Merchant Adventurers

Merchant Adventurers PDF Author: James Evans
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297866893
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
A Tudor voyage of exploration - an extraordinary story of daring, discovery, tragedy and pioneering achievement. In the spring of 1553 three ships sailed north-east from London into uncharted waters. The scale of their ambition was breathtaking. Drawing on the latest navigational science and the new spirit of enterprise and discovery sweeping the Tudor capital, they sought a northern passage to Asia and its riches. The success of the expedition depended on its two leaders: Sir Hugh Willoughby, a brave gentleman soldier, and Richard Chancellor, a brilliant young scientist and practical man of the sea. When their ships became separated in a storm, each had to fend for himself. Their fates were sharply divided. One returned to England, to recount extraordinary tales of the imperial court of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The tragic, mysterious story of the other two ships has to be pieced together through the surviving captain's log book, after he and his crew became lost and trapped by the advancing Arctic winter. This long-neglected endeavour was one of the boldest in British history, and its impact was profound. Although the 'merchant adventurers' failed to reach China as they had hoped, their achievements would lay the foundations for England's expansion on a global stage. As James Evans' vivid account shows, their voyage also makes for a gripping story of daring, discovery, tragedy and adventure.

Merchant Adventurers

Merchant Adventurers PDF Author: James Evans
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
ISBN: 0297866893
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Get Book Here

Book Description
A Tudor voyage of exploration - an extraordinary story of daring, discovery, tragedy and pioneering achievement. In the spring of 1553 three ships sailed north-east from London into uncharted waters. The scale of their ambition was breathtaking. Drawing on the latest navigational science and the new spirit of enterprise and discovery sweeping the Tudor capital, they sought a northern passage to Asia and its riches. The success of the expedition depended on its two leaders: Sir Hugh Willoughby, a brave gentleman soldier, and Richard Chancellor, a brilliant young scientist and practical man of the sea. When their ships became separated in a storm, each had to fend for himself. Their fates were sharply divided. One returned to England, to recount extraordinary tales of the imperial court of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The tragic, mysterious story of the other two ships has to be pieced together through the surviving captain's log book, after he and his crew became lost and trapped by the advancing Arctic winter. This long-neglected endeavour was one of the boldest in British history, and its impact was profound. Although the 'merchant adventurers' failed to reach China as they had hoped, their achievements would lay the foundations for England's expansion on a global stage. As James Evans' vivid account shows, their voyage also makes for a gripping story of daring, discovery, tragedy and adventure.

The Russian Graphosphere, 1450-1850

The Russian Graphosphere, 1450-1850 PDF Author: Simon Franklin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108492576
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Explores a new approach to the history of writing, and a guide to writing in the history of Russia.

Tudor Adventurers

Tudor Adventurers PDF Author: James Evans
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1605986135
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In the spring of 1553, three ships sailed north-east from London into uncharted waters. The scale of their ambition was breathtaking. Drawing on the latest navigational science and the new spirit of enterprise and discovery sweeping the Tudor capital, they sought a northern passage to Asia and its riches. The success of the expedition depended on its two leaders: Sir Hugh Willoughby, a brave gentleman soldier, and Richard Chancellor, a brilliant young scientist and practical man of the sea. When their ships became separated in a storm, each had to fend for himself. Their fates were sharply divided. One returned to England, to recount extraordinary tales of the imperial court of Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The tragic, mysterious story of the other two ships has had to be pieced together through the surviving captain’s log book, after he and his crew became lost and trapped by the advancing Arctic winter. This exceptional endeavour was one of the boldest in British history, and its impact was profound. Although the “merchant adventurers” failed to reach China as they had hoped, their achievements would lay the foundations for England’s expansion on a global stage. As James Evans’ vivid account shows, their voyage also makes for a moving story of daring, discovery, tragedy, and adventure.

Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World

Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World PDF Author: Tracey A. Sowerby
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192572636
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 445

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Book Description
This interdisciplinary volume explores core emerging themes in the study of early modern literary-diplomatic relations, developing essential methods of analysis and theoretical approaches that will shape future research in the field. Contributions focus on three intimately related areas: the impact of diplomatic protocol on literary production; the role of texts in diplomatic practice, particularly those that operated as 'textual ambassadors'; and the impact of changes in the literary sphere on diplomatic culture. The literary sphere held such a central place because it gave diplomats the tools to negotiate the pervasive ambiguities of diplomacy; simultaneously literary depictions of diplomacy and international law provided genre-shaped places for cultural reflection on the rapidly changing and expanding diplomatic sphere. Translations exemplify the potential of literary texts both to provoke competition and to promote cultural convergence between political communities, revealing the existence of diplomatic third spaces in which ritual, symbolic, or written conventions and semantics converged despite particular oppositions and differences. The increasing public consumption of diplomatic material in Europe illuminates diplomatic and literary communities, and exposes the translocal, as well as the transnational, geographies of literary-diplomatic exchanges. Diplomatic texts possessed symbolic capital. They were produced, archived, and even redeployed in creative tension with the social and ceremonial worlds that produced them. Appreciating the generic conventions of specific types of diplomatic texts can radically reshape our interpretation of diplomatic encounters, just as exploring the afterlives of diplomatic records can transform our appreciation of the histories and literatures they inspired.

A Monarchy of Letters

A Monarchy of Letters PDF Author: Rayne Allinson
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137008369
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 347

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Book Description
This book examines Elizabeth's correspondence with several significant rulers, analyzing how her letters were constructed, drafted and presented, the rhetorical strategies used, and the role these letters played in facilitating diplomatic relations.

God, Tsar, and People

God, Tsar, and People PDF Author: Daniel B. Rowland
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501752103
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
God, Tsar, and People brings together in one volume essays written over a period of fifty years, using a wide variety of evidence—texts, icons, architecture, and ritual—to reveal how early modern Russians (1450–1700) imagined their rapidly changing political world. This volume presents a more nuanced picture of Russian political thought during the two centuries before Peter the Great came to power than is typically available. The state was expanding at a dizzying rate, and atop Russia's traditional political structure sat a ruler who supposedly reflected God's will. The problem facing Russians was that actual rulers seldom—or never—exhibited the required perfection. Daniel Rowland argues that this contradictory set of ideas was far less autocratic in both theory and practice than modern stereotypes would have us believe. In comparing and contrasting Russian history with that of Western European states, Rowland is also questioning the notion that Russia has always been, and always viewed itself as, an authoritarian country. God, Tsar, and People explores how the Russian state in this period kept its vast lands and diverse subjects united in a common view of a Christian polity, defending its long frontier against powerful enemies from the East and from the West.

The First English Explorer

The First English Explorer PDF Author: Kit Mayers
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1785892282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
The first real explorer, for the English, was Anthony Jenkinson. He sailed to Russia and set out into the unknown to discover an overland route, right across Asia. His detailed reports and his map were a revelation for the Tudors. In 1557 Anthony Jenkinson was sent by the merchants of London to try to find an overland route right across Asia to Cathay and the riches of the Orient, setting off a year before Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne. His expedition to the east took place some twenty nine years earlier than the first English expedition to the west. As well as surviving storms, Jenkinson was faced with thieving, illness and several attacks by bandits, before eventually, by sheer persistence, reaching Bokhara, which is now in Uzbekistan. He had completed two thirds of the journey and had reached the ‘Silk Road’ that led to Cambaluc (Beijing), before finding that he could go no further because the route ahead was closed by continuous wars. In later expeditions, he travelled to Persia where he nearly had his head cut off and he also went to Moscow where he managed some extremely tense negotiations with Tsar Ivan the Terrible on behalf of the Muscovy Company. His reports back to the Company in London give us a great insight into what Russia was like at the time, and Tartary and Persia. ‘This book is a lively and carefully researched study of Anthony Jenkinson,’ – Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Bt, OBE ‘This important book fills an undoubted gap in the history of English travellers in the sixteenth century,’ – Professor David Loades, FSA, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Wales The First English Explorer will appeal to fans of history, particularly those with a strong interest in explorers and eastern travel.

Art and Diplomacy: Seventeenth-Century English Decorated Royal Letters to Russia and the Far East

Art and Diplomacy: Seventeenth-Century English Decorated Royal Letters to Russia and the Far East PDF Author: Maija Jansson
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004300457
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
In this study of Art and Diplomacy we see the relationship between renaissance design in decorated borders and the messages conveyed in the texts of royal letters from the English kings to Russia and rulers in the Far East. These are cases of art serving the Crown, with much of the early limning done by Edward Norgate, the English miniaturist. Printed here for the first time from Russian archives, this collection provides a continuum for the study of the limning of royal letters throughout the 17th century. The letters that the decoration enhances reveal the details of privileges and commercial advantages sought by the English, and the cultural interests of the Russians in their requests for English doctors, apothecaries, jewellers, and mineralogists.

Ivan the Terrible

Ivan the Terrible PDF Author: Charles J. Halperin
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 0822987228
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Ivan the Terrible is infamous as a sadistic despot responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people, particularly during the years of the oprichnina, his state-within-a-state. Ivan was the first ruler in Russian history to use mass terror as a political instrument. However, Ivan’s actions cannot be dismissed by attributing the behavior to insanity. Ivan interacted with Muscovite society as both he and Muscovy changed. This interaction needs to be understood in order properly to analyze his motives, achievements, and failures. Ivan the Terrible: Free to Reward and Free to Punish provides an up-to-date comprehensive analysis of all aspects of Ivan’s reign. It presents a new interpretation not only of Ivan’s behavior and ideology, but also of Muscovite social and economic history. Charles Halperin shatters the myths surrounding Ivan and reveals a complex ruler who had much in common with his European contemporaries, including Henry the Eighth.

Britannia's Empire

Britannia's Empire PDF Author: Bill Nasson
Publisher: Tempus Publishing, Limited
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
A history of the British Empire from an entirely fresh perspective. More than Shakespeare, more than the invention of the railway, it was Empire which made Britain into Great Britain. By the early 20th century, that Empire covered around a quarter of the earth's surface, and embraced more than a quarter of its inhabitants.