title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" is a film adaptation of Flynn's 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film's executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn's film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: "I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project. Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn's first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: "... he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the "Harry Potter" series. Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: "We don't have the ability to gift the audience with the characters' thoughts, so tell me how they're behaving." During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher "big swaths" of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten "a dozen times", while other scenes were unaltered.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she "wasn't ever precious about cutting." As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne's dead mother.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In terms of the film's ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a "lot of iterations". One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the "third player", alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn's words: "Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn't want 8 million more loop-de-loops ... I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher's involvement, as he "really liked the book and didn't want to turn it into something other than what it already was", and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself. Fincher described Flynn's screenwriting work as "very smart", "crafty", and "extremely articulate".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: On September 11, 2013, the "Gone Girl" film crew began filming establishing shots. Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks. Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles, with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene, while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Fincher later called Affleck "extremely bright" in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck "has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is". Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as "tragedy vampirism", but clarified that ""The New York Times" and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: The lead costume designer in "Gone Girl" is Trish Summerville. Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Summerville told "InStyle" magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy's clothing to look contemporary due to the film's present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells that figuring out what Nick and Amy's 'everyday life' is like was one of her biggest challenges. As a result of Amy's self proclaimed 'cool girl' status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy's pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just "kind of not that girl." This is also exemplified through Amy's jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating 'A' to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Nick Dunne's character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck's larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts. The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy's wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score, marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following "The Social Network" and "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher's request in an interview:


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality. NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: "Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it'll make the brutal moments of "Gone Girl" all the more harrowing." Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song "She", which was used in the film's teaser trailer. The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, "Gone Girl" released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015. The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page "Amazing Amy" book called "Tattle Tale". An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million. Calculating in all expenses, "Deadline Hollywood" estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings). It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema's horror film "Annabelle" which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher's career (breaking "Panic Room"'s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind "Pearl Harbor" ($59.1 million), and "Daredevil" ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike's second biggest opening—behind "Die Another Day" ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old. The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with "Dracula Untold" in its second weekend before being overtaken by "Fury" in its third weekend.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected. High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million), Australia ($4.6 million), France ($3.65 million) Russia ($3.4 million), and Germany ($2.6 million).


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike's performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, "Gone Girl" plays to director David Fincher's sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: The "Vulture"s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" wrote: "Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, "Gone Girl" shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched." "The Economist" called the film a "brilliantly glacial adaptation ... This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Joshua Rothman wrote in "The New Yorker" that he enjoyed the film "in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory" and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is "decisively unreal ... [the] heroes and villains in Fincher's "Gone Girl" aren't people but stories". Rothman, who draws parallels between "Gone Girl" and Fincher's 1999 adaptation "Fight Club", decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses "a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Anthony Lane of "The New Yorker" wrote: "At first blush, "Gone Girl" is natural Fincherland ... so why doesn't the movie claw us as "The Social Network" did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?" "Slant Magazine"s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: "Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his "Gone Girl" as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, "The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn't keep it up, so they destroy each other".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: "Gone Girl" garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike's performance, Flynn's screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress. The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score. Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs). The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year, and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In a 2013 interview with "Time Out" magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as "polarizing", Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that "women are naturally good" and to show that women are "just as violently minded as men are". In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: "I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: 'I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.' And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In an October 3, 2014, blog post for "Ms. Magazine", Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy's social privilege which affords her the "necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time" to stage a disappearance—"Gone Girl" is the "crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior." Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in "The Washington Post" on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially "unconvinced" by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that "Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In an October 6, 2014, article titled ""Gone Girl"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself", "Jezebel"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Jessica Coen wrote: "Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy's complexities and you're left with little more than 'crazy fucking bitch.' That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel." Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, "as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices." "Time"s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that "Gone Girl" is both "a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman" and a "feminist manifesto", and that this duality makes the film interesting. Zoë Heller of "The New York Review of Books" wrote: "The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn't really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness", concluding that "The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper 'disapproval': only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Writing in "The Guardian" on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film's "recycling of rape myths", citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare. She wrote: "The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she's been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers." Writing for "The Guardian" on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith's argument "wouldn't carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women's stories, and characters in mainstream culture", but concluded with Dockterman's plea for the portrayal of "all sorts of women in our novels".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film's predominant focus upon Nick's perspective "serves to obfuscate Amy's motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of ... anti-women myths"; however, Kroenert concludes that "Gone Girl" is "a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage."


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: The media is an important factor in the plot as it ultimately controls the narrative. The narrative that Nick is guilty for the disappearance of Amy is a direct result of his mishandled media appearances as well as the actual misinformation being told as "evidence" on the news. Whether or not Nick is actually guilty, the audience is led to believe he is through the media's manipulation. The role of the media in this film is to provide the conclusion that making snap judgements can be harmful and reveals the importance of carefully assessing situations before making decisions.


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: While almost all of the characters have ulterior motives to serve their own selfish needs, it is Amy who shows the most prevalent examples of manipulation throughout the story. Not only does Amy lie throughout the entirety of the film, she carefully calculates her plans and predicts behaviors of those around her, especially Nick, to attain her desired outcome and behaviors of those close to her. Amy's intelligence and knowledge of psychology also comes to her aid as she executes her plan; Amy is attractive and can be charismatic which leads people to assume she is innocent. As Nick begins to figure out Amy's plan, he uses manipulation tactics through the media to get Amy to return home. We know that he is disingenuous when he states that he was only "telling her [Amy] what she wants to hear".


title: Gone Girl (film)

text: In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script. In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be "a few years down the road" when the original cast and crew would be available again.


title: George IV

text: George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later. At the time of his accession to the throne, he was acting as Prince Regent, having done so since 5 February 1811, during his father's final mental illness.


title: George IV

text: George IV was the eldest child of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He led an extravagant lifestyle that contributed to the fashions of the Regency era. He was a patron of new forms of leisure, style and taste. He commissioned John Nash to build the Royal Pavilion in Brighton and remodel Buckingham Palace, and commissioned Jeffry Wyatville to rebuild Windsor Castle. George's charm and culture earned him the title "the first gentleman of England", but his dissolute way of life and poor relationships with his parents and his wife, Caroline of Brunswick, earned him the contempt of the people and dimmed the prestige of the monarchy. He excluded Caroline from his coronation and asked the government to introduce the unpopular Pains and Penalties Bill in an unsuccessful attempt to divorce her.


title: George IV

text: His rule was tarnished by scandal and financial extravagance. His ministers found his behaviour selfish, unreliable and irresponsible, and he was strongly influenced by favourites. During most of George's regency and reign, Lord Liverpool controlled the government as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Liverpool's government presided over Britain's ultimate victory over Napoleon and negotiated a peace settlement with the French. After Liverpool's retirement, George IV was forced to accept Catholic emancipation despite opposing it. His only legitimate child, Princess Charlotte, predeceased him in 1817, so he was succeeded by his younger brother, William IV.


title: George IV

text: George was born at St James's Palace, London, on 12 August 1762, the first child of King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. As the eldest son of a British sovereign, he automatically became Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay at birth; he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester a few days later. On 18 September of the same year, he was baptised by Thomas Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were his maternal uncle Adolphus Frederick IV, Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (for whom the Lord Chamberlain, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, stood proxy); his paternal grand-uncle Prince William, Duke of Cumberland; and his grandmother Augusta, Dowager Princess of Wales. George was a talented student, and quickly learned to speak French, German and Italian, in addition to his native English.


title: George IV

text: At the age of 18, the Prince of Wales was given a separate establishment, and in dramatic contrast to his prosaic, scandal-free father, threw himself with zest into a life of dissipation and wild extravagance involving heavy drinking and numerous mistresses and escapades. He was a witty conversationalist, drunk or sober, and showed good, but grossly expensive, taste in decorating his palace. The Prince of Wales turned 21 in 1783, and obtained a grant of £60,000 (equivalent to £ today) from Parliament and an annual income of £50,000 (equivalent to £ today) from his father. It was far too little for his wants – his stables alone cost £31,000 a year. He then established his residence in Carlton House, where he lived a profligate life. Animosity developed between the prince and his father, who desired more frugal behaviour on the part of the heir apparent. The King, a political conservative, was also alienated by the prince's adherence to Charles James Fox and other radically inclined politicians.


title: George IV

text: Soon after he reached the age of 21, the prince became infatuated with Maria Fitzherbert. She was a commoner (though granddaughter of a baronet), six years his elder, twice widowed, and a Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, the prince was determined to marry her. This was in spite of the Act of Settlement 1701, which barred the spouse of a Catholic from succeeding to the throne, and the Royal Marriages Act 1772, which prohibited his marriage without the King's consent.


title: George IV

text: Nevertheless, the couple went through a marriage ceremony on 15 December 1785 at her house in Park Street, Mayfair. Legally the union was void, as the King's consent was not granted (and never even requested). However, Fitzherbert believed that she was the prince's canonical and true wife, holding the law of the Church to be superior to the law of the State. For political reasons, the union remained secret and Fitzherbert promised not to reveal it.


title: George IV

text: The prince was plunged into debt by his exorbitant lifestyle. His father refused to assist him, forcing him to quit Carlton House and live at Fitzherbert's residence. In 1787, the prince's political allies proposed to relieve his debts with a parliamentary grant. The prince's relationship with Fitzherbert was suspected, and revelation of the illegal marriage would have scandalised the nation and doomed any parliamentary proposal to aid him. Acting on the prince's authority, the Whig leader Charles James Fox declared that the story was a calumny. Fitzherbert was not pleased with the public denial of the marriage in such vehement terms and contemplated severing her ties to the prince. He appeased her by asking another Whig, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, to restate Fox's forceful declaration in more careful words. Parliament, meanwhile, granted the prince £161,000 (equivalent to £ today) to pay his debts and £60,000 (equivalent to £ today) for improvements to Carlton House.


title: George IV

text: In the summer of 1788, the King's mental health deteriorated, possibly as the result of the hereditary disease porphyria. He was nonetheless able to discharge some of his duties and to declare Parliament prorogued from 25 September to 20 November. During the prorogation he became deranged, posing a threat to his own life, and when Parliament reconvened in November, the King could not deliver the customary speech from the throne during the State Opening of Parliament. Parliament found itself in an untenable position: according to long-established law it could not proceed to any business until the delivery of the King's Speech at a State Opening.


title: George IV

text: Although arguably barred from doing so, Parliament began debating a regency. In the House of Commons, Charles James Fox declared his opinion that the Prince of Wales was automatically entitled to exercise sovereignty during the King's incapacity. A contrasting opinion was held by the prime minister, William Pitt the Younger, who argued that, in the absence of a statute to the contrary, the right to choose a regent belonged to Parliament alone. He even stated that, without parliamentary authority "the Prince of Wales had no more right ... to assume the government, than any other individual subject of the country." Though disagreeing on the principle underlying a regency, Pitt agreed with Fox that the Prince of Wales would be the most convenient choice for a regent.


title: George IV

text: The Prince of Wales—though offended by Pitt's boldness—did not lend his full support to Fox's approach. The Prince of Wales's brother, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, declared that George would not attempt to exercise any power without previously obtaining the consent of Parliament. Following the passage of preliminary resolutions Pitt outlined a formal plan for the regency, suggesting that the powers of the Prince of Wales be greatly limited. Among other things, the Prince of Wales would not be able either to sell the King's property or to grant a peerage to anyone other than a child of the King. The Prince of Wales denounced Pitt's scheme, declaring it a "project for producing weakness, disorder, and insecurity in every branch of the administration of affairs." In the interests of the nation, both factions agreed to compromise.


title: George IV

text: A significant technical impediment to any Regency Bill involved the lack of a speech from the throne, which was necessary before Parliament could proceed to any debates or votes. The speech was normally delivered by the King, but could also be delivered by royal representatives known as Lords Commissioners; but no document could empower the Lords Commissioners to act unless the Great Seal of the Realm was affixed to it. The seal could not be legally affixed without the prior authorisation of the sovereign. Pitt and his fellow ministers ignored the last requirement and instructed the Lord Chancellor to affix the Great Seal without the King's consent, as the act of affixing the Great Seal in itself gave legal force to the bill. This legal fiction was denounced by Edmund Burke as "forgery, fraud", a "glaring falsehood", and as a "palpable absurdity". The Duke of York and Albany described the plan as "unconstitutional and illegal." Nevertheless, others in Parliament felt that such a scheme was necessary to preserve an effective government. Consequently, on 3 February 1789, more than two months after it had convened, Parliament was formally opened by an "illegal" group of Lords Commissioners. The Regency Bill was introduced, but before it could be passed the King recovered. The King declared retroactively that the instrument authorising the Lords Commissioners to act was valid.


title: George IV

text: The Prince of Wales's debts continued to climb, and his father refused to aid him unless he married his cousin Princess Caroline of Brunswick. In 1795, the prince acquiesced; and they were married on 8 April 1795 at the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. The marriage, however, was disastrous; each party was unsuited to the other. The two were formally separated after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796, and remained separated thereafter. The Prince remained attached to Maria Fitzherbert for the rest of his life, despite several periods of estrangement.


title: George IV

text: George's mistresses included Mary Robinson, an actress whom he paid to leave the stage; Grace Elliott, the divorced wife of a physician; and Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, who dominated his life for some years. In later life, George's mistresses were the Marchioness of Hertford and the Marchioness Conyngham.


title: George IV

text: George was rumoured to have fathered several illegitimate children. James Ord (born 1786)—who moved to the United States and became a Jesuit priest—was reportedly his son by Fitzherbert. Late in life, George told a friend that he had a son who was a naval officer in the West Indies, whose identity has been tentatively established as Captain Henry A. F. Hervey (1786–1824), reportedly George's child by the songwriter Lady Anne Lindsay (later Barnard), a daughter of James Lindsay, 5th Earl of Balcarres. Other reported children include Major George Seymour Crole, the son of theatre manager's daughter Eliza Crole; William Hampshire, the son of publican's daughter Sarah Brown; and Charles "Beau" Candy, the son of a Frenchwoman with that surname. Anthony Camp, Director of Research at the Society of Genealogists, has dismissed the claims that George IV was the father of Ord, Hervey, Hampshire and Candy, as fictitious.


title: George IV

text: The problem of the Prince of Wales's debts, which amounted to the extraordinary sum of £630,000 in 1795 (equivalent to £ today), was solved (at least temporarily) by Parliament. Being unwilling to make an outright grant to relieve these debts, it provided him an additional sum of £65,000 (equivalent to £ today) per annum. In 1803, a further £60,000 (equivalent to £ today) was added, and George's debts as at 1795 were finally cleared in 1806, although the debts he had incurred since 1795 remained.


title: George IV

text: In 1804, a dispute arose over the custody of Princess Charlotte, which led to her being placed in the care of the King. It also led to a Parliamentary Commission of Enquiry into Princess Caroline's conduct after the Prince of Wales accused her of having an illegitimate son. The investigation cleared Caroline of the charge but still revealed her behaviour to have been extraordinarily indiscreet.


title: George IV

text: In late 1810, the King's mental health once again broke down, following the death of his youngest daughter, Princess Amelia. Parliament agreed to follow the precedent of 1788; without the King's consent, the Lord Chancellor affixed the Great Seal of the Realm to letters patent naming Lords Commissioners. The letters patent lacked the Royal Sign Manual, but were sealed by request of resolutions passed by both Houses of Parliament. The Lords Commissioners appointed by the letters patent, in the name of the King, then signified the granting of Royal Assent to a bill that became the Regency Act 1811. Parliament restricted some of the powers of the Prince Regent (as the Prince of Wales became known). The constraints expired one year after the passage of the Act. The Prince of Wales became Prince Regent on 5 February 1811.


title: George IV

text: The Regent let his ministers take full charge of government affairs, playing a far smaller role than his father. The principle that the prime minister was the person supported by a majority in the House of Commons, whether the King personally favoured him or not, became established. His governments, with little help from the Regent, presided over British policy. One of the most important political conflicts facing the country concerned Catholic emancipation, the movement to relieve Roman Catholics of various political disabilities. The Tories, led by Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, were opposed to Catholic emancipation, while the Whigs supported it. At the beginning of the Regency, the Prince of Wales was expected to support the Whig leader, Lord Grenville. He did not, however, immediately put Grenville and the Whigs into office. Influenced by his mother, he claimed that a sudden dismissal of the Tory government would exact too great a toll on the health of the King (a steadfast supporter of the Tories), thereby eliminating any chance of a recovery.


title: George IV

text: In 1812, when it appeared highly unlikely that the King would recover, the Prince of Wales again failed to appoint a new Whig administration. Instead, he asked the Whigs to join the existing ministry under Perceval. The Whigs, however, refused to co-operate because of disagreements over Catholic emancipation. Grudgingly, the Prince of Wales allowed Perceval to continue as Prime Minister.


title: George IV

text: On 11 May 1812, Perceval was assassinated by John Bellingham. The Prince Regent was prepared to reappoint all the members of the Perceval ministry under a new leader. The House of Commons formally declared its desire for a "strong and efficient administration", so the Prince Regent then offered leadership of the government to Lord Wellesley and afterwards to Lord Moira. He doomed the attempts of both to failure, however, by forcing each to construct an all-party ministry at a time when neither party wished to share power with the other. Possibly using the failure of the two peers as a pretext, the Prince Regent immediately reappointed the Perceval administration, with Lord Liverpool as Prime Minister.


title: George IV

text: The Tories, unlike Whigs such as Lord Grey, sought to continue the vigorous prosecution of the war in Continental Europe against the powerful and aggressive Emperor of the French, Napoleon I. An anti-French alliance, which included Russia, Prussia, Austria, Britain and several smaller countries, defeated Napoleon in 1814. In the subsequent Congress of Vienna, it was decided that the Electorate of Hanover, a state that had shared a monarch with Britain since 1714, would be raised to the Kingdom of Hanover. Napoleon returned from exile in 1815, but was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the Duke of Wellington, brother of Lord Wellesley.


title: George IV

text: During this period George took an active interest in matters of style and taste, and his associates such as the dandy Beau Brummell and the architect John Nash created the Regency style. In London Nash designed the Regency terraces of Regent's Park and Regent Street. George took up the new idea of the seaside spa and had the Brighton Pavilion developed as a fantastical seaside palace, adapted by Nash in the "Indian Gothic" style inspired loosely by the Taj Mahal, with extravagant "Indian" and "Chinese" interiors.


title: George IV

text: When George III died in 1820, the Prince Regent, then aged 57, ascended the throne as George IV, with no real change in his powers. By the time of his accession, he was obese and possibly addicted to laudanum.


title: George IV

text: George IV's relationship with his wife Caroline had deteriorated by the time of his accession. They had lived separately since 1796, and both were having affairs. In 1814, Caroline left the United Kingdom for continental Europe, but she chose to return for her husband's coronation, and to publicly assert her rights as queen consort. However, he refused to recognise Caroline as queen, and commanded British ambassadors to ensure that monarchs in foreign courts did the same. By royal command, Caroline's name was omitted from the Book of Common Prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England.


title: George IV

text: The King sought a divorce, but his advisors suggested that any divorce proceedings might involve the publication of details relating to the King's own adulterous relationships. Therefore, he requested and ensured the introduction of the Pains and Penalties Bill, under which Parliament could have imposed legal penalties without a trial in a court of law. The bill would have annulled the marriage and stripped Caroline of the title of Queen. The bill proved extremely unpopular with the public, and was withdrawn from Parliament. George decided, nonetheless, to exclude his wife from his coronation at Westminster Abbey, on 19 July 1821. Caroline fell ill that day and died on 7 August; during her final illness she often stated that she thought she had been poisoned.


title: George IV

text: George's coronation was a magnificent and expensive affair, costing about £243,000 (approximately £ in 2022; for comparison, his father's coronation had only cost about £10,000). Despite the enormous cost, it was a popular event. In 1821, the King became the first monarch to pay a state visit to Ireland since Richard II of England. The following year he visited Edinburgh for "one and twenty daft days". His visit to Scotland, organised by Sir Walter Scott, was the first by a reigning monarch since the mid-17th century.


title: George IV

text: George spent most of his later reign in seclusion at Windsor Castle, but he continued to intervene in politics. At first it was believed that he would support Catholic emancipation, as he had proposed a Catholic Emancipation Bill for Ireland in 1797, but his anti-Catholic views became clear in 1813 when he privately canvassed against the ultimately defeated Catholic Relief Bill of 1813. By 1824 he was denouncing Catholic emancipation in public. Having taken the coronation oath on his accession, George now argued that he had sworn to uphold the Protestant faith, and could not support any pro-Catholic measures. The influence of the Crown was so great, and the will of the Tories under Prime Minister Liverpool so strong, that Catholic emancipation seemed hopeless. In 1827, however, Liverpool retired, to be replaced by the pro-emancipation Tory George Canning. When Canning entered office, the King, hitherto content with privately instructing his ministers on the Catholic Question, thought it fit to make a public declaration to the effect that his sentiments on the question were those of his revered father, George III.


title: George IV

text: Canning's views on the Catholic Question were not well received by the most conservative Tories, including the Duke of Wellington. As a result, the ministry was forced to include Whigs. Canning died later in that year, leaving Lord Goderich to lead the tenuous Tory–Whig coalition. Goderich left office in 1828, to be succeeded by Wellington, who had by that time accepted that the denial of some measure of relief to Roman Catholics was politically untenable. George was never as friendly with Wellington as he had been with Canning and chose to annoy the Duke by pretending to have fought at Waterloo disguised as a German general. With great difficulty Wellington obtained the King's consent to the introduction of a Catholic Relief Bill on 29 January 1829. Under pressure from his fanatically anti-Catholic brother, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, the King withdrew his approval and in protest the Cabinet resigned "en masse" on 4 March. The next day the King, now under intense political pressure, reluctantly agreed to the Bill and the ministry remained in power. Royal Assent was finally granted to the Catholic Relief Act on 13 April.


title: George IV

text: George's heavy drinking and indulgent lifestyle had taken their toll on his health by the late 1820s. While still Prince of Wales, he had become obese through his huge banquets and copious consumption of alcohol, making him the target of ridicule on the rare occasions that he appeared in public; by 1797, his weight had reached . By 1824, his corset was made for a waist of . He had gout, arteriosclerosis, peripheral edema ("dropsy"), and possibly porphyria. In his last years, he spent whole days in bed and had acute and serious spasms of breathlessness.


title: George IV

text: George's last years were marked by increasing physical and mental decay and withdrawal from public affairs. Privately, a senior aide to the King confided to his diary: "A more contemptible, cowardly, selfish, unfeeling dog does not exist ... There have been good and wise kings but not many of them ... and this I believe to be one of the worst." By December 1828, like his father, George was almost completely blind from cataracts, and had such severe gout in his right hand and arm that he could no longer sign documents. In mid-1829, David Wilkie reported the King "was wasting away frightfully day after day", and had become so obese that he looked "like a great sausage stuffed into the covering". The King took laudanum to counteract severe bladder pains, which left him in a drugged and mentally impaired state for days on end. He underwent surgery to remove a cataract in September 1829, by which time he was regularly taking over 100 drops of laudanum before state occasions.


title: George IV

text: By the spring of 1830, George's imminent end was apparent. Now largely confined to his bedchambers, having completely lost sight in one eye and describing himself "as blind as a beetle", he was forced to approve legislation with a stamp of his signature in the presence of witnesses. His weight was recorded to be . Attacks of breathlessness due to dropsy forced him to sleep upright in a chair, and doctors frequently tapped his abdomen in order to drain excess fluid. Despite his obvious decline, George was admired for clinging doggedly to life. His will to live and still-prodigious appetite astonished observers; in April 1830, the Duke of Wellington wrote that the King had consumed for breakfast "a Pidgeon and Beef Steak Pye ... Three parts of a bottle of Mozelle, a Glass of Dry Champagne, two Glasses of Port [and] a Glass of Brandy", followed by a large dose of laudanum. Writing to Maria Fitzherbert in June, the King's doctor, Sir Henry Halford, noted "His Majesty's constitution is a gigantic one, and his elasticity under the most severe pressure exceeds what I have ever witnessed in thirty-eight years' experience." Though George had been under Halford's care since the time of the Regency, the doctor's social ambitions and perceived lack of competence were strongly criticised, with "The Lancet" labelling Halford's bulletins on the King's health as "utterly and entirely destitute of information", subsequently characterising Halford's treatment of George, which involved administering both opium and laudanum as sedatives, as appearing to lack sense or direction.


title: George IV

text: George dictated his will in May and became very devout in his final months, confessing to an archdeacon that he repented of his dissolute life, but hoped mercy would be shown to him as he had always tried to do the best for his subjects. By June, he was unable to lie down, and received the Sacrament on 14 June in the presence of Lady Conyngham, Halford, and a clergyman. While Halford only informed the Cabinet on 24 June that "the King's cough continues with considerable expectoration", he privately told his wife that "things are coming to a conclusion ... I shall be released about Monday."


title: George IV

text: At about three in the morning of 26 June 1830 at Windsor Castle, George awoke and passed a bowel movement – "a large evacuation mix'd with blood". He then sent for Halford, allegedly calling to his servants "Sir Henry! Sir Henry! Fetch him; this is death!" Accounts of George's final moments and last words vary. According to Halford, following his arrival and that of Sir William Knighton, the King's "lips grew livid, and he dropped his head on the page's shoulder ... I was up the stairs in five minutes, and he died but eight minutes afterwards." Other accounts state the King placed his hands on his stomach and said "Surely, this must be death", or that he called out "Good God, what is this?", clasped his page's hand, and said "my boy, this is death". George died at 3:15 a.m. An autopsy conducted by his physicians revealed George had died from upper gastrointestinal bleeding resulting from the rupture of a blood vessel in his stomach. A large tumour "the size of an orange" was found attached to his bladder; his heart was enlarged, had heavily calcified valves and was surrounded by a large fat deposit.


title: George IV

text: George's only legitimate child, Charlotte, had died from post-partum complications in 1817, after delivering a stillborn son. George III's second son, Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, had died childless in 1827, so the throne passed to the third son of George III, Prince William, Duke of Clarence, who reigned as William IV.


title: George IV

text: George was described as the "First Gentleman of England" on account of his style and manners. He was bright, clever, and knowledgeable, but his laziness and gluttony led him to squander much of his talent. "The Times" wrote that he would always prefer "a girl and a bottle to politics and a sermon".


title: George IV

text: The Regency period saw a shift in fashion that was largely determined by George. After political opponents put a tax on wig powder, he abandoned wearing a powdered wig in favour of natural hair. He wore darker colours than had been previously fashionable as they helped to disguise his size, favoured pantaloons and trousers over knee breeches because they were looser, and popularised a high collar with neck cloth because it hid his double chin. His visit to Scotland in 1822 led to the revival, if not the creation, of Scottish tartan dress as it is known today.


title: George IV

text: During the political crisis caused by Catholic emancipation, the Duke of Wellington said that George was "the worst man he ever fell in with his whole life, the most selfish, the most false, the most ill-natured, the most entirely without one redeeming quality". However, his eulogy delivered in the House of Lords called George "the most accomplished man of his age" and praised his knowledge and talent. Wellington's true feelings were probably somewhere between these two extremes; as he said later, George was "a magnificent patron of the arts ... the most extraordinary compound of talent, wit, buffoonery, obstinacy, and good feeling—in short a medley of the most opposite qualities, with a great preponderance of good—that I ever saw in any character in my life."


title: George IV

text: Upon George's death, "The Times" captured elite opinion succinctly: "There never was an individual less regretted by his fellow-creatures than this deceased king. What eye has wept for him? What heart has heaved one throb of unmercenary sorrow? ... If he ever had a friend – a devoted friend in any rank of life – we protest that the name of him or her never reached us".


title: George IV

text: There are many statues of George IV, a large number of which were erected during his reign. In the United Kingdom, they include a bronze statue of him on horseback by Sir Francis Chantrey in Trafalgar Square.


title: George IV

text: In Edinburgh, "George IV Bridge" is a main street linking the Old Town High Street to the north over the ravine of the Cowgate, designed by the architect Thomas Hamilton in 1829 and completed in 1835. King's Cross, now a major transport hub sitting on the border of Camden and Islington in north London, takes its name from a short-lived monument erected to George IV in the early 1830s. A square and a neighbouring park in St Luke's, Islington, are also named after George IV.


title: George IV

text: At birth, he was entitled to the dignities Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Electoral Prince of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Duke of Rothesay. Under the Act of Parliament that instituted the regency, the prince's formal title as regent was "Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland".


title: George IV

text: George's coat of arms as the Prince of Wales was the royal arms (with an inescutcheon of Gules plain in the Hanoverian quarter), differenced by a label of three points Argent. The arms included the royal crest and supporters but with the single arched coronet of his rank, all charged on the shoulder with a similar label. His arms followed the change in the royal arms in 1801, when the Hanoverian quarter became an inescutcheon and the French quarter was dropped altogether. The 1816 alteration did not affect him as it only applied to the arms of the King.


title: George IV

text: As king, his arms were those of his two kingdoms, the United Kingdom and Hanover, superimposed: Quarterly, I and IV Gules three lions passant guardant in pale Or (for England); II Or a lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counter-flory Gules (for Scotland); III Azure a harp Or stringed Argent (for Ireland); overall an escutcheon tierced in pall reversed (for Hanover), I Gules two lions passant guardant Or (for Brunswick), II Or a semy of hearts Gules a lion rampant Azure (for Lüneburg), III Gules a horse courant Argent (for Westphalia), overall an inescutcheon Gules charged with the crown of Charlemagne Or, the whole escutcheon surmounted by a crown.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd ( ) is an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida. The group originally formed as My Backyard in 1964 and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (lead vocalist), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom (bass guitar) and Bob Burns (drums). The band spent five years touring small venues under various names and with several lineup changes before deciding on "Lynyrd Skynyrd" in 1969. The band released its first album in 1973, having settled on a lineup that included bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell and guitarist Ed King. Burns left and was replaced by Artimus Pyle in 1974. King left in 1975 and was replaced by Steve Gaines in 1976. At the height of their fame in the 1970s, the band popularized the Southern rock genre with songs such as "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". After releasing five studio albums and one live album, the band's career was abruptly halted on October 20, 1977, when their chartered airplane crashed, killing Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, and seriously injuring the rest of the band.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd reformed in 1987 for a reunion tour with Ronnie's brother Johnny Van Zant as lead vocalist. They continue to tour and record with co-founder Rossington (the band's sole continuous member), Johnny Van Zant, and Rickey Medlocke, who first wrote and recorded with the band from 1971 to 1972 before his return in 1996. In January 2018, Lynyrd Skynyrd announced its farewell tour, and continues touring as of October 2019. Members are also working on their fifteenth album.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In 2004, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked Lynyrd Skynyrd No. 95 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Lynyrd Skynyrd was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 13, 2006. To date, the band has sold more than 28 million records in the United States.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In Jacksonville, Florida, during the summer of 1964, teenagers Ronnie Van Zant, Bob Burns, and Gary Rossington became acquainted while playing on rival baseball teams. The trio decided to jam together one afternoon after Burns was injured by a ball hit by Van Zant. They set up their equipment in the carport of Burns' parents' house and played the Rolling Stones' then-current hit "Time Is on My Side". Liking what they heard, they immediately decided to form a band. They soon approached guitarist Allen Collins to join the band, though Collins initially fled on his bicycle and hid in a tree at the sight of Van Zant pulling into his driveway. Collins was soon convinced that Van Zant meant him no harm and he agreed to join the fledgling band. Bassist Larry Junstrom soon rounded out the lineup and the band settled on the name My Backyard, later changed to The Noble Five before becoming The One Percent by 1968.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Still known as The One Percent in 1969, Van Zant sought a new name after growing tired of taunts from audiences that the band had "1% talent". At Burns' suggestion, the group settled on "Leonard Skinnerd", which was in part a reference to a character named "Leonard Skinner" in Allan Sherman's novelty song "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" and in part a mocking tribute to P.E. teacher Leonard Skinner at Robert E. Lee High School. Skinner was notorious for strictly enforcing the school's policy against boys having long hair. Rossington dropped out of school, tired of being hassled about his hair. The more distinctive spelling "Lynyrd Skynyrd" was being used at least as early as 1970. Despite their high school acrimony, the band developed a friendlier relationship with Skinner in later years, and invited him to introduce them at a concert in the Jacksonville Memorial Coliseum. Skinner also allowed the band to use a photo of his Leonard Skinner Realty sign for the inside of their third album.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: By 1970, Lynyrd Skynyrd had become a top band in Jacksonville, headlining at some local concerts, and opening for several national acts. Pat Armstrong, a Jacksonville native and partner in Macon, Georgia-based Hustlers Inc. with Phil Walden's younger brother, Alan Walden, became the band's managers. Armstrong left Hustlers shortly thereafter to start his own agency. Walden stayed with the band until 1974, when management was turned over to Peter Rudge. The band continued to perform throughout the South in the early 1970s, further developing their hard-driving blues rock sound and image, and experimenting with recording their sound in a studio. Skynyrd crafted this distinctively "southern" sound through a creative blend of country, blues, and a slight British rock influence.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: During this time, the band experienced some lineup changes for the first time. Junstrom left and was briefly replaced by Greg T. Walker on bass. At that time, Rickey Medlocke joined as a second drummer and occasional second vocalist to help fortify Burns' sound on the drums. Medlocke grew up with the founding members of Lynyrd Skynyrd and his grandfather Shorty Medlocke was an influence in the writing of "The Ballad of Curtis Loew". Some versions of the band's history state Burns briefly left the band during this time, although other versions state that Burns played with the band continuously through 1974.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In 1972, the band (then comprising Van Zant, Collins, Rossington, Burns, Wilkeson, and Powell) was discovered by musician, songwriter, and producer Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, who had attended one of their shows at Funocchio's in Atlanta. Kooper signed them to his Sounds of the South label, which was to be distributed and supported by MCA Records, and produced their first album. Wilkeson, citing nervousness about fame, temporarily left the band during the early recording sessions, playing on only two tracks. He rejoined the band shortly after the album's release at Van Zant's invitation and is pictured on the album cover. To replace him, Strawberry Alarm Clock guitarist Ed King joined the band and played bass on the album (the only part that Wilkeson had not already written being the solo section in "Simple Man"), and also contributed to the songwriting and did some guitar work on the album. After Wilkeson rejoined, King stayed in the band and switched solely to guitar, allowing the band to replicate its three-guitar studio mix in live performances. The band released their debut album "(Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd)" on August 13, 1973. It sold over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The album featured the hit song "Free Bird", which received national airplay, eventually reaching No. 19 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd's fan base continued to grow rapidly throughout 1973, largely due to their opening slot on the Who's "Quadrophenia" tour in the United States. Their 1974 follow-up album, "Second Helping", featuring King, Collins and Rossington all collaborating with Van Zant on the songwriting, cemented the band's breakthrough. Its single "Sweet Home Alabama", a response to Neil Young's "Southern Man", reached #8 on the charts that August. Young and Van Zant were not rivals, but fans of each other's music and good friends; Young wrote the song "Powderfinger" for the band, but they never recorded it. During their peak years, most of their records sold over one million copies, but "Sweet Home Alabama" was the only single to crack the top ten.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: By 1975, personal issues began to take their toll on the band. In January, drummer Burns left the band after suffering a mental breakdown during a European tour and was replaced by Kentucky native and former US Marine Artimus Pyle. The band's third album, "Nuthin' Fancy", was recorded in 17 days. Unhappy with the band's lack of preparation for the album's recording, Kooper and the band parted ways by mutual agreement after the tracking was completed, with Kooper mixing the album while the band left for the tour that had precipitated the constricted recording schedule. Though the album fared well, it ultimately had lower sales than its predecessors. Midway through the "Nuthin' Fancy" tour, guitarist Ed King abruptly left the band after a falling out with Van Zant. King's guitar roadie and Van Zant were arrested together and spent the night in jail. With his guitar roadie unavailable, King played that night's show with old strings that broke and caused his performance to be substandard, and Van Zant subsequently belittled him in front of his bandmates. King quit and returned home to Los Angeles, believing Van Zant had been responsible for his guitar roadie being in jail in the first place.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Collins and Rossington both had serious car accidents over Labor Day weekend in 1976, which slowed the recording of the follow-up album and forced the band to cancel some concert dates. Rossington's accident inspired the ominous Van Zant/Collins composition "That Smell" – a cautionary tale about drug abuse that was clearly aimed towards him and at least one other band member. Rossington has admitted repeatedly that he was the "Prince Charming" of the song who crashed his car into an oak tree while drunk and stoned on Quaaludes. With the birth of his daughter Melody in 1976, Van Zant was making a serious attempt to clean up his act and curtail the cycle of boozed-up brawling that was part of Skynyrd's reputation.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The "Street Survivors" album of 1977 turned out to be a showcase for guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, who had joined the band just a year earlier and was making his studio debut with them. Publicly and privately, Ronnie Van Zant marveled at the multiple talents of Skynyrd's newest member, claiming that the band would "all be in his shadow one day". Gaines' contributions included his co-lead vocal with Van Zant on the co-written "You Got That Right" and the rousing guitar boogie "I Know a Little", which he had written before he joined Skynyrd. So confident was Skynyrd's leader of Gaines' abilities that the album (and some concerts) featured Gaines delivering his self-penned bluesy "Ain't No Good Life" – the only song in the pre-crash Skynyrd catalog to feature a lead vocalist other than Ronnie Van Zant. The album also included the hit singles "What's Your Name" and "That Smell". The band was poised for their biggest tour yet, with shows always highlighted by the iconic rock anthem "Free Bird".


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Following a performance at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina, on October 20, 1977, the band boarded a chartered Convair CV-240 bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they were scheduled to appear at LSU the following night. After running out of fuel, the pilots attempted an emergency landing before crashing in a heavily forested area five miles northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, along with backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot John Gray were killed on impact. Other band members (Collins, Rossington, Wilkeson, Powell, Pyle, and Hawkins), tour manager Ron Eckerman, and several road crew members suffered serious injuries.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The accident came just three days after the release of the group's fifth studio album "Street Survivors". Following the crash and the ensuing press, "Street Survivors" became the band's second platinum album and reached No. 5 on the "Billboard" 200, their highest position on the chart. The single "What's Your Name" reached No. 13 on the single charts in 1978. The original cover sleeve for "Street Survivors" had featured a photograph of the band amid flames, with Steve Gaines nearly obscured by fire. Out of respect for the deceased (and at the request of Teresa Gaines, Steve's widow), MCA Records withdrew the original cover and replaced it with the album's back photo, a similar image of the band against a simple black background. However, the group would restore the original image for the 30th anniversary deluxe edition of the album.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd disbanded after the tragedy, reuniting only on one occasion to perform an instrumental version of "Free Bird" at Charlie Daniels' Volunteer Jam V in January 1979. Collins, Rossington, Powell, and Pyle were joined by Daniels and members of his band. Leon Wilkeson, who was still undergoing physical therapy for his badly broken left arm, was in attendance, along with Judy Van Zant, Teresa Gaines, JoJo Billingsley, and Leslie Hawkins.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Rossington, Collins, Wilkeson and Powell formed the Rossington Collins Band, which released two MCA albums, "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere" in 1980 and "This Is The Way" in 1981. Deliberately avoiding comparisons with Ronnie Van Zant as well as suggestions that this band was Lynyrd Skynyrd reborn, Rossington and Collins chose a woman, Dale Krantz, as the lead vocalist. However, as an acknowledgement of their past, the band's concert encore would always be an instrumental version of "Free Bird". Rossington and Collins eventually had a falling out over the affections of Dale Krantz, whom Rossington married and with whom he formed The Rossington Band, which released two albums, "Returned to the Scene of the Crime" in 1986 and "Love Your Man" in 1988 and also opened for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour in 1987–1988.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The other former members of Lynyrd Skynyrd continued to make music during the hiatus era. Billy Powell played keyboards in a Christian rock band named Vision, touring with established Christian rocker Mylon LeFevre. During Vision concerts, Powell's trademark keyboard talent was often spotlighted and he spoke about his conversion to Christianity after the near-fatal plane crash. Pyle formed the Artimus Pyle Band in 1982, which occasionally featured former Honkettes JoJo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins and released one MCA album, titled "A.P.B."


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In 1980, Allen Collins's wife Kathy died of a massive hemorrhage while miscarrying their third child. He formed the Allen Collins Band in 1983 from the remnants of the Rossington Collins Band and released one MCA studio album, "Here, There & Back". He was visibly suffering from Kathy's death; he excessively drank and consumed drugs. On January 29, 1986, Collins, then 33, crashed his Ford Thunderbird into a ditch near his home in Jacksonville, killing his girlfriend Debra Jean Watts and leaving himself permanently paralyzed from the chest down.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In 1987, Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited for a full-scale tour with five major members of the pre-crash band: crash survivors Gary Rossington, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson and Artimus Pyle, along with guitarist Ed King, who had left the band two years before the crash. Ronnie Van Zant's younger brother, Johnny, took over as the new lead singer and primary songwriter. Due to founding member Allen Collins' paralysis from his 1986 car accident, he was only able to participate as the musical director, choosing Randall Hall, his former bandmate in the Allen Collins Band, as his stand-in. In return for avoiding prison following his guilty plea to DUI manslaughter Collins would be wheeled out onstage each night to explain to the audience why he could no longer perform (usually before the performance of "That Smell", the lyrics of which had been partially directed at him). Collins was stricken with pneumonia in 1989 and died on January 23, 1990, at age 37.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The reunited band was intended to be a one-time tribute to the original lineup, captured on the double-live album "Southern by the Grace of God: Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour 1987". That the band chose to continue after the 1987 tribute tour caused legal problems for the survivors, as Judy Van Zant Jenness and Teresa Gaines Rapp (widows of Ronnie and Steve, respectively) sued the others for violating an agreement made shortly after the plane crash, stating that they would not "exploit" the Skynyrd name for profit. As part of the settlement, Jenness and Rapp collect nearly 30% of the band's touring revenues (representing the shares their husbands would have earned had they lived), and hold a proviso requiring any band touring as Lynyrd Skynyrd to include Rossington and at least two of the other four surviving members from the pre-crash era, namely Wilkeson, Powell, King and Pyle. Following this rule, the band would have been forced to retire in 2001, but they have still continued to tour for another two decades.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The band released its first post-reunion album in 1991, entitled "Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991". By that time, the band had added a second drummer, Kurt Custer. Artimus Pyle left the band during the same year, with Custer becoming the band's sole drummer. That lineup released a second post-reunion album, entitled "The Last Rebel" in 1993. Later that year, Randall Hall was replaced by Mike Estes. In 1994, Owen Hale replaced Kurt Custer on drums.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Ed King had to take a break from touring in 1996 due to heart complications that required a transplant. In his absence, he was replaced by Hughie Thomasson. The band did not let King rejoin after he recovered. At the same time, Mike Estes was replaced by Rickey Medlocke, who had previously played and recorded with the band for a short time in the early 1970s. The result was a major retooling of the band's 'guitar army'. Medlocke and Thomasson would also become major contributors to the band's songwriting along with Rossington and Van Zant.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The first album with this new lineup, released in 1997, was entitled "Twenty". The band released another album, "Edge of Forever" in 1999. By that time, Hale had left the band, and the drums on the album were played by session drummer Kenny Aronoff. Michael Cartellone became the band's permanent drummer on the subsequent tour. Despite the growing number of post-reunion albums that the band had released up to this time, setlists showed that the band was playing mostly 1970s-era material in concert.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The band released a Christmas album, entitled "Christmas Time Again" in 2000. Leon Wilkeson, Skynyrd's bassist since 1972, was found dead in his hotel room on July 27, 2001. His death was found to be due to emphysema and chronic liver disease. He was replaced in 2001 by Ean Evans.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: The first album to feature Evans was "Vicious Cycle", released in 2003. This album had improved sales over the other post-reunion albums, and had a minor hit single in the song "Red, White and Blue". The band also released a double collection album called "", which had songs from the original lineup to the present, and also a live DVD of their Vicious Cycle Tour and on June 22, 2004, the album "".


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Thomasson left the band in 2005 to reform The Outlaws, and Mark "Sparky" Matejka, formerly of the country music band Hot Apple Pie, joined in 2006 as his replacement. On November 2, 2007, the band performed for a crowd of 50,000 people at the University of Florida's Gator Growl student-run pep rally in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium ("The Swamp" football stadium). This was the largest crowd that Lynyrd Skynyrd had played to in the U.S., until the July 2008 Bama Jam in Enterprise, Alabama where more than 111,000 people attended.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On January 28, 2009, keyboardist Billy Powell died of a suspected heart attack at age 56 at his home near Jacksonville, Florida. No autopsy was carried out. He was replaced by Peter Keys.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On March 17, 2009, it was announced that Skynyrd had signed a worldwide deal with Roadrunner Records, in association with their label, Loud & Proud Records, and released their new album "God & Guns" on September 29 of that year. They toured Europe and the U.S. in 2009 with Keys on keyboards and Robert Kearns of the Bottle Rockets on bass; bassist Ean Evans died of cancer at age 48 on May 6, 2009. Scottish rock band Gun performed as special guests for the UK leg of Skynyrd's tour in 2010.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In addition to the tour, Skynyrd appeared at the Sean Hannity Freedom Concert series in late 2010. Hannity had been actively promoting the "God & Guns" album, frequently playing portions of the track "That Ain't My America" on his radio show. The tour is titled "Rebels and Bandoleros". The band continued to tour throughout 2011, playing alongside ZZ Top and the Doobie Brothers.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On May 2, 2012, the band announced the impending release of a new studio album, "Last of a Dyin' Breed", along with a North American and European tour. On August 21, 2012, "Last of a Dyin' Breed" was released. In celebration, the band did four autograph signings throughout the southeast. Lynyrd Skynyrd used a Confederate flag from the 1970s until the 2010s, and several criticisms have been raised against them because of this. While promoting the album on CNN on September 9, 2012, members of the band talked about its discontinued use of Confederate imagery. In September 2012, the band briefly did not display the Confederate flag, which had for years been a part of their stage show, because they did not want to be associated with racists that adopted the flag. However, after protests from fans, they reversed this decision, citing it as part of their Southern American heritage and states' rights symbolism. The band would later cease use of the Confederate flag starting with their 2019 tour.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Original drummer Bob Burns died aged 64 on April 3, 2015; his car crashed into a tree while he was driving alone near his home in Cartersville, Georgia. From 2015 through 2017, the band had periods of being sidelined or having to cancel shows due to health problems suffered by founding member Gary Rossington.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Former member Ed King, who had been battling cancer, died in his Nashville, Tennessee home on August 22, 2018 at 68 years of age.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On January 25, 2018, Lynyrd Skynyrd announced their Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour, which started on May 4, 2018. Supporting acts include Kid Rock, Hank Williams Jr., Bad Company, the Charlie Daniels Band, the Marshall Tucker Band, .38 Special, Cheap Trick, Blackberry Smoke, the Randy Bachman Band, Blackfoot, Massive Wagons, and Status Quo. Concerts are usually on Fridays and Saturdays. On January 8, 2020, Rossington stated in an interview that while they would no longer be touring, they will continue to play occasional live shows.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On March 19, 2019, Johnny Van Zant announced that the band intended to go into the studio to record one last album after completing the tour with several songs ready or "in the can". They appeared at the Kaaboo Texas festival on May 11, 2019.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: Lynyrd Skynyrd was among hundreds of recording artists whose original master recordings were believed to have been destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. Though it is not known with certainty which, if any, of the band's master recordings were lost in the blaze, Lynyrd Skynyrd was among the artists listed in an internal Universal Music Group document listing the artists whose master recordings the company believed had been lost and subsequently spent tens of millions of dollars trying to replace.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: In 2004, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked the group No. 95 on their list of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On November 28, 2005, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced that Lynyrd Skynyrd would be inducted alongside Black Sabbath, Blondie, Miles Davis, and the Sex Pistols. They were inducted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on March 13, 2006 during the Hall's 21st annual induction ceremony. The inductees included Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington, Ed King, Steve Gaines, Billy Powell, Leon Wilkeson, Bob Burns, and Artimus Pyle.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On April 4, 2017, a biopic film project was announced. The film was later titled "" and released in June 2020.


title: Lynyrd Skynyrd

text: On March 13, 2018, filmmaker Stephen Kijak premiered his documentary called, "If I Leave Here Tomorrow" at the Stateside Theater during the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Kijak was joined on stage by Johnny Van Zant and Gary Rossington at the world premiere to speak to fans about the film.


title: G20

text: The G20 or Group of Twenty is an intergovernmental forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.


title: G20

text: The G20 is composed of most of the world's largest economies, including both industrialised and developing nations; it accounts for around 80% of gross world product (GWP), 75% of international trade, two-thirds of the global population, and 60% of the world's land area.


title: G20

text: The G20 was founded in 1999 in response to several world economic crises. Since 2008, it has convened at least once a year, with summits involving each member's head of government or state, finance minister, or foreign minister, and other high-ranking officials; the EU is represented by the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Other countries, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations are invited to attend the summits, some on a permanent basis.


title: G20

text: At its 2009 summit, the G20 declared itself the primary venue for international economic and financial cooperation. The group's stature has risen during the subsequent decade, and it is recognised by analysts as exercising considerable global influence; it is also criticised for its limited membership, lack of enforcement powers, and for the alleged undermining of existing international institutions. Summits are often met with protests, particularly by anti-globalisation groups.


title: G20

text: The G20 is the latest in a series of post–World War II initiatives aimed at international coordination of economic policy, which include institutions such as the "Bretton Woods twins", the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and what is now the World Trade Organization.


title: G20

text: The G20 was foreshadowed at the Cologne summit of the G7 in June 1999, and formally established at the G7 Finance Ministers' meeting on 26 September 1999 with an inaugural meeting on 15–16 December 1999 in Berlin. Canadian finance minister Paul Martin was chosen as the first chairman and German finance minister Hans Eichel hosted the inaugural meeting.


title: G20

text: A 2004 report by Colin I. Bradford and Johannes F. Linn of the Brookings Institution asserted the group was founded primarily at the initiative of Eichel, the concurrent chair of the G7. However, Bradford later described then-Finance Minister of Canada (and future Prime Minister of Canada) Paul Martin as "the crucial architect of the formation of the G-20 at finance minister level", and as the one who later "proposed that the G-20 countries move to leaders level summits". Canadian academic and journalistic sources have also identified the G20 a project initiated by Martin and his American counterpart then-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. All acknowledge, however, that Germany and the United States played a key role in bringing their vision into reality.


title: G20

text: Martin and Summers conceived of the G20 in response to the series of massive debt crises that had spread across emerging markets in the late 1990s, beginning with the Mexican peso crisis and followed by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 1998 Russian financial crisis, and eventually impacting the United States, most prominently in the form of the collapse of the prominent hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management in the autumn of 1998. It illustrated to them that in a rapidly globalizing world, the G7, G8, and the Bretton Woods system would be unable to provide financial stability, and they conceived of a new, broader permanent group of major world economies that would give a voice and new responsibilities in providing it.


title: G20

text: The G20 membership was decided by Eichel's deputy Caio Koch-Weser and Summers's deputy Timothy Geithner. According to the political economist Robert Wade:


title: G20

text: The G20's primary focus has been governance of the global economy. Summit themes have varied from year to year.


title: G20

text: The theme of the 2006 G20 ministerial meeting was "Building and Sustaining Prosperity". The issues discussed included domestic reforms to achieve "sustained growth", global energy and resource commodity markets, reform of the World Bank and IMF, and the impact of demographic changes.


title: G20

text: In 2007, South Africa hosted the secretariat with Trevor A. Manuel, South African Minister of Finance as chairperson of the G20.


title: G20

text: In 2008, Guido Mantega, Brazil's Minister of Finance, was the G20 chairperson and proposed dialogue on competition in financial markets, clean energy, economic development and fiscal elements of growth and development.


title: G20

text: On 11 October 2008 after a meeting of G7 finance ministers, US President George W. Bush stated that the next meeting of the G20 would be important in finding solutions to the burgeoning economic crisis of 2008.


title: G20

text: The Summit of G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, who prepare the leaders' summit and implement their decisions, was created as a response both to the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and to a growing recognition that key emerging countries were not adequately included in the core of global economic discussion and governance. Additionally, G20 summits of heads of state or government were held.


title: G20

text: After the 2008 debut summit in Washington, DC, G20 leaders met twice a year: in London and Pittsburgh in 2009, and in Toronto and Seoul in 2010.


title: G20

text: Since 2011, when France chaired and hosted the G20, the summits have been held only once a year. The 2016 summit was held in Hangzhou, China, the 2017 summit was held in Hamburg, Germany, the 2018 summit was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the 2019 summit was held in Osaka, Japan, the 2020 summit was scheduled in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia but it was held virtually due to Covid-19, the 2021 summit was held in Rome, Italy and the 2022 summit was held in Bali, Indonesia.


title: G20

text: A number of other ministerial-level G20 meetings have been held since 2010. Agriculture ministerial meetings were conducted in 2011 and 2012; meetings of foreign ministers were held in 2012 and 2013; trade ministers met in 2012 and 2014, and employment ministerial meetings have taken place annually since 2010.


title: G20

text: In 2012, the G20 Ministers of Tourism and Heads of Delegation of G20 member countries and other invited States, as well as representatives from the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and other organisations in the Travel & Tourism sector met in Mérida, Mexico, on May 16 at the 4th G20 meeting and focused on 'Tourism as a means to Job Creation'. As a result of this meeting and The World Travel & Tourism Council's Visa Impact Research, later on the Leaders of the G20, convened in Los Cabos on 18–19 June, would recognise the impact of Travel & Tourism for the first time. That year, the G20 Leaders Declaration added the following statement: "We recognise the role of travel and tourism as a vehicle for job creation, economic growth and development, and, while recognizing the sovereign right of States to control the entry of foreign nationals, we will work towards developing travel facilitation initiatives in support of job creation, quality work, poverty reduction and global growth."


title: G20

text: In March 2014, the former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop, when Australia was hosting the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, proposed to ban Russia from the summit over its annexation of Ukrainian Crimea.


title: G20

text: The BRICS foreign ministers subsequently reminded Bishop that "the custodianship of the G20 belongs to all Member States equally and no one Member State can unilaterally determine its nature and character."


title: G20

text: In 2016, the G20 framed its commitment to the 2030 Agenda (Sustainable Development Goals) in three key themes; the promotion of strong sustainable and balanced growth; protection of the planet from degradation; and furthering co-operation with low-income and developing countries. At the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, members agreed on an action plan and issued a high level principles document to member countries to help facilitate the agenda's implementation.


title: G20

text: Japan hosted the 2019 summit, The 2020 summit was to be held in Saudi Arabia, but was instead held virtually on 21–22 November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic under the presidency of Saudi Arabia. 2021 G20 Rome summit which was held in Rome, the capital city of Italy, on 30–31 October 2021.


title: G20

text: Indonesia holds the G20 presidency from 1 December 2021 to 30 November 2022. During its presidency, Indonesia has focused on the global COVID-19 pandemic and how to collectively overcome the challenges related to it. The three priorities of Indonesia's G20 presidency: global health architecture, digital transformations, sustainable energy transitions.


title: G20

text: In year 2023 India will have presidency of G20, in December 23 India will hold G20 summit. On December 6, 2022 India has assumed the Presidency of G20 summit on rotating basis for 1 year period. Till now it has been presided over by Indonesia.


title: G20

text: To decide which member nation gets to chair the G20 leaders' meeting for a given year, all members, except the European Union, are assigned to one of five different groupings, with all but one group having four members, the other having three. Nations from the same region are placed in the same group, except Group 1 and Group 2. All countries within a group are eligible to take over the G20 Presidency when it is their group's turn. Therefore,the states within the relevant group need to negotiate among themselves to select the next G20 President. Each year, a different G20 member country assumes the presidency starting from 1 December until 30 November. This system has been in place since 2010, when South Korea, which is in Group 5, held the G20 chair. The table below lists the nations' groupings:


title: G20

text: To ensure continuity, the presidency is supported by a "troika" made up of the current, immediate past and next host countries.


title: G20

text: The G20 operates without a permanent secretariat or staff. The group's chair rotates annually among the members and is selected from a different regional grouping of countries. The incumbent chair establishes a temporary secretariat for the duration of its term, which coordinates the group's work and organizes its meetings. The 2021 summit was held in Italy. The 2022 summit is held in Bali, Indonesia. The current chair is held by India. The 2023 and 2024 summits will be hosted by India and Brazil respectively.


title: G20

text: In 2010, President of France Nicolas Sarkozy proposed the establishment of a permanent G20 secretariat, similar to the United Nations. Seoul and Paris were suggested as possible locations for its headquarters. Brazil and China supported the establishment of a secretariat, while Italy and Japan expressed opposition to the proposal. South Korea proposed a "cyber secretariat" as an alternative. It has been argued that the G20 has been using the OECD as a secretariat.


title: G20

text: , there are 20 members in the group: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. Guest invitees include, amongst others, Spain, the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union and ASEAN.


title: G20

text: Representatives include, at the leaders' summits, the leaders of nineteen countries and of the European Union, and, at the ministerial-level meetings, the finance ministers and central bank governors of nineteen countries and of the European Union.


title: G20

text: In addition, each year, the G20's guests include Spain; the Chair of ASEAN; two African countries (the chair of the African Union and a representative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and a country (sometimes more than one) invited by the presidency, usually from its own region.


title: G20

text: The first of the tables below lists the member entities and their leaders, finance ministers and central bank governors. The second table lists relevant statistics such as population and GDP figures for each member, as well as detailing memberships of other international organizations, such as the G7, BRICS and MIKTA. Total GDP figures are given in millions of US dollars.


title: G20

text: In addition to these 20 members, the chief executive officers of several other international forums and institutions participate in meetings of the G20. These include the managing director and Chairman of the International Monetary Fund, the President of the World Bank, the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Chairman of the Development Assistance Committee.


title: G20

text: The G20's membership does not reflect exactly the 20 largest economies of the world in any given year; as the organization states:


title: G20

text: A 2011 report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicted that large Asian economies such as China and India would play a more important role in global economic governance in the future. The report claimed that the rise of emerging market economies heralded a new world order, in which the G20 would become the global economic steering committee. The ADB furthermore noted that Asian countries had led the global recovery following the late-2000s recession. It predicted that the region would have a greater presence on the global stage, shaping the G20's agenda for balanced and sustainable growth through strengthening intraregional trade and stimulating domestic demand.


title: G20

text: Typically, several participants that are not full members of the G20 are extended invitations to participate in the summits. Permanent guest invitees are: the government of Spain; the Chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations; the Chair of the African Union; and a representative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development are invited in their capacities as leaders of their organisations and as heads of government of their home states. In addition, the leaders of the Financial Stability Board, the International Labour Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the United Nations, the World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization are invited and participate in pre-summit planning within the policy purview of their respective organisation.


title: G20

text: Other invitees are chosen by the host country, usually one or two countries from its own region. For example, South Korea invited Singapore. International organisations which have been invited in the past include the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC), the European Central Bank (ECB), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Global Governance Group (3G) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Previously, the Netherlands had a similar status to Spain while the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union would also receive an invitation, but only in that capacity and not as their own state's leader (such as the Czech premiers Mirek Topolánek and Jan Fischer during the 2009 summits).


title: G20

text: The initial G20 agenda, as conceived by US, Canadian and German policy makers, was very much focused on the sustainability of sovereign debt and global financial stability, in an inclusive format that would bring in the largest developing economies as equal partners. During a summit in November 2008, the leaders of the group pledged to contribute trillions to international finance organizations, including the World Bank and IMF, mainly for re-establishing the global financial system.


title: G20

text: Since inception, the recurring themes covered by G20 summit participants have related in priority to global economic growth, international trade and financial market regulation.


title: G20

text: The G20 countries account for almost 75% of the global carbon emissions. After the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, more "issues of global significance" were added to the G20 agenda: migration, digitisation, employment, healthcare, the economic empowerment of women and development aid. Despite promises G20 nations subsidised fossil fuel companies over $3.3 trillion between 2015 and 2021.


title: G20

text: Wolfgang Schäuble, German Federal Minister of Finance, has insisted on the interconnected nature of the issues facing G20 nations, be they purely financial or developmental, and the need to reach effective, cross-cutting policy measures: "Globalization has lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty, but there is also a growing rise in frustration in some quarters […] development, [national] security and migration are all interlinked"


title: G20

text: The G20 Engagement Groups are independent collectives that are led by organisations of the host country. They represent a diverse group of stakeholders and work collectively to develop non-binding policy recommendations formally submitted to the G20 leaders for consideration.


title: G20

text: For the 2022 G20 hosted by Indonesia, there are 10 Engagement Groups formed to facilitate independent stakeholders in developing proposals and policy recommendations to G20 leaders.


title: G20

text: Although the G20 has stated that the group's "economic weight and broad membership gives it a high degree of legitimacy and influence over the management of the global economy and financial system", its legitimacy has been challenged. A 2011 report for the Danish Institute for International Studies criticised the G20's exclusivity, particularly highlighting its underrepresentation of African countries and its practice of inviting observers from non-member states as a mere "concession at the margins", which does not grant the organisation representational legitimacy. With respect to the membership issue, US President Barack Obama noted the difficulty of pleasing everyone: "Everybody wants the smallest possible group that includes them. So, if they're the 21st largest nation in the world, they want the G21, and think it's highly unfair if they have been cut out." Others stated in 2011 that the exclusivity is not an insurmountable problem, and proposed mechanisms by which it could become more inclusive.


title: G20

text: In line with Norway's emphasis on inclusive international processes, the United Nations, and the UN system, in a 2010 interview with "Der Spiegel", the current prime minister of Norway Jonas Gahr Støre called the G20 "one of the greatest setbacks since World War II" as 173 nations who are all members of the UN are not among the G20. This includes Norway, a major developed economy and the seventh-largest contributor to UN international development programs, which is not a member of the EU, and thus is not represented in the G20 even indirectly. Norway, like other such nations, has little or no voice within the group. Støre argued that the G20 undermines the legitimacy of international organizations set up in the aftermath of World War II, such as the IMF, World Bank and United Nations:


title: G20

text: Spain is the world's thirteenth largest economy by nominal GDP (the fifteenth largest by purchasing power parity), the fourth in the European Union, the second among Spanish-speaking countries, the third in Iberoamerica. In addition, since the 1990s several Spanish companies have gained multinational status, and Spain is an important foreign investor worldwide. Its numbers clearly exceed the numbers of several current members of the G20 such as Argentina or South Africa. These facts supported the idea that Spain should seek permanent membership of the G20. However, Spain, a permanent guest, does not plan to request official membership.


title: G20

text: Before the 2009 G20 London summit, the Polish government expressed an interest in joining with Spain and the Netherlands and condemned an "organisational mess" in which a few European leaders speak in the name of all the EU without legitimate authorisation in cases which belong to the European Commission.


title: G20

text: In 2012, Tim Ferguson wrote in "Forbes" that swapping Argentina for Poland should be considered, claiming that the Polish economy was headed toward a leadership role in Europe and its membership would be more legitimate. A similar opinion was expressed by Marcin Sobczyk in the "Wall Street Journal". Mamta Murthi from the World Bank said: "To be in 'a club', what Poland can do is to behave as if it already is in the club it wants to join."


title: G20

text: In 2014, consulting company Ernst & Young published its report about optimal members for G20. After analyzing trade, institutional and investment links Poland was included as one of the optimal members.


title: G20

text: G20 membership has been part of the look program of Poland's Law and Justice party and President Andrzej Duda. In March 2017, Deputy Prime Minister of Poland Mateusz Morawiecki took part in a meeting of G20 financial ministers in Baden-Baden as the first Polish representative.


title: G20

text: In June 2010, Singapore's representative to the United Nations warned the G20 that its decisions would affect "all countries, big and small", and asserted that prominent non-G20 members should be included in financial reform discussions. Singapore thereafter took a leading role in organizing the Global Governance Group (3G), an informal grouping of 30 non-G20 countries (including several microstates and many Third World countries) with the aim of collectively channelling their views into the G20 process more effectively. Singapore's chairing of the 3G was cited as a rationale for inviting Singapore to the November 2010 G20 summit in South Korea, as well as the 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 summits.


title: G20

text: The American magazine "Foreign Policy" has published articles condemning the G20, in terms of its principal function as an alternative to the supposedly exclusive G8. It questions the actions of some of the G20 members, and advances the notion that some nations should not have membership in the first place. Furthermore, with the effects of the Great Recession still ongoing, the magazine has criticized the G20's efforts to implement reforms of the world's financial institutions, branding such efforts as failures.


title: G20

text: The G20's prominent membership gives it a strong input on global policy despite lacking any formal ability to enforce rules. There are disputes over the legitimacy of the G20, and criticisms of its organisation and the efficacy of its declarations.