title: Habsburg Spain

text: Legazpi built a fort in Manila and made overtures of friendship to Lakan Dula, Lakan of Tondo, who accepted. Maynila's former ruler, the Muslim rajah, Rajah Sulayman, who was a vassal to the Sultan of Brunei, refused to submit to Legazpi but failed to get the support of Lakan Dula or of the Pampangan and Pangasinan settlements to the north. When Tarik Sulayman and a force of Kapampangan and Tagalog Muslim warriors attacked the Spaniards in the Battle of Bangkusay, he was finally defeated and killed. The Spanish also repelled an attack by Chinese pirate warlord Limahong. Simultaneously, the establishment of a Christianized Philippines attracted Chinese traders who exchanged their silk for Mexican silver, Indian and Malay traders also settled in the Philippines too, to trade their spices and gems for the same Mexican silver. The Philippines then became a center for Christian missionary activity that was also directed to Japan and the Philippines even accepted Christian converts from Japan after the Shogun persecuted them. Most of the soldiers and settlers sent by the Spanish to the Philippines were either from Mexico or Peru and very little people directly came from Spain. At one point, the royal officials in Manila complained that most of the soldiers who were being sent from New Spain were black, mulatto or Native American, with almost no Spaniards among the contingents.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1578, the Castilian War erupted between the Christian Spaniards and Muslim Bruneians over control of the Philippine archipelago. The Spanish were joined by the newly Christianized Non-Muslim Visayans of the Kedatuan of Madja-as who were Animists and Rajahnate of Cebu who were Hindus, plus the Rajahnate of Butuan (who were from northern Mindanao and were Hindus with a Buddhist Monarchy), as well as the remnants of the Kedatuan of Dapitan who are also Animists and had previously waged war against the Islamic nations of the Sultanate of Sulu and Kingdom of Maynila. They fought against the Sultanate of Brunei and its allies, the Bruneian puppet-states of Maynila and Sulu, which had dynastic links with Brunei. The Spanish, its Mexican recruits and Filipino allies assaulted Brunei and seized its capital, Kota Batu. This was achieved partly as a result of the assistance of two noblemen, Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. The former had traveled to Manila to offer Brunei as a tributary of Spain for help to recover the throne usurped by his brother, Saiful Rijal. The Spanish agreed that if they succeeded in conquering Brunei, Pengiran Seri Lela would indeed become the Sultan, while Pengiran Seri Ratna would be the new Bendahara. In March 1578, the Spanish fleet, led by De Sande himself, acting as Capitán General, started its journey towards Brunei. The expedition consisted of 400 Spaniards and Mexicans, 1,500 Filipino natives and 300 Borneans. The campaign was one of many, which also included action in Mindanao and Sulu.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Spanish succeeded in invading the capital on 16 April 1578, with the help of Pengiran Seri Lela and Pengiran Seri Ratna. Sultan Saiful Rijal and Paduka Seri Begawan Sultan Abdul Kahar were forced to flee to Meragang then to Jerudong. In Jerudong, they made plans to chase the conquering army away from Brunei. The Spanish suffered heavy losses due to a cholera or dysentery outbreak. They were so weakened by the illness that they decided to abandon Brunei to return to Manila on 26 June 1578, after just 72 days. Before doing so, they burned the mosque, a high structure with a five-tier roof.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Pengiran Seri Lela died in August–September 1578, probably from the same illness that had afflicted his Spanish allies, although there was suspicion he could have been poisoned by the ruling Sultan. Seri Lela's daughter, the Bruneian princess, left with the Spanish and went on to marry a Christian Tagalog, named Agustín de Legazpi of Tondo, and had children in the Philippines.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1587, Magat Salamat, one of the children of Lakan Dula, along with Lakan Dula's nephew and lords of the neighboring areas of Tondo, Pandacan, Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan, were executed when the Tondo Conspiracy of 1587–1588 failed; a planned grand alliance with the Japanese Christian-captain, Gayo, and Brunei's Sultan, would have restored the old aristocracy. Its failure resulted in the hanging of Agustín de Legaspi and the execution of Magat Salamat (the crown-prince of Tondo). Thereafter, some of the conspirators were exiled to Guam or Guerrero, Mexico.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Spanish then conducted the centuries long Spanish–Moro conflict against the Sultanates of Maguindanao, Lanao and Sulu. War was also waged against the Sultanate of Ternate and Tidore (in response to Ternatean slaving and piracy against Spain's allies: Bohol and Butuan). During the Spanish–Moro conflict, the Moros of Muslim Mindanao conducted piracy and slave-raids against Christian settlements in the Philippines. The Spanish fought back by establishing Christian fort-cities such as Zamboanga City on Muslim Mindanao. The Spanish considered their war with the Muslims in Southeast Asia an extension of the Reconquista, a centuries-long campaign to retake and rechristianize the Spanish homeland which was invaded by the Muslims of the Umayyad Caliphate. The Spanish expeditions into the Philippines were also part of a larger Ibero-Islamic world conflict that included a rivalry with the Ottoman Caliphate, which had a center of operations at its nearby vassal, the Sultanate of Aceh.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1593, the governor-general of the Philippines, Luis Pérez Dasmariñas, set out to conquer Cambodia, igniting the Cambodian–Spanish War. Some 120 Spaniards, Japanese, and Filipinos, sailing aboard three junks, launched an expedition to Cambodia. After an altercation between the Spanish expedition members and some Chinese merchants at the port left a few Chinese dead, the Spanish were forced to confront the newly declared king Anacaparan, burning much of his capital while defeating him. In 1599, Malay Muslim merchants defeated and massacred almost the entire contingent of Spanish troops in Cambodia, putting an end to Spanish plans to conquer it. Another expedition, one to conquer Mindanao, was also lacking in success. In 1603, during a Chinese rebellion, Pérez Dasmariñas was beheaded, and his head was mounted in Manila along with those of several other Spanish soldiers.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Despite the fact that during the Iberian Union a certain degree of autonomy and the cultural identity of Portugal was maintained, many historians agree that the dynastic union with Portugal was in fact a Spanish conquest by keeping Portugal and all its overseas territories as part of the Spanish colonial empire under the sovereignty of Philip II of Spain and his successors after the Spanish victory in the War of Portuguese Succession.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1580, King Philip saw the opportunity to strengthen his position in Iberia when the last member of the Portuguese royal family, Cardinal Henry of Portugal, died. Philip asserted his claim to the Portuguese throne and in June sent the Duke of Alba with an army to Lisbon to assure his succession. Philip famously remarked upon his acquisition of the Portuguese throne: "I inherited, I bought, I conquered," a variation on Julius Caesar and Veni, Vidi, Vici. Spanish forces led by Admiral Álvaro de Bazán captured the Azores Islands in 1583, completing the incorporation of Portugal into the Spanish Empire. Thus, Philip added to his possessions a vast colonial empire in Africa, Brazil, and the East Indies, seeing a flood of new revenues coming to the Habsburg crown; and the success of colonization all around his empire improved his financial position, enabling him to show greater aggression towards his enemies. The English Armada of 1589 failed to liberate Portugal.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Philip established the Council of Portugal, on the pattern of the royal councils, the Council of Castile, Council of Aragon, and Council of the Indies, that oversaw particular jurisdictions, but all under the same monarch. As a result of the Iberian Union, Phillip II's enemies became Portugal's enemies, such as the Dutch in the Dutch–Portuguese War, England or France. War with the Dutch led to invasions of many countries in Asia, including Ceylon and commercial interests in Japan, Africa (Mina), and South America. During the reign of Philip IV (Philip III of Portugal) in 1640, the Portuguese revolted and fought for their independence from the rest of Iberia. The Council of Portugal was subsequently dissolved.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Philip III succeeded his father in 1598 but had no interest in politics or government, preferring to engage in lavish court festivities, religious indulgences, and the theatre. He needed someone to do the work of governing, and he settled on the Duke of Lerma.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Under the guidance of Lerma, Philip III's government resorted to a tactic that had been resolutely resisted by Philip II, paying for the budget deficits by the mass minting of increasingly worthless vellones, causing inflation. In 1607, the government faced bankruptcy.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Peace with England and France implied that Spain could focus her energies on restoring her rule to the Dutch provinces. The Dutch, led by Maurice of Nassau, the son of William the Silent had succeeded in taking a number of border cities since 1590, including the fortress of Breda. Following the peace with England, the new Spanish commander Ambrosio Spinola pressed hard against the Dutch. Spinola, a general of abilities to match Maurice, was prevented from conquering the Netherlands only by Spain's renewed bankruptcy in 1607. Fortunately, Spanish forces had regained enough of the military initiative to convince a politically divided United Provinces to sign a truce in 1609.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Spain recovered during the truce, ordering her finances and doing much to restore her prestige and stability in the run-up to the last truly great war in which she would participate as the leading power. In the Netherlands, the rule of Philip II's daughter, Isabella Clara Eugenia, and her husband, Archduke Albert, restored stability to the southern Netherlands. But Philip III and Lerma lacked the ability to make any meaningful change in the country's foreign policy. They clung to the idea of placing the infanta Isabella on the English throne after Queen Elizabeth's death and sent a limited expeditionary force to Ireland to aid the Spanish-supplied rebels. The English defeated it, but the long war of attrition there had drained England of money, men, and morale: Elizabeth's successor, James I, wanted a fresh start to his reign. The war that had been going on between the two countries since 1585 finally ended. War with France threatened in 1610, but shortly after, Henry IV was assassinated, and the country fell into civil war again. Up until 1630, Spain was at peace and continued its dominant position in Europe. Meanwhile, Lerma's enemies expelled him from office in 1617, and Baltazar de Zúñiga began calling for a more aggressive foreign policy.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1618, beginning with the Defenestration of Prague, Austria and the Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II of Germany, embarked on a campaign against the Protestant Union and Bohemia. Zúñiga encouraged Philip to join the Austrian Habsburgs in the war, and Ambrogio Spinola, the rising star of the Spanish army, was sent at the head of the Army of Flanders to intervene. Thus, Spain entered into the Thirty Years' War.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1621, Philip III died and his son succeeded as Philip IV. The militarists now were firmly in charge. The following year, Zúñiga was replaced by Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, an able man who believed that the center of all Spain's woes lay in Holland. After certain initial setbacks, the Bohemians were defeated at White Mountain in 1621, and again at Stadtlohn in 1623. The war with the Netherlands was renewed in 1621 with Spinola taking the fortress of Breda in 1625. The intervention of the Danish king Christian IV in the war worried some (Christian was one of Europe's few monarchs who had no worries over his finances) but the victory of the Imperial general Albert of Wallenstein over the Danes at Dessau Bridge and again at Lutter, both in 1626, eliminated the threat. There was hope in Madrid that the Netherlands might finally be reincorporated into the empire, and after the defeat of Denmark the Protestants in Germany seemed subdued. France was once again involved in her own instabilities (the famous Siege of La Rochelle began in 1627), and Spain's eminence seemed irrefutable. The Count-Duke Olivares stridently affirmed "God is Spanish and fights for our nation these days."


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Olivares was a man out of time; he realized that Spain needed to reform, and to reform it needed peace. The destruction of the United Provinces of the Netherlands was necessary. Dutch colonial policy tried to undermine Spanish and Portuguese hegemony. Spinola and the Spanish army were focused on the Netherlands, and the war seemed to be going in Spain's favor.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1627, the Castilian economy collapsed. The Spanish had been debasing their currency to pay for the war and prices exploded in Spain just as they had in previous years in Austria. Until 1631, parts of Castile operated on a barter economy as a result of the currency crisis, and the government was unable to collect any meaningful taxes from the peasantry, depending instead on its colonies (via the Spanish treasure fleet). The Spanish armies in Germany resorted to "paying themselves" on the land. Olivares, who had backed certain tax measures in Spain pending the completion of the war, was further blamed for a fruitless war in Italy, the War of the Mantuan Succession. The Dutch, who during the Twelve Years' Truce had made their navy a priority, proceeded to plunder Spanish and (especially) Portuguese maritime trade, on which Spain was wholly dependent after the economic collapse. Spanish victories in Germany and Italy were not enough to matter, and their navy began suffering losses.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: In 1630, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden landed in Germany and relieved the port of Stralsund that was the last stronghold on the continent held by German forces belligerent to the Emperor. Gustav then marched south winning notable victories at Breitenfeld and Lutzen, attracting greater support for the Protestant cause the further he went. The situation for the Catholics improved with Gustav's death at Lutzen in 1632 and a shocking victory for Imperial forces under Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand and Ferdinand II of Hungary at Nordlingen in 1634. From a position of strength, the Emperor approached the war-weary German states with a peace in 1635; many accepted, including the two most powerful, Brandenburg and Saxony.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Cardinal Richelieu had been a strong supporter of the Dutch and Protestants since the beginning of the war, sending funds and equipment in an attempt to stem Habsburg strength in Europe. Richelieu decided that the recently signed Peace of Prague was contrary to French interests and declared war on the Holy Roman Emperor and Spain within months of the peace being signed. The more experienced Spanish forces scored initial successes; Olivares ordered a lightning campaign into northern France from the Spanish Netherlands, hoping to shatter the resolve of King Louis XIII's ministers and topple Richelieu before the war exhausted Spanish finances and France's military resources could be fully deployed. In the ""année de Corbie"", 1636, Spanish forces advanced as far south as Amiens and Corbie, threatening Paris and quite nearly ending the war on their terms.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: After 1636, however, Olivares stopped the advance. The French thus gained time to properly mobilise. At the Battle of the Downs in 1639 a Spanish fleet was destroyed by the Dutch navy, and the Spanish found themselves unable to adequately reinforce and supply their forces in the Netherlands. The Spanish Army of Flanders, which represented the finest of Spanish soldiery and leadership, faced a French advance led by Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé in northern France at Rocroi in 1643. The Spanish, led by Francisco de Melo, were routed. One of Spain's best and most famous armies had suffered defeat on the battlefield.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Supported by the French, Neapolitans and Portuguese rose up in revolt against the Spanish in the 1640s. With the Spanish Netherlands now very much on the defensive between French and Dutch forces after the Battle of Lens in 1648, the Spanish made peace with the Dutch and recognized the independent United Provinces in the Peace of Westphalia that ended both the Eighty Years' War and the Thirty Years' War.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Olivares attempted to suppress the Catalan Revolt by launching an invasion of southern France. The quartering of Spanish troops in the Principality of Catalonia only made the situation worse, and the Catalans decided to secede from Spain altogether and unite with France. French troops soon arrived in Catalonia, but when a renewed civil war (the Fronde) broke out at home, their domestically distracted forces were driven out in 1652 by Catalan and Spanish Habsburg forces.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: England now entered the war and occupied Jamaica. The long, desultory and weary struggle effectively ended at the Battle of the Dunes (1658) where the French army under Vicomte de Turenne (along with some English help) defeated the Spanish army of the Netherlands. Spain agreed to the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659 that ceded to France Artois, Roussillon, and portions of Lorraine.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Meanwhile, the Portuguese took advantage of the Catalan revolt to declare their own independence in 1640. The 60 years of union between Portugal and Spain were not happy. The Portuguese fluent Philip II visited the country twice, but Philip III only once, in a short formal visit, and Philip IV never bothered to. The Spanish, hard pressed elsewhere, were blamed for inadequately protecting Portugal's overseas colonies from the Dutch (who annexed parts of Colonial Brazil), and in a time of economic downturn, the Spanish colonies did not enjoy having to trade and compete with their Portuguese counterparts. Moreover, Portugal's autonomous status as an equal in the union went into decline after Philip II and was treated increasingly in the great councils of state as a province. After Portugal declared independence and chose the Duke of Braganza as King John IV, Spain was distracted with a Revolt in Andalusia and thus chose to not do anything about it.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Portuguese Revolt was partially what led Spain to conclude peace with France in 1659. But the government had gone bankrupt again in 1647 and 1653, and the nobility wouldn't give an inch on financial and tax reforms. Portuguese victories in 1663 at Ameixial and in 1665 at Vila Viçosa secured their independence, and in 1668 Spain recognized Portugal's sovereignty.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Philip IV, who had seen over the course of his life the declining influence of Spain's empire, sank slowly into depression after he had to dismiss his favorite courtier, Olivares, in 1643. In 1646, his eldest son and heir Don Baltasar Carlos died at the age of 16. Charles II was manipulated by various political factions throughout his life. For a short time under Don Juan José de Austria as valido the nobility came to dominate Spain once again. Most were self-serving, but there were a few such as the Count of Oropesa, who managed (despite ruinous deflation) to stabilize the currency. Others tried to weaken the power of the Inquisition (which however was not abolished until 1808) and encourage economic development.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Even so, Spain's economy (especially in Castile) declined and its population decreased by nearly two million people during the 17th century. This was partially due to plague outbreaks, and partially due to the huge casualties caused by almost continuous warfare. The period 1677-1686 was a low point, with famine, plague, natural disasters, and economic upheaval. Emigration to the New World increased.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: France was now strong and united under Louis XIV, and after the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) took Spain's place as the dominant power in Europe. Three wars were fought during this period, the War of Devolution (1667–1668), the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), and the War of the Grand Alliance (1688–1697). Although Spain's territorial losses (the Franche-Comté, some towns in the Southern Netherlands and part of the island of Hispaniola) were relatively few, it had demonstrated some vulnerability, and Louis XIV (and indeed the other European rulers) had plans for when Charles II's death came, as it was clear that he would produce no children and the Habsburg line in Spain would die with him. The end came with Charles' passing at the age of 39 on November 1, 1700.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Spanish Inquisition was formally launched during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, continued by their Habsburg successors, and only ended in the 19th century. Under Charles I, the Inquisition became a formal department in the Spanish government, hurtling out of control as the 16th century progressed.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Philip II greatly expanded the Inquisition and made church orthodoxy a goal of public policy. In 1559, three years after Philip came to power, students in Spain were forbidden to travel abroad, the leaders of the Inquisition were placed in charge of censorship, and books could no longer be imported. Philip vigorously tried to excise Protestantism from Spain, holding innumerable campaigns to eliminate Lutheran and Calvinist literature from the country, hoping to avoid the chaos taking place in France.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Philip was more religious than his father, and was convinced that if the Protestants were resorting to military force, then he must do likewise. He was willing to do whatever it took to fight the heretics and preserve Spanish hegemony, even intervening in papal elections to ensure the choosing of a pro-Spanish pope. Philip succeeded three times with popes Urban VII, Gregory XIV, and Innocent IX. But the fourth time, he failed to prevent the election of the pro-French Clement VIII.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The church in Spain had been purged of many of its administrative excesses in the 15th century by Cardinal Ximenes, and the Inquisition served to expurgate many of the more radical reformers who sought to change church theology as the Protestant reformers wanted. Instead, Spain became the scion of the Counter-reformation as it emerged from the "Reconquista". Spain bred two unique threads of counter-reformationary thought in the persons of Saint Theresa of Avila and the Basque Ignatius Loyola. Theresa advocated strict monasticism and a revival of more ancient traditions of penitence. She experienced a mystical ecstasy that became profoundly influential on Spanish culture and art. Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuit Order, was influential across the world in his stress on spiritual and mental excellence and contributed to a resurgence of learning across Europe. In 1625, a peak of Spanish prestige and power, the Count-Duke of Olivares established the Jesuit "colegia imperial" in Madrid to train Spanish nobles in the humanities and military arts.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Moriscos of southern Spain had been forcibly converted to Christianity in 1502, but under the rule of Charles I they had been able to obtain a degree of tolerance from their Christian rulers. They were allowed to practice their former custom, dress, and language, and religious laws were laxly enforced. (However, Charles also passed the "Limpieza de sangre", a law that excluded those not of pure Old Christian, non-Jewish blood from public office.) Philip began to put back into place the restrictive laws of generations before and in 1568 the Moriscos rebelled (see Morisco Revolt). The revolt was only put down by Italian troops under Don John of Austria, and even then the Moriscos retreated to the highlands and were not defeated until 1570. The revolt was followed by a massive resettlement program in which 12,000 Christian peasants replaced the Moriscos. In 1609, on the advice of the Duke of Lerma, Philip III expelled the 300,000 Moriscos of Spain.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The expulsion of the industrious Jews, Moors, and Moriscos did nothing to advance the Spanish economy. The small scattered groups of Moriscos lived largely by subsistence farming in marginal mountain areas or by unskilled laboring in a country that had very many underemployed hands. A council set up to investigate the matter in Castile found little effect, but in parts of Aragon and especially Valencia, where half the Moriscos had lived, and had made up a substantial minority of the population, the impact was certainly noticeable for the noblemen who had lost rents.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Spanish received a large influx of gold from the colonies in the New World as plunder when they were conquered, much of which Charles used to prosecute his wars in Europe. In the 1520s silver began to be extracted from the rich deposits at Guanajuato, but it was not until the 1540s, with the opening of the mines at Potosí and Zacatecas, that silver was to become the fabled source of wealth it has assumed in legend. The Spanish left mining to private enterprise but instituted a tax known as the ""quinto real"" whereby a fifth of the metal was collected by the government. The Spanish were quite successful in enforcing the tax throughout their vast empire in the New World; all bullion had to pass through the House of Trade in Seville, under the direction of the Council of the Indies. The supply of Almadén mercury, vital to extracting silver from the ore, was controlled by the state and contributed to the rigor of Spanish tax policy.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Inflation - both in Spain and in the rest of Europe - was primarily caused by debt, but a level of debt made possible later by the rising silver imports; Charles had conducted most of his wars on credit, and in 1557, a year after he abdicated, Spain was forced into its first debt moratorium, setting a pattern that would be repeated with ever more disruptive economic consequences.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Few Spaniards initially gave a thought to the wholesale slaughter, enslavement, and forced conversion of Native Americans either, although some men such as Bartolomé de las Casas argued for more humane treatment of them. This led to much debate and governmental action. The Laws of Burgos, the New Laws, and other legal and institutional changes somewhat alleviated conditions for Native Americans, including the freeing of all Native American slaves.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Faced with the growing threat of piracy, in 1564 the Spanish adopted a convoy system far ahead of its time, with treasure fleets leaving America in April and August. The policy proved efficient, and was quite successful. Only two convoys were captured; one in 1628 when it was captured by the Dutch, and another in 1656, captured by the English, but by then the convoys were a shadow of what they had been at their peak at the end of the previous century. Nevertheless, even without being completely captured they frequently came under attack, which inevitably took its toll. Not all shipping of the dispersed empire could be protected by large convoys, allowing the Dutch, English and French privateers and pirates the opportunity to attack trade along the American and Spanish coastlines and raid isolated settlements. This became particularly savage from the 1650s, with all sides falling to extraordinary levels of barbarity, even by the harsh standards of the time. Spain also responded with no small amount of privateering, using the recaptured city of Dunkirk as a base for its Dunkirk Raiders to molest Dutch, English and French trade. More seriously, the Portuguese part of the empire, with its chronically undermanned African and Asian forts, proved nearly impossible to defend adequately, and with Spain so fully engaged on so many fronts, it could spare little for their defense. Spain also had to deal with Ottoman backed Barbary piracy in the Mediterranean - a vastly greater menace than Caribbean piracy, as well as Oriental and Dutch piracy in the waters around the Philippines.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The growth of Spain's empire in the New World was accomplished from Seville, without the close direction of the leadership in Madrid. Charles I and Philip II were primarily concerned with their duties in Europe, and thus control of the Americas was handled by viceroys and colonial administrators who operated with virtual autonomy. The Habsburg kings regarded their colonies as feudal associations rather than integral parts of Spain. No Spanish king could, or did, visit the colonies, either. The Habsburgs, whose family had traditionally ruled over diverse, noncontiguous domains and had been forced to devolve autonomy to local administrators, replicated those feudal policies in Spain, particularly in the Basque country and Aragon.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: This meant that taxes, infrastructure improvement, and internal trade policy were defined independently by each territory, leading to many internal customs barriers and tolls, and conflicting policies even within the Habsburg domains. Charles I and Philip II had been able to master the various courts through their impressive political energy, but the much weaker Philip III and IV allowed it to decay, and Charles II was incapable of controlling anything at all. The development of Spain itself was hampered by the fact that Charles I and Philip II spent most of their time abroad; for most of the 16th century, Spain was administrated from Brussels and Antwerp, and it was only during the Dutch Revolt that Philip returned to Spain, where he spent most of his time in the seclusion of the monastic palace of El Escorial. The empire, held together by a determined king keeping the bureaucracy together, experienced a setback when a less-trusting ruler came to the throne. Philip II distrusted the nobility and discouraged any independent initiative among them. While writers of the time offered novel solutions to Spain's problems such as using irrigation in agriculture and encouragement of economic activity, the nobility never really produced anyone that could bring about serious reforms.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Charles, on becoming king, clashed with his nobles during the Castilian War of the Communities when he attempted to fill government positions with effective Dutch and Flemish officials. Philip II encountered major resistance when he tried to enforce his authority over the Netherlands, contributing to the rebellion in that country. The Count-Duke of Olivares, Philip IV's chief minister, always regarded it as essential to Spain's survival that the bureaucracy be centralized; Olivares even backed the full union of Portugal with Spain, though he never had an opportunity to realize his ideas. The bureaucracy became so increasingly bloated and corrupt that by the time of Olivares's dismissal in 1643, its deterioration had rendered it largely ineffective.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Like most of Europe, Spain had suffered from famine and plague during the 14th and 15th centuries. By 1500, Europe was beginning to emerge from these demographic disasters, and populations began to explode. Seville, which was home to 60,000 people in 1500 burgeoned to 150,000 by the end of the century. There was a substantial movement to the cities of Spain to capitalize on new opportunities as shipbuilders and merchants to service Spain's impressive and growing empire. The 16th century was a time of development in Spain as both agriculture and trade burgeoned. Throughout the harsh interior of Castile grain and wool production grew. The former fed an expansion of the population. The latter fed both local textile manufacturing and a lucrative trade with the Netherlands. The Castilian cities of Burgos, Segovia, Cuenca and Toledo, flourished with the expansion of the textile and metallurgical industries. Santander, on the northern Atlantic coast, grew in wealth from its traditional roles as a port linking the country's interior with Northern Europe and as a ship building centre. Southern cities like Cádiz and Seville expanded rapidly from the commerce and shipbuilding spurred on by the demands of the American colonies. Barcelona, already one of Europe's most important and sophisticated trading port cities in the Middle Ages, continued to develop. By 1590, Spain's population was far greater than what it had been in any previous period. It was during this last decade when Castile began to suffer crop failures and was struck by a plague from 1596 that brought about the first serious reversal in population numbers; a cycle that would repeat itself a number of times in different parts of the country through the 17th century.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: As the 16th century had worn on, inflation in Spain (a result of state debt and, more importantly, the importation of silver and gold from the New World) triggered hardship for the peasantry. The average cost of goods quintupled in the 16th century in Spain, led by wool and grain. While reasonable when compared to the 20th century, prices in the 15th century changed very little, and the European economy was shaken by the so-called price revolution. Spain, which along with England was Europe's only producer of wool, initially benefited from the rapid growth. However, like in England, there began in Spain an inclosure movement that stifled the growth of food and depopulated whole villages whose residents were forced to move to cities. The higher inflation, the burden of the Habsburgs' wars and the many customs duties dividing the country and restricting trade with the Americas, stifled the growth of industry that may have provided an alternative source of income in the towns. Another factor was the militaristic nature of the Castilian nobility, which had developed during the centuries of the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula. They preferred careers in the government bureaucracy, the military, or the church, shunning economic activities. This militarism also meant that Spain exhausted its wealth and manpower in near-continuous wars. Under Philip II, these wars had much to do with combating Protestantism, but in the 17th century it became clear that the world that had existed before 1517 could not be restored. Spain's wars during that century became increasingly more to do with preserving the hegemonic power of the Habsburg alliance in Europe; although the Habsburg alliance was successful in buttressing the Catholic Church against the rise of Protestantism.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Sheep-farming was practiced extensively in Castile, and grew rapidly with rising wool prices with the backing of the king. Merino sheep were annually moved from the mountains of the north to the warmer south every winter, ignoring state-mandated trails that were intended to prevent the sheep from trampling the farmland. Complaints lodged against the shepherds' guild, the "Mesta", were ignored by Philip II who received a great deal of revenue from wool. Eventually, overtaxed Castile became barren, and Spain, particularly Castile, became dependent on large imports of grain to make up for crop shortfalls, that, given the cost of transportation and the risk of piracy, made staples far more expensive in Spain than elsewhere. As a result, Spain's population, and especially Castile's, never dense on the generally very dry, rocky, mountainous peninsula, grew much more slowly than France's; by Louis XIV's time (1661-1715), France had a population greater than that of Spain and England combined.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Credit emerged as a widespread tool of Spanish business in the 17th century. The city of Antwerp, in the Spanish Netherlands, lay at the heart of European commerce and its bankers financed most of Charles V's and Philip II's wars on credit. The use of "notes of exchange" became common as Antwerp's banks became increasingly powerful and led to extensive speculation that helped to exaggerate price shifts. Although these trends laid the foundation for the development of capitalism in Spain and Europe as a whole, the total lack of regulation and pervasive corruption meant that small landowners often lost everything with a single stroke of misfortune. Estates in Spain, and especially in Castile, grew progressively larger and the economy became increasingly uncompetitive, particularly during the reigns of Philip III and IV when repeated speculative crises shook Spain.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Since the medieval period the Catholic Church had always been important to the Spanish economy. This importance increased greatly in the reigns of Philip III and IV, who had bouts of intense personal piety and church philanthropy, donating large areas of the country to the Church. The later Habsburgs did nothing to promote the redistribution of land. By the end of Charles II's reign, most of Castile was in the hands of a select few landowners, the largest of which by far was the Church. It has been estimated that at the end of the 17th century the holdings of the Spanish church had expanded to include nearly 20% of Castilian land and that the clergy made up as much as 10% of adult males in Castile. Government policy under the succeeding Bourbon dynasty was directed to steadily reducing the Church's vast holdings, which by then had come to be seen as an impediment to the country's development.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: The Spanish Golden Age was a flourishing period of arts and letters in Spain which spanned roughly from 1550 to 1650. Some of the outstanding figures of the period were El Greco, Diego Velázquez, Miguel de Cervantes, and Pedro Calderón de la Barca.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: El Greco was a Greek painter whose dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries but found appreciation in the 20th century. Velázquez's work became a model for 19th century realist and impressionist painters.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: Cervantes and de la Barca were both writers; "Don Quixote de la Mancha", by Cervantes, is one of the most famous works of the period and probably the best-known piece of Spanish literature of all time. It is a parody of the romantic, chivalric aspects of knighthood and a criticism of contemporary social structures and societal norms. Juana Inés de la Cruz, the last great writer of this golden age, died in New Spain in 1695.


title: Habsburg Spain

text: This period also saw a flourishing in intellectual activity, now known as the School of Salamanca, producing thinkers that were studied throughout Europe.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Raksha Bandhan is a popular and traditionally Hindu annual rite or ceremony that is central to a festival of the same name celebrated in the Indian Subcontinent. It is also celebrated in other parts of the world significantly influenced by Hindu culture. On this day, sisters of all ages tie a talisman or amulet called the Rakhi around the wrists of their brothers. They symbolically protect them, receive a gift in return, and traditionally invest the brothers with a share of the responsibility of their potential care.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Raksha Bandhan is observed on the last day of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shraavana, which typically falls in August. The expression "Raksha Bandhan" (Sanskrit, literally "the bond of protection, obligation, or care") is now principally applied to this ritual. Until the mid-20th century, the expression was more commonly applied to a similar ritual, held on the same day, with precedence in ancient Hindu texts. In that ritual, a domestic priest ties amulets, charms, or threads on the wrists of his patrons, or changes their sacred thread, and receives gifts of money. This is still the case in some places. By contrast, the sister-brother festival, with origins in folk culture, had names which varied with location. Some were rendered as Saluno, Silono, and Rakri. A ritual associated with Saluno included the sisters placing shoots of barley behind the ears of their brothers.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy. The bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents by custom do not visit her in her married home. In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Their brothers, who typically live with their parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear, the festival has become more symbolic but continues to be highly popular. The rituals associated with this festival have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration. Other factors that have played a role are: the movies, social interaction, and promotion by politicized Hinduism, as well as by the nation state. Among females and males who are not blood relatives, the act of tying the "rakhi" amulets has given rise to the tradition of voluntary kin relations, which has sometimes cut across lines of caste, class, and religion. Authority figures have been included in such a ceremony.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: According to the "Oxford English Dictionary", Third Edition, 2008, the Hindi word, rākhī derives from the Sanskrit rakṣikā, a join: rakṣā protection, amulet ( < rakṣ- to protect + -ikā, diminutive suffix.)


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Scholars who have written about the ritual have usually described the traditional region of its observance as north India; however, also included are central India, western India and Nepal, as well other regions of India, and overseas Hindu communities such as in Fiji. It is essentially a Hindu festival; however, in addition to India and Nepal, Pakistan and Mauritius are two other countries where Hindus celebrate this occasion. Anthropologist Jack Goody, whose field study was conducted in Nandol, in Gujarat, describes Rakshabandhan as an "annual ceremony ... of northern and western India". Anthropologist Michael Jackson writes, "While traditional North Indian families do not have a Father's or Mother's Day, or even the equivalent of Valentine's Day, there is a Sister's Day, called Raksha Bandhan, ..." Religious scholar J. Gordon Melton describes it as "primarily a North Indian festival". Leona M. Anderson and Pamela D. Young describe it as "one of the most popular festivals of North India". Anthropologist David G. Mandelbaum has described it as "an annual rite observed in northern and western India". Other descriptions of primary regions are of development economist Bina Agarwal ("In Northern India and Nepal this is ritualized in festivals such as raksha-bandhan."), scholar and activist Ruth Vanita ("a festival widely celebrated in north India."), anthropologist James D. Faubion ("In north India this brother-sister relationship is formalized in the ceremony of 'Rakshabandhan.'"), and social scientist Prem Chowdhry ("... in the noticeable revival of the Raksha Bandhan festival and the renewed sanctity it has claimed in North India".).


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Sociologist Yogendra Singh has noted the contribution of American anthropologist McKim Marriott to an understanding of the origins of the "Raksha Bandhan" festival. In rural society, according to Marriott, there is steady interplay between two cultural traditions, the elite or "great" tradition based in texts, such as the Vedas in Indian society, and the local or "little", based in folk art and literature. According to Singh, Marriott has shown that the "Raksha Bandhan" festival has its "origin in the 'little tradition'". Anthropologist Onkar Prasad has further suggested that Marriott was the first to consider the limitations within which each village tradition "operates to retain its essence".


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In his village study, Marriott described two concurrently observed traditions on the full moon day of Shravana: a "little tradition" festival called "Saluno", and a "great tradition" festival, "Raksha Bandhan", but which Marriott calls, "Charm Tying": On Saluno day, many husbands arrive at their wives' villages, ready to carry them off again to their villages of marriage. But, before going off with their husbands, the wives as well as their unmarried village sisters express their concern for and devotion to their brothers by placing young shoots of barley, the locally sacred grain, on the heads and ears of their brothers. (The brothers) reciprocate with small coins. On the same day, along with the ceremonies of Saluno, and according to the literary precedent of the Bhavisyottara Purana, ... the ceremonies of Charm Tying (Rakhi Bandhan or Raksha Bandhan) are also held. The Brahman domestic priests of Kishan Garhi go to each patron and tie upon his wrist a charm in the form of a polychrome thread, bearing tassel "plums." Each priest utters a vernacular blessing and is rewarded by his patron with cash, ... The ceremonies of both now exist side by side, as if they were two ends of a process of primary transformation.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Norwegian anthropologist Øyvind Jaer, who did his fieldwork in eastern Uttar Pradesh in the 1990s, noted that the "great tradition" festival was in retreat and the "little tradition" one, involving sisters and brothers, now more important.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Important in the Great Tradition is chapter 137 of the Uttara Parva of the "Bhavishya Purana", in which the Hindu god Krishna describes to Yudhishthira the ritual of having a "raksha" (protection) tied to his right wrist by the royal priest (the rajpurohit) on the "purnima" (full moon day) of the Hindu lunar calendar month of Shravana. In the crucial passage, Krishna says, ""Parth" (applied to any of the three sons of Kunti (also, Pritha), in particular, Yudhishthira): When the sky is covered with clouds, and the earth dark with new, tender, grass, in that very Shravana month's full moon day, at the time of sunrise, according to remembered convention, a Brahmin should take a bath with perfectly pure water. He should also according to his ability, offer libations of water to the gods, to the paternal ancestors, as prescribed by the Vedas for the task required to be accomplished before the study of the Vedas, to the sages, and as directed by the gods carry out and bring to a satisfactory conclusion the "shradh" ceremony to honor the deceased. It is commended that a Shudra should also make a charitable offering, and take a bath accompanied by the "mantras". That very day, in the early afternoon (between noon and 3 PM) it is commended that a small parcel (bundle or packet) be prepared from a new cotton or silk cloth and adorned with whole grains of rice or barley, small mustard seeds, and red ocher powder, and made exceedingly wondrous, be placed in a suitable dish or receptacle. ... the "purohit" should bind this packet on the king's wrist with the words,'I am binding "raksha" (protection) to you with the same true words with which I bound "Mahabali" King of the Asuras. Always stay firm in resolve.' In


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: the same manner as the king, after offering prayers to the Brahmins, the Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras should conclude their Raksha Bandhan ceremony."


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Of special significance to married women, Raksha Bandhan is rooted in the practice of territorial or village exogamy—in which a bride marries out of her natal village or town, and her parents, by custom, do not visit her in her married home. Anthropologist Leo Coleman writes: Rakhi and its local performances in Kishan Garhi were part of a festival in which connections between out-marrying sisters and village-resident brothers were affirmed. In the "traditional" form of this rite, according to Marriott, sisters exchanged with their brothers to ensure their ability to have recourse—at a crisis, or during childbearing—to their natal village and their relatives there even after leaving for their husband's home. For their part, brothers engaging in these exchanges affirmed the otherwise hard-to-discern moral solidarity of the natal family, even after their sister's marriage.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In rural north India, where village exogamy is strongly prevalent, large numbers of married Hindu women travel back to their parents' homes every year for the ceremony. Scholar Linda Hess writes: Their brothers, who typically live with the parents or nearby, sometimes travel to their sisters' married home to escort them back. Many younger married women arrive a few weeks earlier at their natal homes and stay until the ceremony. Folklorist Susan Snow Wadley writes: "In Savan, greenness abounds as the newly planted crops take root in the wet soil. It is a month of joy and gaiety, with swings hanging from tall trees. Girls and women swing high into the sky, singing their joy. The gaiety is all the more marked because women, especially the young ones, are expected to return to their natal homes for an annual visit during Savan. The brothers serve as lifelong intermediaries between their sisters' married- and parental homes, as well as potential stewards of their security.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In his 1955 village study, anthropologist McKim Marriott noted transformations of ritual that had begun to take place: A further, secondary transformation of the festival of Charm Tying is also beginning to be evident in Kishan Garhi, for the thread charms of the priests are now factory-made in more attractive form ... A few sisters in Kishan Garhi have taken to tying these ... charms of priestly type onto their brothers' wrists. The new string charms are also more convenient for mailing in letters to distant, city-dwelling brothers whom sisters cannot visit on the auspicious day. Beals reports, furthermore, that brothers in the electrified village of Namhalli near Bangalore tuned in to All India Radio in order to receive a time signal at the astrologically exact moment, and then tied such charms to their own wrists, with an accompaniment of broadcast Sanskrit mantras.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In urban India, where families are increasingly nuclear and marriages not always traditional, the festival has become more symbolic, but continues to be highly popular. The rituals associated with these rites, however, have spread beyond their traditional regions and have been transformed through technology and migration, According to anthropologist, Leo Coleman: In modern rakhi, technologically mediated and performed with manufactured charms, migrating men are the medium by which the village women interact, vertically, with the cosmopolitan center—the site of radio broadcasts, and the source of technological goods and national solidarity.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Hindi movies have played a salient role. According to author Vaijayanti Pandit, Raksha Bandhan traditionally celebrated in North India has acquired greater importance due to Hindi films. Lightweight and decorative rakhis, which are easy to post, are needed in large quantities by the market to cater to brothers and sisters living in different parts of the country or abroad. More social interaction among India's population has played a role in the increased celebration of this festival. According to author Renuka Khandekar: But since independence and the gradual opening up of Indian society, Raksha Bandhan as celebrated in North India has won the affection of many South Indian families. For this festival has the peculiar charm of renewing sibling bonds.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: The festival has also been promoted by Hindu political organizations. According to authors P. M. Joshy and K. M. Seethi, The RSS employs a cultural strategy to mobilise people through festivals. It observes six major festivals in a year. ... Till 20 years back, festivals like 'Raksha Bandhan' were unknown to South Indians. Through "shakha"s intense campaign, now they have become popular in the southern India. In colleges and schools tying `Rakhi'—the thread that is used in the 'Raksha Bandhan'—has become a fashion and this has been popularised by the RSS and ABVP cadres. Similarly, according to author Christophe Jaffrelot, This ceremony occurs in a cycle of six annual festivals which often coincides with those observed in Hindu society, and which Hedgewar inscribed in the ritual calendar of his movement: Varsha Pratipada (the Hindu new year), Shivajirajyarohonastava (the coronation of Shivaji), guru dakshina, Raksha Bandhan (a North Indian festival in which sisters tie ribbons round the wrists of their brothers to remind them of their duty as protectors, a ritual which the RSS has re-interpreted in such a way that the leader of the shakha ties a ribbon around the pole of the saffron flag, after which swayamsevaks carry out this ritual for one another as a mark of brotherhood) Finally, the nation state in India has itself promoted this festival. as Leo Coleman states: ... as citizens become participants in the wider "new traditions" of the national state. Broadcast mantras become the emblems of a new level of state power and the means of the integration of villagers and city dwellers alike into a new community of citizens.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: More recently, after enactment of more gender-neutral inheritance laws in India, it has been suggested that in some communities the festival has seen a resurgence of celebration, which is serving to indirectly pressure women to abstain from fully claiming their inheritance. According to author Prem Chowdhry, Rural patriarchal forces have been anxiously devising means to stem the progressive fallout of this Act through a variety of means. One way has been to oppose the inheritance rights of a daughter or a sister to those of the brother. Except in cases where there are no brothers, the sisters either sign away their in favour of their brother or sell it to him at a nominal price. This code of conduct is observed knowingly by both the natal and conjugal families. Brother-sister bonds of love have also been greatly encouraged, visible in the noticeable revival of the Raksha Bandhan festival and the renewed sanctity it has claimed in north India.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Among women and men who are not blood relatives, there is also a transformed tradition of voluntary kin relations, achieved through the tying of "rakhi" amulets, which have cut across caste and class lines, and Hindu and Muslim divisions. In some communities or contexts, other figures, such as a matriarch, or a person in authority, can be included in the ceremony in ritual acknowledgement of their benefaction. According to author Prem Chowdhry, "The same symbolic protection is also requested from the high caste men by the low caste women in a work relationship situation. The ritual thread is offered, though not tied and higher caste men customarily give some money in return."


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: While Raksha Bandhan is celebrated in various parts of South Asia, different regions mark the day in different ways.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In the state of West Bengal, this day is also called Jhulan Purnima. Prayers and puja of Krishna and Radha are performed there. Sisters tie rakhi to brothers and wish immortality. Political parties, offices, friends, and educational institutions celebrate this day with a new hope for a good relationship.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In Maharashtra, among the Koli community, the festival of Raksha Bandhan / Rakhi Pournima is celebrated along with "Narali Pournima" (coconut day festival). Kolis are the fishermen community of the coastal state. The fishermen offer prayers to Varuna, the Hindu god of the sea, to invoke his blessings, and throw coconuts into the sea as offerings to him. The girls and women tie "rakhi" on their brother's wrist, as elsewhere.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In many regions of North India, it is a common practice to fly kites on the nearby occasions of Janamashtami and Raksha Bandhan. The locals buy kilometres of strong kite string, commonly called "gattu door" in the local language, along with a multitude of kites.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In Nepal, Raksha Bandhan is referred to as Janai Purnima or Rishitarpani, and involves a sacred thread ceremony. It is observed by both Hindus and Buddhists of Nepal. The Hindu men change the thread they wear around their chests ("janai"), while in some parts of Nepal girls and women tie "rakhi" on their brother's wrists. The Raksha Bandhan-like brother sister festival is observed by other Hindus of Nepal during one of the days of the Tihar (or Diwali) festival.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: The festival is observed by the Shaiva Hindus, and is popularly known in Newar community as "Gunhu Punhi".


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In Odisha, Raksha Bandhan is also called Rakhi Purnima / Gamha Purnima. A sister ties rakhi around her brother's wrist as a mark of love and honour and the brother promises to protect his sister from all the difficulties. The name "Gamha Purnima" refers to the celebration on the same day of the birthday of Lord Balabhadra, considered the god of farming; farmers in Odisha tie rakhis to cattle on this day.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: The religious myths claimed as the basis of "Raksha Bandhan" are disputed, and some historians consider the historical stories associated with it to be apocryphal.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: The 1975 film "Jai Santoshi Maa" tells a story in which Ganesha had two sons, Shubha and Labha. The two boys became frustrated that they had no sister to celebrate Raksha Bandhan with. They asked their father Ganesha for a sister, but to no avail. Finally, the sage Narada appeared, who persuaded Ganesha that a daughter would enrich him as well as his sons. Ganesha agreed, and created a daughter named Santoshi Maa by divine flames that emerged from Ganesh's wives, "Riddhi" (Amazing) and "Siddhi" (Perfection). Thereafter, Shubha Labha (literally "Holy Profit") had a sister named Santoshi Maa (literally "Goddess of Satisfaction"), to tie rakhi on Raksha Bandhan. According to author Lawrence Cohen [I]n Varanasi the paired figures were usually called Ṛddhi and Siddhi, Gaṇeśa's relationship to them was often vague. He was their "mālik", their owner; they were more often "dasīs" than "patnīs" (wives). Yet Gaṇeśa was married to them, albeit within a marriage different from other divine matches in the lack of a clear familial context. Such a context has recently emerged in the popular film "Jai Santoshī Mā". The film builds upon a text, also of recent vintage, in which Gaṇeśa has a daughter, the neophyte goddess of satisfaction, Santoshī Mā. In the film, the role of Gaṇeśa as family man is developed significantly. Santoshī Mā's genesis occurs on Rāksa bandan. Gaṇeśa's sister is visiting for the tying of the "rākhī". He calls her "bahenmansa"—his "mind-born" sister. Gaṇeśa's wives, Ṛddhi and Siddhi, are also present, with their sons Śubha and Lābha. The boys are jealous, as they, unlike their father, have no sister with whom to tie the "rākhī". They and the other women plead with their father, but to no avail; but then Narada appears and convinces Ganesha that the creation of an illustrious daughter will reflect much credit back onto himself. Ganesha assents and from Ṛddhi and Siddhi emerges a flame that engenders Santoshī Mā.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Film historian Anja Wieber describes the manufacture of a modern and widespread Indian legend in the 1941 movie "Sikandar":


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: In "Sikandar" a very daring Roxane follows Alexander incognito to India and manages to gain admission to King Porus (in the Indian version: Puru), a conversation with a young, friendly Indian village woman named Surmaniya, Roxane learns about the Indian feast of Rakhi which is being celebrated at that very moment with the purpose of strengthening the bond between sister and brother (0:25–0:30). On this occasion, sisters tie a ribbon (i.e. rakhi) to their brothers' arms to symbolize their close relationships, and brothers offer presents and assistance in return. Besides, Roxane is also told that the relationship need not be one of consanguinity; every girl can choose a brother. Therefore, she decides to offer the rakhi to King Porus, who accepts the relationship after some hesitation, because he feels the need to apologize to Roxane, Darius's (a.k.a. Dara's) daughter, for not having helped her father when he asked for assistance against Alexander. As a result of their bond, he offers her gifts befitting her rank and promises not to harm Alexander (0:32–35). Later, when Porus comes into hand-to-hand combat with the Greek king, he stands by his promise and spares him (1:31). Interestingly, the rakhi episode with Porus is still to this day very popular in India and is cited as very early historical evidence for the origin of the authentic Hindu festival called Raksha Bandhan. Although examples of that legend can be traced in internet forums, Indian newspapers, a children's book and an educational video, I was not able to find its ancient origin.


title: Raksha Bandhan

text: Another controversial historical account is that of Rani Karnavati of Chittor and Mughal Emperor Humayun, which dates to 1535 CE. When Rani Karnavati, the widowed queen of the king of Chittor, realised that she could not defend against the invasion by the Sultan of Gujarat, Bahadur Shah, she sent a rakhi to Emperor Humayun. The Emperor, according to one version of the story, set off with his troops to defend Chittor. He arrived too late, and Bahadur Shah had already captured the Rani's fortress. Alternative accounts from the period, including those by historians in Humayun's Mughal court, do not mention the rakhi episode and some historians have expressed skepticism whether it ever happened. Historian Satish Chandra wrote, ... According to a mid-seventeenth century Rajasthani account, Rani Karnavati, the Rana's mother, sent a bracelet as rakhi to Humayun, who gallantly responded and helped. Since none of the contemporary sources mention this, little credit can be given to this story ... Humayun's own memoirs never mention this, and give different reasons for his war with Sultan Bahadur Shah of Gujarat in 1535.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) is an engineered wood product made by breaking down hardwood or softwood residuals into wood fibres, often in a defibrator, combining it with wax and a resin binder, and forming it into panels by applying high temperature and pressure. MDF is generally denser than plywood. It is made up of separated fibres but can be used as a building material similar in application to plywood. It is stronger and denser than particle board.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: The name derives from the distinction in densities of fibreboard. Large-scale production of MDF began in the 1980s, in both North America and Europe.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Over time, the term "MDF" has become a generic name for any dry-process fibre board. MDF is typically made up of 82% wood fibre, 9% urea-formaldehyde resin glue, 8% water, and 1% paraffin wax. The density is typically between . The range of density and classification as light-, standard-, or high-density board is a misnomer and confusing. The density of the board, when evaluated in relation to the density of the fibre that goes into making the panel, is important. A thick MDF panel at a density of may be considered as high density in the case of softwood fibre panels, whereas a panel of the same density made of hardwood fibres is not regarded as so. The evolution of the various types of MDF has been driven by differing need for specific applications.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Although similar manufacturing processes are used in making all types of fibreboard, MDF has a typical density of 600–800 kg/m or 0.022–0.029 lb/in, in contrast to particle board (500–800 kg/m) and to high-density fibreboard (600–1,450 kg/m).


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: In Australia and New Zealand, the main species of tree used for MDF is plantation-grown radiata pine, but a variety of other products have also been used, including other woods, waste paper, and fibres. Where moisture resistance is desired, a proportion of eucalypt species may be used, making use of the endemic oil content of such trees.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: The trees are debarked after being cut. The bark can be sold for use in landscaping or used as biomass fuel in on-site furnaces. The debarked logs are sent to the MDF plant, where they go through the chipping process. A typical disk chipper contains four to 16 blades. Any resulting chips that are too large may be rechipped; undersized chips may be used as fuel. The chips are then washed and checked for defects. Chips may be stored in bulk, as a reserve for manufacturing.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Compared to other fibre boards, such as Masonite, MDF is characterised by the next part of the process, and how the fibres are processed as individual, but intact, fibres and vessels, manufactured through a dry process. The chips are then compacted into small plugs using a screw feeder, heated for 30–120 seconds to soften the lignin in the wood, then fed into a defibrator. A typical defibrator consists of two counter-rotating discs with grooves in their faces. Chips are fed into the centre and are fed outwards between the discs by centrifugal force. The decreasing size of the grooves gradually separates the fibres, aided by the softened lignin between them.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: From the defibrator, the pulp enters a blowline, a distinctive part of the MDF process. This is an expanding circular pipeline, initially 40 mm in diameter, increasing to 1500 mm. Wax is injected in the first stage, which coats the fibres and is distributed evenly by the turbulent movement of the fibres. A urea-formaldehyde resin is then injected as the main bonding agent. The wax improves moisture resistance and the resin initially helps reduce clumping. The material dries quickly in the final heated expansion chamber of the blowline and expands into a fine, fluffy and lightweight fibre. This fibre may be used immediately, or stored.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Dry fibre gets sucked into the top of a "pendistor", which evenly distributes fibre into a uniform mat below it, usually of 230–610 mm thickness. The mat is precompressed and either sent straight to a continuous hot press or cut into large sheets for a multiple-opening hot press. The hot press activates the bonding resin and sets the strength and density profile. The pressing cycle operates in stages, with the mat thickness being first compressed to around 1.5 times the finished board thickness, then compressed further in stages and held for a short period. This gives a board profile with zones of increased density, thus mechanical strength, near the two faces of the board and a less dense core.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: After pressing, MDF is cooled in a star dryer or cooling carousel, trimmed, and sanded. In certain applications, boards are also laminated for extra strength.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: The environmental impact of MDF has greatly improved over the years. Today, many MDF boards are made from a variety of materials. These include other woods, scrap, recycled paper, bamboo, carbon fibres and polymers, forest thinnings, and sawmill off-cuts.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: As manufacturers are being pressured to come up with greener products, they have started testing and using nontoxic binders. New raw materials are being introduced. Straw and bamboo are becoming popular fibres because they are a fast-growing, renewable resource.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: MDF does not contain knots or rings, making it more uniform than natural woods during cutting and in service. However, MDF is not entirely isotropic since the fibres are pressed tightly together through the sheet. Typical MDF has a hard, flat, smooth surface that makes it ideal for veneering, as no underlying grain is available to telegraph through the thin veneer as with plywood. A so-called "premium" MDF is available that features more uniform density throughout the thickness of the panel.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: MDF may be glued, doweled, or laminated. Typical fasteners are T-nuts and pan-head machine screws. Smooth-shank nails do not hold well, and neither do fine-pitch screws, especially in the edge. Special screws are available with a coarse thread pitch, but sheet-metal screws also work well. MDF is not susceptible to splitting when screws are installed in the face of the material, but due to the alignment of the wood fibres, may split when screws are installed in the edge of the board without pilot holes.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: MDF is primarily used for indoor applications due to its poor moisture resistance. It is available in raw form, or with a finely sanded surface, or with a decorative overlay.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: MDF's density makes it a useful material for the walls of pipe-organ chambers, allowing sound, particularly bass, to be reflected out of the chamber into the hall.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Formaldehyde resins are commonly used to bind together the fibres in MDF, and testing has consistently revealed that MDF products emit free formaldehyde and other volatile organic compounds that pose health risks at concentrations considered unsafe, for at least several months after manufacture. Urea-formaldehyde is always being slowly released from the edges and surface of MDF. When painting, coating all sides of the finished piece is a good practice to seal in the free formaldehyde. Wax and oil finishes may be used as finishes, but they are less effective at sealing in the free formaldehyde.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Whether these constant emissions of formaldehyde reach harmful levels in real-world environments is not fully determined. The primary concern is for the industries using formaldehyde. As far back as 1987, the United States Environmental Protection Agency classified it as a "probable human carcinogen", and after more studies, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in 1995, also classified it as a "probable human carcinogen". Further information and evaluation of all known data led the IARC to reclassify formaldehyde as a "known human carcinogen" associated with nasal sinus cancer and nasopharyngeal cancer, and possibly with leukaemia in June 2004.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: According to International Composite Board Emission Standards, three European formaldehyde classes are used, E0, E1, and E2, based on the measurement of formaldehyde emission levels. For instance, E0 is classified as having less than 3 mg of formaldehyde out of every 100 g of the glue used in particleboard and plywood fabrication. E1 and E2 are classified as having 9 and 30 g of formaldehyde per 100 g of glue, respectively. All around the world, variable certification and labeling schemes are there for such products that can be explicit to formaldehyde release, such as that of Californian Air Resources Board.


title: Medium-density fibreboard

text: Veneered MDF provides many of the advantages of MDF with a decorative wood veneer surface layer. In modern construction, spurred by the high costs of hardwoods, manufacturers have been adopting this approach to achieve a high-quality finishing wrap covering over a standard MDF board. One common type uses oak veneer. Making veneered MDF is a complex procedure, which involves taking an extremely thin slice of hardwood (about 1-2 mm thick) and then through high pressure and stretching methods wrapping them around the profiled MDF boards. This is only possible with very simple profiles; otherwise, when the thin wood layer dries it breaks at bends and angles.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The Mayerling incident is the series of events surrounding the apparent murder–suicide pact of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria, and his lover, baroness Mary Vetsera. They were found dead on 30 January 1889 in an imperial hunting lodge in Mayerling. Rudolf, who was married to Princess Stéphanie of Belgium, was the only son of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth, and was heir apparent to the throne of Austria-Hungary.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Rudolf's mistress was the daughter of Albin von Vetsera, a diplomat at the Austrian court. Albin had been created a "Freiherr" (Baron) in 1870. The bodies of the 30-year-old Rudolf and the 17-year-old Mary were discovered in the Imperial hunting lodge at Mayerling in the Vienna Woods, southwest of the capital, on the morning of 30 January 1889.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The death of the Crown Prince interrupted the security inherent in the direct line of Habsburg dynastic succession. As Rudolf had no son, the succession passed to Franz Joseph's brother, Archduke Karl Ludwig, and his eldest son, Archduke Franz Ferdinand.


title: Mayerling incident

text: This destabilisation endangered the growing reconciliation between the Austrian and Hungarian factions of the empire. Succeeding developments led to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie by Gavrilo Princip, a Yugoslav nationalist and ethnic Serb, at Sarajevo in June 1914, and the July Crisis that led to the start of the First World War.


title: Mayerling incident

text: By 1889, many people at the Imperial Court, including Rudolf's parents and his wife, Stéphanie, knew that Rudolf and Mary were having an affair. His marriage to Stéphanie was not a particularly happy one and had resulted in the birth of only one child, a daughter called Elisabeth, known as Erzsi. Rudolf, due to his sexual affairs outside the marriage, had infected his wife with syphilis, rendering her unable to have more children.


title: Mayerling incident

text: On 29 January 1889, Franz Joseph and Elisabeth gave a family dinner party before leaving for Buda, in Hungary, on 31 January. Rudolf excused himself, claiming to be indisposed. He had arranged for a day's shooting at Mayerling hunting lodge early on the morning of the 30th, but when his valet Loschek went to call him, there was no answer. Joseph Hoyos, the Archduke's hunting companion, joined in, with no response. They tried to force the door, but it would not give.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Finally, Loschek smashed in a door panel with a hammer so that he could put his hand through to open the door from the inside. He found the room shuttered and half-dark. Rudolf was found sitting (by some accounts, lying) motionless by the side of the bed, leaning forward and bleeding from the mouth. Before him on the bedside table stood a glass and a mirror. Without closer examination in the poor light, Loschek assumed that the Crown Prince had drunk poison from the glass since he knew strychnine caused bleeding. On the bed lay the body of Mary "Freiin" von Vetsera; rigor mortis had already set in. The mistaken impression that poison was involved, and even that the baroness had poisoned the Crown Prince and then killed herself, would persist for some time.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Hoyos did not look any closer, but rushed to the station and took a special train to Vienna. He hurried to the Emperor's Adjutant General, Paar, and requested he break the news to the Emperor. The stifling protocol that characterised every movement in the Hofburg controlled the notification process. Paar protested that only the Empress could break such catastrophic news to the Emperor. Baron Nopcsa, Controller of the Empress's Household, was summoned. He, in turn, sent for Ida Ferenczy, Empress Elisabeth's favourite Hungarian lady-in-waiting, to determine how Her Imperial Majesty should be informed.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Elisabeth was at her Greek lesson and was impatient at the interruption. Her lips white, Ferenczy announced that Baron Nopcsa had urgent news. Elisabeth replied that Nopcsa must wait and come back later. The countess insisted that Nopcsa must be received immediately, finally adding that there was grave news about the Crown Prince. This account comes from Ferenczy herself and Archduchess Marie Valerie, to whom Elisabeth dictated her memory of the incident, in addition to the description in her diary.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Ferenczy entered the room again to find Elisabeth distraught and weeping uncontrollably. The Emperor appeared outside her apartments and was forced to wait there with Nopcsa, who was controlling himself only with great effort. The Empress broke the news to her husband in private.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The Minister for Police was summoned and the national security services sealed off the Imperial hunting lodge and the surrounding area. The body of Mary Vetsera was interred as soon as possible, without judicial inquiry and in secret. Her mother was not even allowed to attend her burial.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Eduard von Taaffe, "Ministerpräsident" (Minister-President) of Cisleithania, issued a statement at noon on behalf of the Emperor that Rudolf had died "due to a rupture of an aneurysm of the heart". The Imperial Family and Imperial Court were still under the impression that he had been poisoned. It appears that even Mary's mother, Helene von Vetsera, initially believed this.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The Imperial Court medical commission, headed by Dr. Widerhofer, arrived in Mayerling that afternoon and established a more accurate cause of death. Widerhofer made his report to the Emperor at 6 a.m. the following morning. The official gazette of Vienna still reported the original story that day: "His Royal and Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Archduke Rudolf, died yesterday at his hunting lodge of Mayerling, near Baden, from the rupture of an aneurysm of the heart."


title: Mayerling incident

text: They attempted to state that Vetsera had died on her way to Venice, having her uncles prop up her body with a broomstick to cover-up the double suicide as they left the lodge. Vetsera was quickly buried with other suicides, and the imperial court refused to let Vetsera's mother see her daughter's grave for over two months after the burial.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Foreign correspondents descended on Mayerling and soon learned that Rudolf's mistress was implicated in his death. This first official version of a heart attack was quickly dropped. At that stage, the "heart failure" version was amended. It was announced that the Crown Prince had first shot the baroness in a suicide pact and sat by her body for several hours before shooting himself. Rudolf and the Emperor were known to have recently had a violent argument, with Franz Joseph demanding that his son end the liaison with his teenage mistress. Their deaths were the tragic result of the desperate decision of thwarted lovers taken "while the balance of the Archduke's mind was disturbed". The police closed their investigations with surprising haste, in apparent response to the Emperor's wishes.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Franz Joseph did everything in his power to get the Church's blessing for Rudolf's burial in the Imperial Crypt. This would have been impossible had the Crown Prince deliberately committed murder and suicide. The Vatican issued a special dispensation declaring that Rudolf had been in a state of "mental imbalance", and he now lies with 137 other Habsburgs in the Church of the Capuchins in Vienna. However, Rudolf had requested in his farewell note to his mother that he be buried next to Mary Vetsera in Alland. Elisabeth was haunted by this, and visited the Capuchin Crypt, hoping that Rudolf's spirit would visit her and communicate his wishes. The dossier on the investigations and related actions were not deposited in the state archives, as they would typically have been.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The story that Rudolf had violently quarreled with the Emperor over his liaison with "Freiin" von Vetsera may have been spread by agents of Germany's Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, who had little love for the politically liberal Rudolf. It was certainly doubted by many of Rudolf's close relatives, who knew the Chancellor personally.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Allegations of a double murder masked as a murder–suicide have also been made. In a series of interviews with the Viennese tabloid newspaper "Kronen Zeitung", the Empress Zita, who was not born until three years after the incident, expressed her belief that the deaths of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his mistress were not a double suicide, but rather a murder by French agents sent by Georges Clemenceau.


title: Mayerling incident

text: The death of Rudolf caused a dynastic crisis. As Rudolf was the only son of Franz Joseph, the emperor's brother, Karl Ludwig, became heir-presumptive to Austria-Hungary. He renounced his succession rights a few days later in favour of his eldest son, Franz Ferdinand.


title: Mayerling incident

text: After Franz Ferdinand's assassination in 1914, Franz Ferdinand's nephew (and Karl Ludwig's grandson), Karl, became the heir-presumptive. Karl would ultimately succeed his great-uncle as Emperor Karl I in 1916.


title: Mayerling incident

text: In July 2015, the Austrian National Library issued copies of Vetsera's letters of farewell to her mother and other family members. These letters, previously believed to be lost or destroyed, were found in a safe deposit box in an Austrian bank, where they had been deposited in 1926. The letters—written in Mayerling shortly before the deaths—state clearly and unambiguously that Vetsera was preparing to commit suicide alongside Rudolf:


title: Mayerling incident

text: Brigitte Hamann, in her book "Rudolf, Crown Prince and Rebel", states Rudolf had first proposed a double suicide to a prominent courtesan, Mizzi Kaspar. It was after she refused that Rudolf proposed the death pact with the more susceptible Vetsera. Hamann, in an interview, argued Rudolf "was a poetic young man and brooded a lot. He was ill with syphilis and felt guilty that he had infected his wife." This is the theory most widely accepted by historians.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Another theory is the exacerbation of his mental health struggles from abuse during his childhood culminated in the suicide pact. He became more unstable over the course of his marriage and varied affairs, and offered the suicide pact to a variety of people. Vetsera was only 17, and believed she could not live without Rudolf, leading to the joint suicide (with Rudolf killing Vetsera several hours before killing himself).


title: Mayerling incident

text: Gerd Holler argues in his book "Mayerling--New Documents on the Tragedy 100 Years Afterward" that Mary was three months pregnant with Rudolf's child. Rudolf arranged an abortion for Mary, who died in the process. Rudolf then committed suicide. Lucy Coatman believes this is not possible, citing one of Mary's letters to Hermine Tobis as her source: "‘We both lost our heads’, Mary wrote to Hermine, ‘and I became a woman! Now we belong to each other in body and soul.’ Her letter makes it clear this was Mary's first sexual experience. This not only disproves the abortion theory (her pregnancy would not have been evident by the time of their deaths) [...]."


title: Mayerling incident

text: Clemens M. Gruber, in a piece called "The Fateful Days of Mayerling", argues Rudolf died in a drinking brawl. In Gruber's story, Vetsera's relatives forced their way into the lodge and Rudolf drew a revolver, accidentally shooting the baroness. He was then killed by one of her relatives.


title: Mayerling incident

text: "Freiin" von Vetsera's body was spirited out of Mayerling and interred in the graveyard at Heiligenkreuz. In 1946, occupying Soviet troops dislodged the granite plate covering the grave and broke into Vetsera's coffin in the graveyard, perhaps hoping to loot it of jewels. This break-in was not discovered until 1955 when the Red Army withdrew from Austria per the Austrian State Treaty.


title: Mayerling incident

text: In 1959, a young physician named Gerd Holler, stationed in the area, accompanied by a member of the Vetsera family and specialists in funereal preservation, inspected her remains. Holler carefully examined the skull and other bones for traces of a bullet hole but stated that he found no such evidence. Intrigued, Holler claimed he petitioned the Vatican to inspect their 1889 archives of the affair, where the papal nuncio's investigation had concluded that only one bullet was fired. Lacking forensic evidence of a second bullet, Holler advanced the theory that Vetsera died accidentally, probably as the result of an abortion, and it was Rudolf who consequently shot himself. Holler witnessed the body's re-interment in a new coffin in 1959.


title: Mayerling incident

text: In 1991, Vetsera's remains were disturbed again, this time by Helmut Flatzelsteiner, a Linz furniture dealer who was obsessed with the Mayerling affair. Initial reports were that her bones were strewn around the churchyard for the authorities to retrieve. But Flatzelsteiner removed them at night for a private forensic examination at his expense, which finally took place in February 1993.


title: Mayerling incident

text: Flatzelsteiner told the examiners that the remains were those of a relative killed some 100 years ago, who had possibly been shot in the head or stabbed. One expert thought this might be possible, but since the skull was not only in a state of disintegration but was actually incomplete, this could not be confirmed. Flatzelsteiner then approached a journalist at the "Kronen Zeitung" to sell both the story and Vetsera's skeleton. That these were Vetsera's remains was confirmed through forensic examination. The body was re-interred in the original grave in October 1993, and after a court case, Flatzelsteiner paid the abbey €2000 for damages.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Celtic mythology is the body of myths belonging to the Celtic peoples. Like other Iron Age Europeans, Celtic peoples followed a polytheistic religion, having many gods and goddesses. The mythologies of continental Celtic peoples, such as the Gauls and Celtiberians, did not survive their conquest by the Roman Empire, the loss of their Celtic languages and their subsequent conversion to Christianity. Only remnants are found in Greco-Roman sources and archaeology. Most surviving Celtic mythology belongs to the Insular Celtic peoples (the Gaels of Ireland and Scotland; the Celtic Britons of western Britain and Brittany). They preserved some of their myths in oral lore, which were eventually written down by Christian scribes in the Middle Ages. Irish mythology has the largest written body of myths, followed by Welsh mythology.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The supernatural race called the Tuatha Dé Danann are believed to be based on the main Celtic gods of Ireland, while many Welsh characters belong either to the Plant Dôn ("Children of Dôn") and the Plant Llŷr ("Children of Llŷr"). Some figures in Insular Celtic myth have ancient continental parallels: Irish Lugh and Welsh Lleu are cognate with Lugus, Goibniu and Gofannon with Gobannos, Macán and Mabon with Maponos, and so on. One common figure is the sovereignty goddess, who represents the land and bestows sovereignty on a king by marrying him. The Otherworld is also a common motif; a parallel realm of the supernatural races, which is visited by some mythical heroes. Celtic myth influenced later Arthurian legend.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Though the Celtic world at its height covered much of western and central Europe, it was not politically unified nor was there any substantial central source of cultural influence or homogeneity; as a result, there was a great deal of variation in local practices of Celtic religion (although certain motifs, for example the god Lugh, appear to have diffused throughout the Celtic world). Inscriptions of more than three hundred deities, often equated with their Roman counterparts, have survived, but of these most appear to have been "genii locorum", local or tribal gods, and few were widely worshiped. However, from what has survived of Celtic mythology, it is possible to discern commonalities which hint at a more unified pantheon than is often given credit.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The nature and functions of these ancient gods can be deduced from their names, the location of their inscriptions, their iconography, the Roman gods they are equated with, and similar figures from later bodies of Celtic mythology.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Celtic mythology is not found in a number of distinct, if related, subgroups, largely corresponding to the branches of the Celtic languages:


title: Celtic mythology

text: As a result of the scarcity of surviving materials bearing written Gaulish, it is surmised that the most of the Celtic writings were destroyed by the Romans, though a written form of Gaulish using Greek, Latin and North Italic alphabets was used (as evidenced by votive items bearing inscriptions in Gaulish and the Coligny calendar). Julius Caesar attests to the literacy of the Gauls, but also wrote that their priests, the druids, were forbidden to use writing to record certain verses of religious significance (Caesar, "Commentarii de Bello Gallico" 6.14) while also noting that the Helvetii had a written census (Caesar, "De Bello Gallico" 1.29).


title: Celtic mythology

text: Rome introduced a more widespread habit of public inscriptions, and broke the power of the druids in the areas it conquered; in fact, most inscriptions to deities discovered in Gaul (modern France and Northern Italy), Britain and other formerly (or presently) Celtic-speaking areas post-date the Roman conquest.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Though early Gaels in Ireland and parts of Wales used Ogham script to record short inscriptions (largely personal names), more sophisticated literacy was not introduced to Celtic areas that had not been conquered by Rome until the advent of Christianity. Indeed, many Gaelic myths were first recorded by Christian monks, albeit without most of their original religious meanings.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The oldest body of myths stemming from the Heroic Age is found only from the early medieval period of Ireland. As Christianity began to take over, the gods and goddesses were slowly eliminated as such from the culture. What survives includes material dealing with the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians, which forms the basis for the text "Cath Maige Tuired", "The Battle of Mag Tuireadh", as well as portions of the history-focused "Lebor Gabála Érenn" (Book of Invasions). The Tuatha Dé represent the functions of human society such as kingship, crafts and war, while the Fomorians represent chaos and wild nature.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The leader of the gods for the Irish pantheon appears to have been the Dagda. The Dagda was the figure on which male humans and other gods were based because he embodied ideal Irish traits. Celtic gods were also considered to be a clan due to their lack of specialization and unknown origins. The particular character of the Dagda was as a figure of burlesque lampoonery in Irish mythology, and some authors even conclude that he was trusted to be benevolent enough to tolerate jokes at his own expense.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Irish tales depict the Dagda as a figure of power, armed with a club. In Dorset there is a famous outline of an ithyphallic giant called the Cerne Abbas Giant with a club cut into the chalky soil. While this was probably produced in relatively modern times (English Civil War era), it was long thought to be a representation of the Dagda. This has been called into question by recent studies which show that there may have been a representation of what looks like a large drapery hanging from the horizontal arm of the figure, leading to suspicion that this figure actually represents Hercules (Heracles), with the skin of the Nemean lion over his arm and carrying the club he used to kill it. In Gaul, it is speculated that the Dagda is associated with Sucellus, ‘the good striker’, equipped with a hammer and cup.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The Morrígan was a tripartite battle goddess of the Celts of Ancient Ireland and Scotland. She was known as the Morrígan, but the different sections she was divided into were also referred to as Nemain, Macha, and Badb (among other, less common names), with each representing different aspects of combat. She is most commonly known for her involvement in the "Táin Bó Cúailnge".


title: Celtic mythology

text: The god appearing most frequently in the tales is Lugh. He is evidently a residual of the earlier, more widespread god Lugus, whose diffusion in Celtic religion is apparent from the number of place names in which his name appears, occurring across the Celtic world. The most famous of these are the cities of Lugdunum (the modern French city of Lyon), Lugdunum Batavorum (Brittenburg, 10 kilometers west of Leiden in the Netherlands) and Lucus Augusti (, the modern Galician city of Lugo). Lug is described in the Celtic myths as the last to be added to the list of deities. In Ireland a festival called the Lughnasadh ( "August") was held in his honor.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Other important goddesses include Brigid (or Brigit), the Dagda's daughter; Aibell, Áine, Macha, and the sovereign goddess, Ériu. Notable is Epona, the horse goddess, celebrated with horse races at the summer festival. Significant Irish gods include Nuada Airgetlám, the first king of the Tuatha Dé Danann; Goibniu, the smith and brewer; Dian Cecht, the patron of healing; and the sea god Manannán mac Lir.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Important reflexes of British mythology appear in the Four Branches of the Mabinogi, especially in the names of several characters, such as Rhiannon, Teyrnon, and Brân the Blessed ("Bendigeidfran", "Bran [Crow] the Blessed"). Other characters, in all likelihood, derive from mythological sources, and various episodes, such as the appearance of Arawn, a king of the Otherworld seeking the aid of a mortal in his own feuds, and the tale of the hero who cannot be killed except under seemingly contradictory circumstances, can be traced throughout Proto-Indo-European mythology. The children of Llŷr ("Sea" = Irish Ler) in the Second and Third Branches, and the children of Dôn (Danu in Irish and earlier Indo-European tradition) in the Fourth Branch are major figures, but the tales themselves are not primary mythology.


title: Celtic mythology

text: While further mythological names and references appear elsewhere in Welsh narrative and tradition, especially in the tale of "Culhwch and Olwen", where we find, for example, Mabon ap Modron ("Divine Son of the Divine Mother"), and in the collected Welsh Triads, not enough is known of the British mythological background to reconstruct either a narrative of creation or a coherent pantheon of British deities. Indeed, though there is much in common with Irish myth, there may have been no unified British mythological tradition "per se". Whatever its ultimate origins, the surviving material has been put to good use in the service of literary masterpieces that address the cultural concerns of Wales in the early and later Middle Ages.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The Celts also worshiped a number of deities of which little more is known than their names. Classical writers preserve a few fragments of legends or myths that may possibly be Celtic.


title: Celtic mythology

text: According to the Syrian rhetorician Lucian, Ogmios was supposed to lead a band of men chained by their ears to his tongue as a symbol of the strength of his eloquence.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The first-century Roman poet Lucan mentions the gods Taranis, Teutates and Esus, but there is little Celtic evidence that these were important deities.


title: Celtic mythology

text: A number of objets d'art, coins, and altars may depict scenes from lost myths, such as the representations of Tarvos Trigaranus or of an equestrian ‘Jupiter’ surmounting the Anguiped (a snake-legged human-like figure). The Gundestrup cauldron has been also interpreted mythically.


title: Celtic mythology

text: Along with dedications giving us god names, there are also deity representations to which no name has yet been attached. Among these are images of a three-headed or three-faced god, a squatting god, a god with a snake, a god with a wheel, and a horseman with a kneeling giant. Some of these images can be found in Late Bronze Age peat bogs in Britain, indicating the symbols were both pre-Roman and widely spread across Celtic culture. The distribution of some of the images has been mapped and shows a pattern of central concentration of an image along with a wide scatter indicating these images were most likely attached to specific tribes and were distributed from some central point of tribal concentration outward along lines of trade. The image of the three-headed god has a central concentration among the Belgae, between the Oise, Marne and Moselle rivers. The horseman with the kneeling giant is centered on either side of the Rhine. These examples seem to indicate regional preferences of a common image stock.


title: Celtic mythology

text: The classic entry about the Celtic gods of Gaul is by Julius Caesar's history of his war in Gaul. In this he names the five principal gods worshiped in Gaul (according to the practice of his time, he gives the names of the closest equivalent Roman gods) and describes their roles: