie about Newt.” Hosey and the other actors in the Knight Company bonded closely during the shoot and still refer to themselves as the Knight Company. “We have get-togethers in Jones County, and I imagine we always will,” he says.

I ask him what he admires most about Knight. “When you grow up in the South, you hear all the time about your ‘heritage,’ like it’s the greatest thing there is,” he says. “When I hear that word, I think of grits and sweet tea, but mostly I think about slavery and racism, and it pains me. Newt Knight gives me something in my heritage, as a white Southerner, that I can feel proud about. We didn’t all go along with it.”

After Reconstruction, with the former Confederates back in charge, the Klan after him, and Jim Crow segregation laws being passed, Knight retreated from public life to his homestead on the Jasper County border, which he shared with Rachel until her death in 1889, and continued to share with her children and grandchildren. He lived the self-sufficient life of a yeoman Piney Woods farmer, doted on his swelling ranks of children and grandchildren, and withdrew completely from white society.

He gave that single long interview in 1921, revealing a laconic sense of humor and a strong sense of right and wrong, and he died the following year, in February 1922. He was 84 years old. Joseph Hosey took me to Newt’s granddaughter’s cabin, where some say that he suffered a fatal heart attack while dancing on the porch. Hosey really wanted to take me to Newt Knight’s grave. But the sacred rite of hunting season was underway, and the landowner didn’t want visitors disturbing the deer in the area. So Hosey drove up to the locked gate, and then swiped up the relevant photographs on his phone.

Newt’s grave has an emblem of Sal, his beloved shotgun, and the legend, “He Lived For Others.” He’d given instructions that he should be buried here with Rachel. “It was illegal for blacks and whites to be buried in the same cemetery,” says Hosey. “Newt didn’t give a damn. Even in death, he defied them.”

There were several times in Jones County when my head began to swim.

During my final interview, across a brightly colored plastic table in the McDonald’s in Laurel, there were moments when my brain seized up altogether, and I would sit there stunned, unable to grasp what I was hearing. The two sisters sitting across the table were gently amused. They had seen this many times before. It was, in fact, the normal reaction when they tried to explain their family tree to outsiders.

Dorothy Knight Marsh and Florence Knight Blaylock are the great-granddaughters of Newt and Rachel. After many decades of living in the outside world, they are back in Soso, Mississippi, dealing with prejudice from all directions. The worst of it comes from within their extended family. “We have close relatives who won’t even look at us,” says Blaylock, the older sister, who was often taken for Mexican when she lived in California.

“Or they’ll be nice to us in private, and pretend they don’t know us in public,” added Marsh, who lived in Washington, D.C. for decades. For simplification, she said that there were three basic groups. The White Knights are descended from Newt and Serena, are often pro-Confederate, and proud of their pure white bloodlines. (In 1951, one of them, Ethel Knight, published a vitriolic indictment of Newt as a traitor to the Confederacy.) The Black Knights are descended from Newt’s cousin Dan, who had children with one of his slaves. The White Negroes (a.k.a. the Fair Knights or Knight Negroes) are descended from Newt and Rachel. “They all have separate family reunions,” said Blaylock.

The White Negro line was complicated further by Georgeanne, Rachel’s daughter by another white man. After Rachel died, Newt and Georgeanne had children. “He was a family man all right!” said Marsh. “I guess that’s why he had three of them. And he kept trying to marry out the color, so we would all keep getting lighter-skinned. We have to tell our young people, do not date in the Soso area. But we’re all fine. We don’t have any...problems. All Knights are hardworking and very capable.”

In the film, Marsh and Blaylock appear briefly in a courthouse scene. For the two of them, the Knight family saga has continued into the 20th century and beyond. Their cousin Davis Knight, who looked white and claimed to be white, was tried for the crime of miscegenation in 1948, after marrying a white woman. The trial was a study in Mississippian absurdity, paradox, contradiction and racial obsessiveness. A white man was convicted of being black; the conviction was overturned; he became legally white again.

“We’ve come to terms with who we are,” says Blaylock. “I’m proud to be descended from Newt and Rachel. I have so much respect for both of them.”

“Absolutely,” says Marsh. “And we can’t wait to see this movie.”

#american history #confederacy #film #popup block

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torentialtribute · 5 years

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Manchester City news: The kids hoping to impress Pep Guardiola during pre-season in Asia

Manchester City go into the new season aiming to retain the Premier League [19459004titleforathirdconsecutiveseason

Pep Guardiola and his players will rise again.

As with the pre-seasons that have gone before, Guardiola has included a number of youngsters in his 27-man squad that is currently touring Asia.

Here, Sportsmail takes a closer look at those who will aiming to impress the City boss and make a case for a place in the first team squad this term.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is currently on the club's pre-season tour of Asia

Guardiola has given a number of City's youngsters a place and a chance to impress him

Man City pre-season schedule

[1 9459021] July 17: West Ham United (Premier League Asia Trophy – Olympic Sports Center, Nanjing) 1.30pm

July 20: TBC (Premier League Asia Trophy – Hongkou Stadium, Shanghai) TBC

July 24: Kitchee (Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong) 1pm

July 27: Yokohama Marinos (EuroJapan Cup – Nissan Stadium, Yokohama) 11.30am

August 4: Liverpool (Community Shield – Wembley Stadium) 3pm

Daniel Grimshaw

21, goalkeeper

Grimshaw is a Manchester-born and a big City fan. Now 21, he has been part of Guardiola's first team before but doesn't get a look in past Ederson and Claudio Bravo.

City's 27-man pre-season squad

Claudio Bravo, Kyle Walker, Danilo, John Stones, Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Angelino, Aymeric Laporte , Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Leroy Sane, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Daniel Grimshaw, Lukas Nmecha, Nabil Touaizi, Gavin Bazunu, Iker Pozo, Tommy Doyle, Luke Bolton, Aleix Garcia, Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Adrian Bernabe, Ian Poveda , Ben Knight, Alpha Dionkou, Phil Foden

He was promoted from the youth set up two seasons ago after catching Guardiola's eye with some key performances for the Elite Development Squad and Under-19

He appeared 15 times last season and made a huge impact in their run to UEFA Youth League semi-finals.

He has also played three times for City in the EFL Trophy.

Grimshaw has been able to watch Ederson at close quarters and is now more aware of what Guardiola requires from his goalkeepers.

The pre-season tour of Asia will be another chance for him to show Guardiola that he is capable of fitting into his first-team squad.

Daniel Grimshaw played three times for Manchester City in the EFL Trophy last season

Lukas Nmecha

20, forward

A player with plenty to build on this summer. Last season was a productive one for Nmecha, who was loaned out to Preston North End in the Championship.

He made 41 appearances in the second tier but only scored three goals. He has developed physically and is now considered more of a threat through the center of an attack as opposed to the flanks.

He is likely to go on loan again this season but there will be no harm in him learning even more from Guardiola while away on pre-season.

Lukas Nmecha will be aiming to impress again after a productive loan spell at Wycombe

Nabil Touaizi

18, forward

Signed from Valencia when he was 15, Touaizi is now getting where his workload is changing as he attempts to develop his game further.

Valencia will be £ 2million once he makes his first senior appearance for City. That might still be some way off with Touaizi having only played 13 times in the U18 Premier League, but the first team is the aim.

He is one unlikely to go on loan given the stage of his development and Guardiola is able to monitor his progress more closely. The 18-year-old will be looking to do all he can to catch the eye of his manager in Asia.

Plenty is expected or Nabil Touaizi but he will be given time to develop properly by City

Gavin Bazunu

17, goalkeeper

Another youngster who City snatched with a view to developing for the future. The signed from Shamrock Robbers last year when he was 16 for £ 420,000. That's how much City were willing to invest.

Tottenham and Chelsea were also interested in signing the 16-year-old, who was already playing first team football in the League of Ireland.

He also played in the club's Europa League qualifiers. although they were knocked out by Swedish side AIK. There is no chance he will be thought of too seriously yet by Guardiola but being on the tour of Asia will give him a better insight as to what is required of a City stopper.

City lured Gavin Bazunu away from Shamrock Robbers when he was 16 for £ 420,000

Tommy Doyle

17, midfielder

Doyle joined City when he was eight years old. He has spent nine years developing as a box to box midfielder who is known for his work rate and high level of stamina.

He was instrumental in reaching the FA Youth Cup final last season, scoring twice in the semi-final victory over West Brom. He is also the grandson of former City player Mike Doyle. Like many of the others his age, Doyle will be expected to absorb as much information as possible while with the first-team squad.

Doyle moves up to the under-23s this coming season which is where he will again be tasked with upping his level. He wants to get some exposure to men's senior football with City playing in the EFL Trophy.

Tommy Doyle joined City when he was eight years old old and is now getting a chance to shine

Luke Bolton

19, forward

It is no surprise to see Bolton's name on the list for City's pre-season tour. After all, he was one of the standout players who went on tour in the US.

In January, he was included in the Champions League squad for the knockout stages. The tends to play as a forward or a winger but was deployed as a right back in pre-season last year against Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool.

He made 10 appearances in League One last season while on loan at Wycombe. He will again use this opportunity to get back on Guardiola's radar and also to sharpen himself up in preparation for another loan move.

Luke Bolton was a standout player for City last year in the US and he wants to shine again

[19459132] Taylor Harwood-Bellis

17, defender

The England under-17 captain who City are very excited about. He has already shared a stage with Guardiola – he was among those present when the 48-year-old was welcomed as the new City boss in 2016.

He has grown in stature since then but also in confidence. There is also a strong personal story about Harwood-Bellis's inclusion in the tour squad. His late grandad Dave had told him after he signed a three-year contract at the club: "Do it for City, I'm proud of you."

He is one who Guardiola may well want to look at more closely. City will want to remain cautious given how young he is but given his ability don't be surprised to see him back on the tour next summer with a strong chance of making the first team squad clean.

Taylor Harwood-Bellis is a defender who many at City are very excited about the future

Adrian Bernabe

18, midfielder

Another one who enjoyed a breakthrough campaign last term as City reached the final of the Youth Cup.

It was last summer when City persuaded Bernabe to join them from Barcelona. It goes to show just how City are viewed that they were able to lure him from the Spanish giants. Crucially, he has flourished since arriving in England.

He will be used on the tour of Asia and anyone watching City's games will want to pay close attention to the Spanish 18-year-old. He excels at beating an opponent one-on-one and providing dangerous deliveries into the box. Again, it is unlikely he will be loaned out with Guardiola wanting to keep a close eye on him.

Adrian Bernabe enjoyed a breakthrough season last term and will have high hopes yet again

Ian Poveda

19, midfielder

Poveda was on the books of Arsenal before spending two years at Barcelona's famous La Masia academy, arriving at City in 2016 via a short spell with Brentford.

Poveda's family come from Colombia but the London-born player has represented England's youth teams up to under-19 standard.

He is close to Jadon Sancho, the former City player who has made a name for himse lf in the Bundesliga. It is quick and nimble, similar to Sancho. Poveda is now of the age where he is training more and more with the first team, has played in the League Cup but has not yet been able to further establish himself.

Ian Poveda (right) was initially on the books at Arsenal but it is tipped to succeed at City

[19459132] Ben Knight

17, midfielder

Another player who heavily invests City in from the start. Knight cost them £ 1million from Ipswich – twice what they forked out for Jadon Sancho.

In a recent interview with Manchester Evening News, Knight said he wants to 'jump stages' to reach the top level of the game. He is not shy but he does have a great deal of self awareness.

"The quality of players I'm playing with is so much better," he said. "It's harder because at Ipswich I was one of the big players but there are so many big players you have to up it even more to stand out."

It's that attitude that City because him to have. They want him to compete against the others. As with many of the others listed here, Knight will see this summer as a learning curve before applying what he has learned when he returns to the development squad.

Ben Knight joined from Ipswich for £ 1million and City are certain he'll develop into a star

[19459132] Alpha Dionkou

17, midfielder

City may rely heavily on a director of football-driven approach when it comes to recruitment, but Guardiola made it clear early in his tenure that he wanted Dionkou.

He is an all-action right-back who was born in Senegal but represents Spain at under-17 level. City saw off strong competition from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid to sign Dionkou from Real Mallorca at the age of 15 back in 2017.

Pre-season in Asia for him will be about learning from players such as new Rodri signing while getting a feel for what it is like to be coached by Guardiola.

Pep Guardiola made it clear from early in his tenure that he wanted to sign Alpha Dionkou

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#Manchester City news: The kids hoping to impress Pep Guardiola during pre-season in Asia"

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swipestream · 6 years

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Sensor Sweep: Drakar, Grey Knights, Witcher 2

Science Fiction (Wired): Conventional wisdom holds that science fiction was written almost exclusively by men until the advent of feminism in the 1960s and ��70s. But when Lisa Yaszek, who teaches science fiction studies at Georgia Tech, went digging through old magazines, she discovered a very different story.

Tolkien (Daily Mail): In a 1937 letter to an Oxford colleague, Professor John Ronald Reuel Tolkien confessed that he didn’t much care for The Hobbit, one of his already popular works that was about to go into its second printing.

He wrote: ‘I don’t much approve of The Hobbit myself, prefering my own mythology (which is just touched on) with its consistent nomenclature … and organized history, to this rabble of Eddaic-named dwarves out of Voluspa, newfangled hobbits and gollums (invented in an idle hour) and Anglo-Saxon runes.’

Authors (Davy Crockett’s Almanac): If you really want to know Robert E. Howard, you’re out of luck. But the closest you’ll ever get (barring the invention of a time machine) is this lengthy memoir by his almost-girlfriend Novalyne Price.

The two became friends when she took a teaching job at the high school in Cross Plains, Texas in August 1934, and spent a lot of time together until July of the next year, when he found out she was dating his friend Truett Vinson. But their friendship continued, albeit less frequently, until he shot himself in June 1936.

Authors (Adventures Fantastic): John D. MacDonald was born on this date, July 24, in 1916. I’ve written about him before (see here, here, and here).

Although he’s probably best remembered today as the author of the Travis McGee series of men’s adventure thrillers, MacDonald learned his chops in the pulps, albeit during the tail end of the pulp era.

Games (Follow Me and Die): As an RPG content producer, I’ve spent a lot of money on fancy tools, some that require more money when versions are updated, etc. Check out episode 77 of my podcast where I discuss this topic*.

Several years ago, I was very big into Linux and free and open source software. I’m still a proponent of free and open source software, I just had issues in the past finding Linux based solutions for some of my workflows.

Publishing (Original Edition Fantasy): Call for Articles!

I’m putting together a one-shot homage to classic 80’s Dragon magazine. It will be called Drakar and have the look, feel, and layout of that era. Including articles, ads, even humor!

In order to fill this up I’m looking for articles from the OSR. It can be an original article, an excerpt from your homebrewed RPG or campaign. This issue is going to be generally Norse Mythology themed, but just like those old magazines it will be a hodge-podge of cool stuff, so anything you enter that is RPG related will work. No bias towards any particular system.

Miniatures (Tower of Zenopus): I really really like the Grey Knights lore in 40K I remember them being an interesting unit in Rogue trader and then in Epic where they were a single unit you might take if fighting Chaos but not an army on their own. Then came 5th edition when they received a separate Codex and suddenly they were a whole separate force with some really nice miniatures all their own. It’s a great look, a great theme, and a great concept for an elite strike force in the game.

Authors (DMR Books): I consider REH to be one of the greatest fantasists of all time and I am not alone. I have admired and been inspired by both his prose and his poetry but I also appreciate where his writings have led me. If I had never read Howard, I might never have read the horror of Clark Ashton Smith, the histories of Harold Lamb or the adventures shrouded in the mysteries of the East penned by Talbot Mundy. If you take a look at the books listed in Robert E. Howard’s personal library, you will find thirteen works by Talbot Mundy, so I think I can say that he was an influence on REH.

RPG (Black Gate): Funny how some of us predicted video games would virtually wipe out RPGs and board games, and yet here we are. We have entered a golden age of tabletop gaming. So many new games, with great graphics, great playing pieces, and game mechanics that expand on systems that have been tried, tested, and improved on for decades.

I’m certainly not the first to make this observation, but much of this game renaissance must be thanks to funding platforms like Kickstarter. No longer limited to what a few big corporations deemed were mass-marketable enough to release to retail outlets, we could now team up with a few hundred or a few thousand other people who wanted what we did and JUST PAY TO MAKE IT HAPPEN OURSELVES.

Fiction (Gravetapping): In the late 1960s and early 1970s Michael Crichton published eight thrillers under the pseudonym John Lange. The Lange novels are something very different than the science fiction Michael Crichton became famous for writing. They are thrillers more in the vein of Desmond Bagley, Jack Higgins, and Gavin Lyall, and I like them much more than Crichton’s big bestsellers.

Celluloid (Future War Stories): Since the first hunting stories where told around a fire, humans have been captivated by tales of combat and heroism. That just who we are at our core and those primitive stories have been upgraded due to the progress of technology and scientific understanding to forge the genre of science fiction. Today, tales of space warriors battling among the stars with laser swords and ray-guns are commonplace within the realm of popular entertainment. When most think of science fiction combat scenes from sci-fi on TV, in anime, video games, or in popular films; they imagine those large-scale space battles with starships trading colorful bolts of killer light.

Games (Player None): The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings (2011), based on the works of Andrzej Sapkowski, developed and published by CD Projekt RED

Geralt of Rivia wakes up shackled in a dungeon. He is there to be interrogated by one Vernon Roache, the head of the special forces of Temaria. The reason for this visit in the darkest of dungeons is told in flashbacks during the tutorial of the game: Geralt is under suspicions of killing the king of Temaria, Foltest. He is innocent to the crime, as the killer is a skilled assassin Letho, a bear of a man, who is working with Scoia’tael guerillas who are more than happy to aid a human causing havoc among his own people.

Celluloid (Running Iron Report): The Lighthorsemen is a movie about the Australian Light Horse regiments and their famous charge on Beersheba in Palestine in World War I. The taking of Beersheeba turned the Ottoman Turks out of their defensive line in Palestine and marked a turning point in the campaign in the Middle East.

For the purposes of this essay; the charge is almost an anticlimactic moment.

I wish that a different way could be found to teach history in our schools. History teaching incorporating the Australian Light Horse would be a lot more exciting than memorizing meaningless acts and dates. The “Australian Light Horse” — now there is phrase to stir the blood of any young man.

Sensor Sweep: Drakar, Grey Knights, Witcher 2 published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

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mycasandstarrs · 6 years

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SPN 9x21: “King of the Damned”

THEN: Angel civil war.It is now Cas versus Metatron. Gadreel is working for Metatron. “Poughkepsie” is a Winchester code word; it means “drop everything and run”. The Winchesters have their reasons to hate Gadreel. Gadreel himself is starting to lose patience with Metatron. Abaddon, a Knight of Hell. She and Crowley have been competing for the throne to Hell. The First Blade can kill a Knight. You need the Mark of Cain to use the Blade. Hellhounds. Crowley’s addicted to human blood

Leith, Scotland. 1723.

Abaddon’s interfering with timelines. Wonderful.

RIP man. Killed by Abaddon.

“...and distracted her while another gull swooped in --”

“Oh, I can't tell you how great it feels to finally have a night off, right, guys?”

“Uh, this other seagull came --”

...awkward.

Should’ve kept your big mouth shut, buddy.

“These are dangerous times. You have to be careful what you say.” Really tho.

How does Cas keep getting bomb ass intros?!

Cas took a page from Bartholomew’s book. Cas’ setup looks like Bart’s, except bigger and better.

AWWW. HE WAS SO HAPPY TO HUG THEM.

“So this war between angels is really gonna happen, huh?” It’s been happening, Sam.

The lighting makes Dean’s eyes look black. It’s unsettling.

Cleveland, Ohio.

“So, here's the thing, boys and girls -- we have a crisis. Admittedly, a crisis of my own making. In my extended absence, where I handled sensitive matters of state, Abaddon made inroads into my following, creating chaos. So I look to you, my trusted advisors, to restore confidence, to soothe those jangled nerves.”

“The king is back, and the kingdom is once again on sound footing.”

Riveting speech, Crowley.

“You betrayed me? No one in the history of torture's been tortured with torture like the torture you'll be tortured with.” The word torture or a variation on the word torture was used 5 times in one sentence.

“Now, Crowley, let's talk turkey. I know you helped the Winchesters get their hands on the First Blade, yes? And I'm hearing that one of them also has the mark of Cain -- all bad news, since the Blade is the one thing that can bring about my --”

“Utter destruction.”

“To be indelicate. But here's the thing, pet -- same goes for you. And once I'm gone, who do you think's next on those cute boys' list? That's right. So let's get real. Join me in taking out the Winchesters and that ridiculous Blade, and then we'll deal with each other.”

Huh, didn’t Dick Roman pull a similar move?

“Gavin, honey, say hello to daddy.” Well, except for the “bringing the son back” thing.

Might want to interfere anytime and stop this torture, Crowley.

Bad cop/good cop this, nice.

OH wait, no. We’re going taunting cops.

“Buddy, the gates are sealed. No one can get in.”

“Who said anything about gates? You don't need gates when you have a private portal.”

“Right. If there was a doorway on earth, the angels would've sensed it.”

“Yeah, you can't hide something like that.”

“No.”

“You can if it moves around from place to place, if it's wherever the boss wants it to be.”

Played him like a gosh darn fiddle.

“You are not my father. My father was Fergus MacLeod, a simple tailor. A drunk, a monster.”

“Sounds about right.”

Pfft.

“A lot can change in 291 years.”

“Can you cook a pigeon on it?” lmao. I guess??

“Are we in heaven, then? You must be angels!” Oh nooo.

“You're a fan. Just 'cause you're hot for Metatron... ...or Bieber or Beckham... Just 'cause you know everything about them doesn't mean that you actually know them.”

“Or that they even know you exist.”

I feel personally attacked by this.

“Dim bulb. No wonder he got bumped.”

“Yeah. ‘Ground forces’? ‘Elite secret squad’? What's Metatron gearing up for?”

“I don't know -- why don't we shove somebody through the back door of heaven and find out. Oh, wait. No. It's portable and can't be found.”

Y’all still got a hefty amount of info. Good job on that.

“Not just any demon. I'm the king -- the king of Hell! And there you were, worried the old man wouldn't amount to much.”

lol

RIP Ezra.

“Okay. Well, I'm gonna say it. Maybe your operation's been hacked. You know, Metatron's got somebody on the inside.”

“I was sure everyone here was loyal. Finally united by a common cause.”

“Well, that's the problem. See, you don't think anybody's lying. I think everybody's lying. It's a gift.”

That’s a problem too.

“He didn't possess me completely -- more like we, uh... shared housing. I was still me.” I doubt Dean will have this exact experience. Well actually, he did have control when he went and killed Lucifer; after that, AU!Michael took over completely.

“Did you ever feel threatened?”

“No. More that he... wasn't at rest, l-like he had unfinished business. Now that we know more about him, I-I'd say he felt misunderstood.”

There’s the key.

"’Why do I hate you’?!”

“I mean, I beat you, starved you, came home drunk, beat you some more, woke up hungover, and, yeah, I beat you.”

Jeez.

“If you're a king... that would make me... Prince?”

“And you say I've never given you anything. A title!”

Pfft.

“And if I was to accept you as my father, you could keep me from eternally burning in hell? No matter my sins?”

“You're negotiating with me? That's my boy.”

Like father, like son.

Crowley didn’t tell Gavin about the sunken ship?

“You have a reputation for honor.” Well, that’s nice.

“In some circles. As for reputations, yours precedes you.” I don’t know if you should’ve started on that foot.

“I know you truly believe it's for the greater good, but you've placed your faith in the wrong master.” Cas recognized his own bad decisions in Gadreel. He’s trying to help him.

RIP 2 assassin angels. Killed by Cas.

RIP angel. Killed by another angel.

Dean’s still struggling with the Mark.

Oh dear.

First, retrieving the First Blade.

“Oh! Come on, Crowley! You really, uh, uh, have to hide the Blade in a corpse? Not -- not with a corpse but in a corpse?” Of course he did.

Hellhounds.

“Juliet? It's papa. Stand down. *She does.* You’re welcome.”

(Irrelevant-ish, but who controls the hellhounds now that Crowley is dead?)

Good lord, it’s been a while since I’ve been utterly disgusted by this show.

Look, we got the Blade.

“You do? Well, you need to get it here at once. Cleveland, Humboldt Hotel. Penthouse, of course. When you get here, I'll take you to Abaddon. I'll draw her out, and then you can skewer the ignorant hag. *To Abaddon* Just selling it.”

lmao, sure.

“Oh, and, Dean, you need to get a move on. It's a good day's drive from Poughkeepsie.” Using the code word...

“So, we good?”

“Yeah.”

Liar McLiarface.

“Nice. But here's the thing -- you've been plotting with those boys for some time now. When they get here, it'll be you, the Winchesters, the First Blade, and little, old me in one place. Now, I don't mind stiff odds, but ...let's be reasonable.“

*She shoots Crowley with a devil’s trap bullet.*

Abaddon was smart as hell.

“I never would have agreed to meet if I thought concealed assassins were going to try and attack you. I hope you know that.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Even though you and I are on opposite sides in this situation, I believe there must be honor, even in matters of war.”

Damn you, Gadreel. I like you so much.

“I want you to stay right where you are. Just give me reports on what Metatron is planning and when he will strike.”

“And the honor we were speaking of?”

“Obviously, Metatron has someone inside my camp. It's how he knew we were meeting. Just fighting fire with fire. Consider my offer.”

Do it, Gadreel!!

“Wait, wait, wait. Hold on a sec. We should give this place a once-over before we go up there. Crowley said he thought he saw some demons headed down to the basement. He'd have checked it out himself, but if word got back to Abaddon that he'd been seen...”

“When did he say all this?”

“On the phone.”

Your pants should be on fire, you goddamn liar.

RIP demon. Killed by Dean.

Sam, the action’s somewhere else!!!

The lamp hitting Crowley is so unintentionally hilarious.

Abaddon’s laughing, but she’s also struggling like hell to fight Dean.

RIP Abaddon. Killed by Dean.

ALRIGHT BUDDY YOU CAN STOP NOW.

Dean’s hand is just covered in blood...

“You could at least -- aah! -- help me with this.”

Out comes the bullet.

“You get that he's got to go back, right? To his own time?” Not for another 3 years.

“Can I at least say goodbye? I'll cheer the day when the last trace of humanity leaves me.”

lmao

Now Crowley tells Gavin about the failed voyage. “The ship went down? Well, that's a good fit with the rest of my life.”

“Goodbye, Gavin. Oh, uh... Don't go mentioning that whole ‘Prince of Hell’ thing. Doesn't play too well in most circles.” Ooohh. I’m just now remembering the actual Princes of Hell. Ha.

“I didn't tell you about the warning because I knew exactly what you would do. You would make sure that you were right alongside me going in that room.” Duh doy.

“I had to go it alone, Sammy.”

“Oh. Of course. So it was just another time where you had to protect me.”

I’m with Sam here.

“I'm starting to think the Blade is doing something else, too.”

“Yeah? Like what?”

Demonizing you.

Do they not wear their seatbelts??

“No.”

Another single word that sent chills up my spine.

#supernatural #spn summer rewatch #spn liveblog #spn 9x21 #king of the damned

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