title: Gothic architecture

text: Sculpture was an important element of Gothic architecture. Its intent was present the stories of the Bible in vivid and understandable fashion to the great majority of the faithful who could not read. The iconography of the sculptural decoration on the façade was not left to the sculptors. An edict of the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 had declared: "The composition of religious images is not to be left to the inspiration of artists; it is derived from the principles put in place by the Catholic Church and religious tradition. Only the art belongs to the artist; the composition belongs to the Fathers."


title: Gothic architecture

text: In Early Gothic churches, following the Romanesque tradition, sculpture appeared on the façade or west front in the triangular tympanum over the central portal. Gradually, as the style evolved, the sculpture became more and more prominent, taking over the columns of the portal, and gradually climbing above the portals, until statues in niches covered the entire façade, as in Wells Cathedral, to the transepts, and, as at Amiens Cathedral, even on the interior of the façade.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Some of the earliest examples are found at Chartres Cathedral, where the three portals of the west front illustrate the three epiphanies in the Life of Christ. At Amiens, the tympanum over the central portal depicted the Last Judgement, the right portal showed the Coronation of the Virgin, and the left portal showed the lives of saints who were important in the diocese. This set a pattern of complex iconography which was followed at other churches.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The columns below the tympanum are in the form of statues of saints, literally representing them as "the pillars of the church." Each saint had his own symbol at his feet so viewers could recognize them; a winged lion meant Saint Mark, an eagle with four wings meant Saint John the Apostle, and a winged bull symbolized Saint Luke... Floral and vegetal decoration was also very common, representing the Garden of Eden; grapes represented the wines of Eucharist.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The tympanum over the central portal on the west façade of Notre-Dame de Paris vividly illustrates the Last Judgement, with figures of sinners being led off to hell, and good Christians taken to heaven. The sculpture of the right portal shows the coronation of the Virgin Mary, and the left portal shows the lives of saints who were important to Parisians, particularly Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary.


title: Gothic architecture

text: To make the message even more prominent, the sculpture of the tympanum was painted in bright colors. following a system of colours codified in the 12th century; yellow, called "gold", symbolized intelligence, grandeur and virtue; white, called "argent", symbolized purity, wisdom, and correctness; black, or "sable", meant sadness, but also will; green, or "sinople", represented hope, liberty and joy; red or "gueules" (see gules) meant charity or victory; blue or "azure" symbolised the sky, faithfulness and perseverance; and violet, or "pourpre", was the colour of royalty and sovereignty.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In the later Gothic, the sculpture became more naturalistic; the figures were separated from the walls, and had much more expressive faces, showing emotion and personality. The drapery was very skilfully carved. The torments of hell were even more vividly depicted. The late Gothic sculpture at Siena Cathedral, by Nino Pisano, pointing toward the Renaissance, is particularly notable. Much of it is now kept in a museum to protect it from deterioration.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Besides saints and apostles, the exteriors of Gothic churches were also decorated with sculptures of a variety of fabulous and frightening grotesques or monsters. These included the chimera, a mythical hybrid creature which usually had the body of a lion and the head of a goat, and the strix or stryge, a creature resembling an owl or bat, which was said to eat human flesh. The strix appeared in classical Roman literature; it was described by the Roman poet Ovid, who was widely read in the Middle Ages, as a large-headed bird with transfixed eyes, rapacious beak, and greyish white wings. They were part of the visual message for the illiterate worshippers, symbols of the evil and danger that threatened those who did not follow the teachings of the church.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The gargoyles, which were added to Notre-Dame in about 1240, had a more practical purpose. They were the rain spouts of the church, designed to divide the torrent of water which poured from the roof after rain, and to project it outwards as far as possible from the buttresses and the walls and windows so that it would not erode the mortar binding the stone. To produce many thin streams rather than a torrent of water, a large number of gargoyles were used, so they were also designed to be a decorative element of the architecture. The rainwater ran from the roof into lead gutters, then down channels on the flying buttresses, then along a channel cut in the back of the gargoyle and out of the mouth away from the church.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Many of the statues at Notre-Dame, particularly the grotesques, were removed from the façade in the 17th and 18th century, or were destroyed during the French Revolution. They were replaced with figures in the Gothic style, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc during the 19th-century restoration. Similar figures appear on the other major Gothic churches of France and England.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Another common feature of Gothic cathedrals in France was a labyrinth or maze on the floor of the nave near the choir, which symbolised the difficult and often complicated journey of a Christian life before attaining paradise. Most labyrinths were removed by the 18th century, but a few, like the one at Amiens Cathedral, have been reconstructed, and the labyrinth at Chartres Cathedral still exists essentially in its original form.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Increasing the amount of light in the interior was a primary objective of the founders of the Gothic movement. Abbot Suger described the new kind of architecture he had created in the east end of the Saint-Denis: "a circular ring of chapels, by virtue of which the whole church would shine with the wonderful and uninterrupted light of most luminous windows, pervading the interior beauty."


title: Gothic architecture

text: Religious teachings in the Middle Ages, particularly the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, a 6th-century mystic whose book, "De Coelesti Hierarchia", was popular among monks in France, taught that all light was divine. When the Abbot Suger ordered the reconstruction of choir of the his abbey church at Saint-Denis, he had the builders create seventy windows, admitting as much light as possible, as the means by which the faithful could be elevated from the material world to the immaterial world.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The placement of the windows was also determined by religious doctrine. The windows on the north side, frequently in the shade, had windows depicting the Old Testament. The windows of the east, corresponding to the direction of the sunrise, had images of Christ and scenes from the New Testament.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In the Early Gothic period, the glass was particularly thick and was deeply coloured with metal oxides; cobalt for blue, copper for a ruby red, iron for green, and antimony for yellow. The process of making the windows was described detail by the 12th-century monk known as Theophilus Presbyter. The glass of each colour was melted with the oxide, blown, shaped into small sheets, cracked with a hot iron into small pieces, and assembled on a large table. The details were painted onto the glass in vitreous enamel, then baked in a kiln to fuse the enamel on the glass. The pieces were fit into a framework of thin lead strips, and then put into a more solid frame or iron armatures between the panels. The finished window was set into the stone opening. Thin vertical and horizontal bars of iron, called "vergettes" or "barlotierres", were placed inside the window to reinforce the glass against the wind.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The use of iron rods between the panels of glass and a framework of stone mullions, or ribs, made it possible to create much larger windows. The three rose windows at Chartres (1203–1240) each were more than in diameter. Larger windows also appeared at York Minster (1140–1160) and Canterbury Cathedral (1178–1200)


title: Gothic architecture

text: The stained glass windows were extremely complex and expensive to create. King Louis IX paid for the rose windows in the transept of Notre-Dame de Paris, but other windows were financed by the contributions of the professions or guilds of the city. These windows usually had a panel which illustrated the work of the guild which funded it, such as the drapers, stonemasons, or coopers.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The 13th century saw the introduction of a new kind of window, with grisaille, or white glass, with a geometric pattern, usually joined with medallions of stained glass. These windows allowed much more light into the cathedral, but diminished the vividness of the stained glass, since there was less contrast between the dark interior and bright exterior. The most remarkable and influential work of stained glass in the 13th century was the royal chapel, Sainte-Chapelle (1243–1248), where the windows of the upper chapel, high, occupied all of the walls on the three sides, with 1,134 individual scenes. Sainte-Chapelle became the model for other chapels across Europe.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The 14th century brought a variety of new colours, and the use of more realistic shading and half-toning. This was done by the development of flashed glass. Clear glass was dipped into coloured glass, then portions of the coloured glass were ground away to give exactly the right shade. In the 15th century, artists began painting directly onto the glass with enamel colours. Gradually the art of glass came closer and closer to traditional painting.


title: Gothic architecture

text: One of the most celebrated Flamboyant buildings was the Sainte-Chapelle de Vincennes (1370s), with walls of glass from floor to ceiling. The original glass was destroyed, and is replaced by grisaille glass. King's College Chapel (15th century), also followed the model of walls entirely filled with glass.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The stained glass windows were extremely complex and expensive to create. King Louis IX paid for the rose windows in the transept of Notre-Dame de Paris, while other windows were often financed by the contributions of the professions or guilds of the city. These windows usually incorporated a panel which illustrates the work of the guild which funded it, such as the drapers, stonemasons, or barrel-makers.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In England, the stained glass windows also grew in size and importance; major examples were the Becket Windows at Canterbury Cathedral (1200–1230) and the windows of Lincoln Cathedral (1200–1220). Enormous windows were also an important element of York Minster and Gloucester Cathedral.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Much of the stained glass in Gothic churches today dates from later restorations, but a few, notably Chartres Cathedral and Bourges Cathedral, still have many of their original windows


title: Gothic architecture

text: Rose windows were a prominent feature of many Gothic churches and cathedrals. The rose was a symbol of the Virgin Mary, and they were particularly used in churches dedicated to her, including Notre-Dame de Paris. Nearly all the major Gothic cathedrals had them in the west façade, and many, such as Notre Dame de Paris, Amiens, Chartres, Strasbourg cathedral and Westminster Abbey, had them transepts as well. The designs of their tracery became increasingly complex, and gave their names to two periods; the Rayonnant and the Flamboyant. Two of the most famous Rayonnant rose windows were constructed in the transepts of Notre-Dame in the 13th century.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Gothic style was used in royal and papal residences as well as in churches. Prominent examples include the Palais de la Cité the Medieval Louvre, the Chateau de Vincennes in Paris, residences of the French kings, the Doge's Palace in Venice, and the Palace of the Kings of Navarre in Olite (1269–1512). Another is the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes), the former Papal residence in Avignon. It was constructed between 1252 and 1364, during the Avignon Papacy. Given the complicated political situation, it combined the functions of a church, a seat of government and a fortress.(


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Palais de la Cité in Paris, close to Notre-Dame de Paris, begun in 1119, which was the principal residence of the French kings until 1417. Most of the Palais de la Cité is gone, but two of the original towers along the Seine, of the towers, the vaulted ceilings of the Hall of the Men-at-Arms (1302), (now in the Conciergerie; and the original chapel, Sainte-Chapelle, can still be seen.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Louvre Palace was originally built by Philippe II of France beginning in 1190 to house the King's archives and treasures, and given machicoulis and features of a Gothic fortress. However, it was soon made obsolete by the development of artillery, and in the 15th century it was remodelled into a comfortable residential palace. While the outer walls retained their original military appearance, the castle itself, with a profusion of spires, towers, pinnacles, arches and gables, became a visible symbol of royalty and aristocracy. The style was copied in chateaux and other aristocratic residences across France and other parts of Europe.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In the 15th century, following the late Gothic period or flamboyant style, elements of Gothic decoration began to appear in the town halls of northern France, Flanders and the Netherlands. The Rouen Courthouse in Normandy is representative of Flamboyant Gothic in France. The Hôtel de Ville of Compiègne has an imposing Gothic bell tower, featuring a spire surrounded by smaller towers, and its windows are decorated with ornate accolades or ornamental arches. Similarly flamboyant town halls were found in Arras, Douai, and Saint-Quentin, Aisne, and in modern Belgium, in Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Audenarde, Mons and Leuven.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Gothic civil architecture in Spain includes the Silk Exchange in Valencia, Spain (1482–1548), a major marketplace, which has a main hall with twisting columns beneath its vaulted ceiling.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Gothic style was adopted in the late 13th to 15th centuries in early English university buildings, with inspiration coming from monasteries and manor houses. The oldest existing example in England is probably the Mob Quad of Merton College at Oxford University, constructed between 1288 and 1378.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The style was further refined by William of Wykeham, Chancellor of England and founder of New College, Oxford, in 1379. His architect, William Wynford, designed the New College quadrangle in the 1380s, which combined a hall, chapel, library, and residences for Fellows and undergraduates. A similar kind of academic cloister was created at Queen's College, Oxford, in the 1140s, likely designed by Reginald Ely.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The design of the colleges was influenced not only by abbeys, but also the design of English manor houses of the 14th and 15th century, such as Haddon Hall in Derbyshire. They were was composed of rectangular courtyards with covered walkways which separated the wings. Some colleges, like Balliol College, Oxford, borrowed a military style from Gothic castles, with battlements and crenolated walls.


title: Gothic architecture

text: King's College Chapel, Cambridge is one of the finest examples of the late Gothic style. It was built by King Henry VI, who was displeased by the excessive decoration of earlier styles. He wrote in 1447 that he wanted his chapel "to proceed in large form, clean and substantial, setting apart superfluity of too great curious works of entail and busy moulding." The chapel, built between 1508 and 1515, has glass walls from floor to ceiling, rising to spreading fan vaults designed by John Wastell. The glass walls are supported by large external buttresses concealed at the base by side chapels.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Other European examples include Collegio di Spagna in the University of Bologna, built during the 14th and 15th centuries; the Collegium Carolinum of the Charles University in Prague in Bohemia (c. 1400); the Escuelas mayores of the University of Salamanca in Spain; and the Collegium Maius of the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In the 13th century, the design of the castle () evolved in response to contact with the more sophisticated fortifications of the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world during the Crusades. These new fortifications were more geometric, with a central high tower called a keep () which could be defended even if the curtain walls of the castle were breached. The donjon of the Château de Vincennes, begun by Philip VI of France was a good example. It was high, and, even though within the moat and walls of the fortress, had its own separate drawbridge to going to higher floor.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Towers, usually round, were placed at the corners and along the walls in the Phillipienne castle, close enough together to support each other. The walls had two levels of walkways on the inside, a crennellated parapet with merlons, and projecting machicolations from which missiles could be dropped on besiegers. The upper walls also had protected protruding balconies, "échauguettes" and "bretèches", from which soldiers could see what was happening at the corners or on the ground below. In addition, the towers and walls were pierced with arrowslits, which sometimes took the form of crosses to enable a wider field of fire for archers and crossbowmen.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Castles were surrounded by a deep moat, spanned by a single drawbridge. The entrance was also protected by a grill of iron which could be opened and closed. The walls at the bottom were often sloping, and protected with earthen barriers. One good surviving example is the Château de Dourdan, near Nemours.


title: Gothic architecture

text: After the end of the Hundred Years War (1337–1453), with improvements in artillery, the castles lost most of their military importance. They remained as symbols of the rank of their noble occupants; the narrowing openings in the walls were often widened into the windows of bedchambers and ceremonial halls. The tower of the Château de Vincennes became a part-time royal residence until the Palace of Versailles was completed.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Although Christianity played a dominant role in the Gothic sacred architecture, Jewish communities were present in many European cities during the Middle Ages and they also built their houses of prayer in the Gothic style. Unfortunately, most of the Gothic synagogues did not survive, because they were often destroyed in connection with persecution of the Jews (e. g. in Bamberg, Nürnberg, Regensburg, Vienna). One of the best preserved examples of a Gothic synagogue is the Old New Synagogue in Prague which was completed around 1270 and never rebuilt.


title: Gothic architecture

text: There are a few mosques in Gothic style. They are Latin Catholic churches converted into mosques. The conversion implied compromises since Latin churches are oriented towards the East and mosques are oriented towards Mecca.


title: Gothic architecture

text: Beginning in the 16th century, as Renaissance architecture from Italy began to appear in France and other countries in Europe, the dominance of Gothic architecture began to wane. Nonetheless, new Gothic buildings, particularly churches, continued to be built.


title: Gothic architecture

text: New Gothic churches built in Paris in this period included Saint-Merri (1520–1552) and Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois. The first signs of classicism in Paris churches did not appear until 1540, at Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais. The largest new church, Saint-Eustache (1532–1560), rivalled Notre-Dame in size, long, wide, and high. As construction of this church continued, elements of Renaissance decoration, including the system of classical orders of columns, were added to the design, making it a Gothic-Renaissance hybrid.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Gothic style began to be described as outdated, ugly and even barbaric. The term "Gothic" was first used as a pejorative description. Giorgio Vasari used the term "barbarous German style" in his 1550 "Lives of the Artists" to describe what is now considered the Gothic style. In the introduction to the "Lives" he attributed various architectural features to the Goths whom he held responsible for destroying the ancient buildings after they conquered Rome, and erecting new ones in this style. In the 17th century, Molière also mocked the Gothic style in the 1669 poem "La Gloire": "...the insipid taste of Gothic ornamentation, these odious monstrosities of an ignorant age, produced by the torrents of barbarism..." The dominant styles in Europe became in turn Italian Renaissance architecture, Baroque architecture, and the grand classicism of the "style Louis XIV".


title: Gothic architecture

text: Gothic architecture, usually churches or university buildings, continued to be built. Ireland was an island of Gothic architecture in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the construction of Derry Cathedral (completed 1633), Sligo Cathedral (c. 1730), and Down Cathedral (1790–1818) are other examples. In the 17th and 18th century several important Gothic buildings were constructed at Oxford University and Cambridge University, including Tom Tower (1681–82) at Christ Church, Oxford, by Christopher Wren. It also appeared, in a whimsical fashion, in Horace Walpole's Twickenham villa, Strawberry Hill (1749–1776). The two western towers of Westminster Abbey were constructed between 1722 and 1745 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, opening a new period of Gothic Revival.


title: Gothic architecture

text: In England, partly in response to a philosophy propounded by the Oxford Movement and others associated with the emerging revival of 'high church' or Anglo-Catholic ideas during the second quarter of the 19th century, neo-Gothic began to become promoted by influential establishment figures as the preferred style for ecclesiastical, civic and institutional architecture. The appeal of this Gothic revival (which after 1837, in Britain, is sometimes termed Victorian Gothic), gradually widened to encompass "low church" as well as "high church" clients. This period of more universal appeal, spanning 1855–1885, is known in Britain as High Victorian Gothic.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The Palace of Westminster in London by Sir Charles Barry with interiors by a major exponent of the early Gothic Revival, Augustus Welby Pugin, is an example of the Gothic revival style from its earlier period in the second quarter of the 19th century. Examples from the "High Victorian Gothic" period include George Gilbert Scott's design for the Albert Memorial in London, and William Butterfield's chapel at Keble College, Oxford. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, it became more common in Britain for neo-Gothic to be used in the design of non-ecclesiastical and non-governmental buildings types. Gothic details even began to appear in working-class housing schemes subsidised by philanthropy, though given the expense, less frequently than in the design of upper and middle-class housing.


title: Gothic architecture

text: The middle of the 19th century was a period marked by the restoration, and in some cases modification, of ancient monuments and the construction of neo-Gothic edifices such as the nave of Cologne Cathedral and the Sainte-Clotilde of Paris as speculation of mediaeval architecture turned to technical consideration. London's Palace of Westminster, St Pancras railway station, New York's Trinity Church and St Patrick's Cathedral are also famous examples of Gothic Revival buildings. The style also reached the Far East in the period, for instance the Anglican St John's Cathedral located at the centre of Victoria City in Central, Hong Kong.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes ( ) is a city and the largest settlement in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of its urban area was over . The River Great Ouse forms its northern boundary; a tributary, the River Ouzel, meanders through its linear parks and balancing lakes. Approximately 25% of the urban area is parkland or woodland and includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs).


title: Milton Keynes

text: In the 1960s, the UK government decided that a further generation of new towns in the South East of England was needed to relieve housing congestion in London. This new town (in planning documents, 'new city'), Milton Keynes, was to be the biggest yet, with a target population of 250,000 and a 'designated area' of about . At designation, its area incorporated the existing towns of Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, Wolverton and Stony Stratford, along with another fifteen villages and farmland in between. These settlements had an extensive historical record since the Norman conquest; detailed archaeological investigations prior to development revealed evidence of human occupation from the Neolithic period to modern times, including in particular the Milton Keynes Hoard of Bronze Age gold jewellery. The government established a development corporation (MKDC) to design and deliver this new city. The corporation decided on a softer, more human-scaled landscape than in the earlier English new towns but with an emphatically modernist architecture. Recognising how traditional towns and cities had become choked in traffic, they established a 'relaxed' grid of distributor roads about between edges, leaving the spaces between to develop more organically. An extensive network of shared paths for leisure cyclists and pedestrians criss-crosses through and between them. Again rejecting the residential tower blocks that had been so recently fashionable but unloved, they set a height limit of three storeys outside the planned centre.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Facilities include a 1,400-seat theatre, a municipal art gallery, two multiplex cinemas, an ecumenical central church, a 400-seat concert hall, a teaching hospital, a 30,500-seat football stadium, an indoor ski-slope and a 65,000-capacity open-air concert venue. Seven railway stations serve the Milton Keynes urban area (one inter-city). The Open University is based here and there is a small campus of the University of Bedfordshire. Most major sports are represented at amateur level; Red Bull Racing (Formula One), MK Dons (association football), and Milton Keynes Lightning (ice hockey) are its professional teams. The Peace Pagoda overlooking Willen Lake was the first such to be built in Europe. The many works of sculpture in parks and public spaces include the iconic "Concrete Cows" at Milton Keynes Museum.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes is among the most economically productive localities in the UK, ranking highly against a number of criteria. It has the UK's fifth-highest number of business startups per capita (but equally of business failures). It is home to several major national and international companies. Despite economic success and personal wealth for some, there are pockets of nationally significant poverty. The employment profile is composed of about 90% service industries and 9% manufacturing.


title: Milton Keynes

text: On 15 August 2022, the Crown Office announced that the Queen had ordained by letters patent that the (then) Borough of Milton Keynes should have city status.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In the 1960s, the UK government decided that a further generation of new towns in the South East of England was needed to relieve housing congestion in London. Since the 1950s, overspill housing for several London boroughs had been constructed in Bletchley. Further studies in the 1960s identified north Buckinghamshire as a possible site for a large new town, a new city, encompassing the existing towns of Bletchley, Stony Stratford, and Wolverton. The New Town (informally and in planning documents, 'New City') was to be the biggest yet, with a target population of 250,000, in a 'designated area' of . The name 'Milton Keynes' was taken from that of an existing village on the site.


title: Milton Keynes

text: On 23 January 1967, when the formal "new town designation order" was made, the area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages. The site was deliberately located equidistant from London, Birmingham, Leicester, Oxford, and Cambridge, with the intention that it would be self-sustaining and eventually become a major regional centre in its own right. Planning control was taken from elected local authorities and delegated to the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (MKDC). Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: doing so has exposed a rich history of human settlement since Neolithic times and has provided a unique insight into the history of a large sample of the landscape of North Buckinghamshire.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Corporation's strongly modernist designs were regularly featured in the magazines "Architectural Design" and the "Architects' Journal". MKDC was determined to learn from the mistakes made in the earlier new towns, and revisit the garden city ideals. They set in place the characteristic grid roads that run between districts ('grid squares'), as well as a programme of intensive planting, balancing lakes and parkland. Central Milton Keynes ("CMK") was not intended to be a traditional town centre but a central business and shopping district to supplement local centres embedded in most of the grid squares. This non-hierarchical devolved city plan was a departure from the English new towns tradition and envisaged a wide range of industry and diversity of housing styles and tenures. The largest and almost the last of the British New Towns, Milton Keynes has 'stood the test of time far better than most, and has proved flexible and adaptable'. The radical grid plan was inspired by the work of Melvin M. Webber, described by the founding architect of Milton Keynes, Derek Walker, as the 'father of the city'. Webber thought that telecommunications meant that the old idea of a city as a concentric cluster was out of date and that cities which enabled people to travel around them readily would be the thing of the future, achieving "community without propinquity" for residents.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The government wound up MKDC in 1992, 25 years after the new town was founded, transferring control to the Commission for New Towns (CNT) and then finally to English Partnerships, with the planning function returning to local council control (since 1974 and the Local Government Act 1972, the Borough of Milton Keynes). From 2004–2011 a government quango, the Milton Keynes Partnership, had development control powers to accelerate the growth of Milton Keynes.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Along with many other towns and boroughs, Milton Keynes competed (unsuccessfully) for formal city status in the 2000, 2002 and 2012 competitions. However the Borough was successful in 2022, in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours competition. On 15 August 2022, the Crown Office announced formally that the Queen had ordained by letters patent that the Borough of Milton Keynes has been given city status.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The name 'Milton Keynes' was a reuse of the name of one of the original historic villages in the designated area, now more generally known as 'Milton Keynes Village' to distinguish it from the modern settlement. After the Norman conquest, the de Cahaignes family held the manor from 1166 to the late 13th century as well as others in the country (Ashton Keynes in Wiltshire, Somerford Keynes in Gloucestershire, and Horsted Keynes in West Sussex). The village was originally known as Middeltone (11th century); then later as Middelton Kaynes or Caynes (13th century); Milton Keynes (15th century); and Milton alias Middelton Gaynes (17th century).


title: Milton Keynes

text: The area that was to become Milton Keynes encompassed a landscape that has a rich historic legacy. The area to be developed was largely farmland and undeveloped villages, but with evidence of permanent settlement dating back to the Bronze Age. Before construction began, every area was subject to detailed archaeological investigation: this work has provided an unprecedented insight into the history of a very large sample of the landscape of south-central England. There is evidence of Stone Age, late Bronze Age/early Iron Age, Romano-British, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, Medieval, and late Industrial Revolution settlements such as the railway towns of Wolverton (with its railway works) and Bletchley (at the junction of the London and North Western Railway with the OxfordCambridge Varsity Line). The most notable archaeological artefact was the Milton Keynes Hoard, which the British Museum described as 'one of the biggest concentrations of Bronze Age gold known from Britain and seems to flaunt wealth.'


title: Milton Keynes

text: Bletchley Park, the site of World War II Allied code-breaking and Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic digital computer, is a major component of MK's modern history. It is now a flourishing heritage attraction, receiving hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.


title: Milton Keynes

text: When the boundary of Milton Keynes was defined in 1967, some 40,000 people lived in three towns and fifteen villages or hamlets in the "designated area".


title: Milton Keynes

text: The radical plan, form and scale of Milton Keynes attracted international attention. Early phases of development include work by celebrated architects, including


title: Milton Keynes

text: Led by Lord Campbell of Eskan (Chairman) and Fred Roche (General Manager), the Corporation attracted talented young architects, led by the respected designer, Derek Walker. In the modernist Miesian tradition is the Shopping Building designed by Stuart Mosscrop and Christopher Woodward, a grade II listed building, which the Twentieth Century Society "inter alia" regards as the 'most distinguished' twentieth century retail building in Britain.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The urban design has not been universally praised. In 1980, the then president of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Francis Tibbalds, described Central Milton Keynes as "bland, rigid, sterile, and totally boring." Michael Edwards, a member of the original consultancy team, believes that there were weaknesses in their proposal and that the Development Corporation implemented it badly.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Milton Keynes Development Corporation planned the major road layout according to street hierarchy principles, using a grid pattern of approximately intervals, rather than on the more conventional radial pattern found in older settlements. Major distributor roads run between communities, rather than through them: these distributor roads are known locally as "grid roads" and the spaces between them the districts are known as "grid squares". This spacing was chosen so that people would always be within six minutes' walking distance of a grid-road bus-stop. Consequently, each grid square is a semi-autonomous community, making a unique collective of 100 clearly identifiable neighbourhoods within the overall urban environment. The grid squares have a variety of development styles, ranging from conventional urban development and industrial parks to original rural and modern urban and suburban developments. Most grid squares have a local centre, intended as a retail hub, and many have community facilities as well. Each of the original villages is the heart of its own grid-square. Originally intended under the master plan to sit alongside the grid roads, these local centres were mostly in fact built embedded in the communities.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Although the 1970 master plan assumed cross-road junctions, roundabout junctions were built at intersections because this type of junction is more efficient at dealing with small to medium volumes. Some major roads are dual carriageway, the others are single carriageway. Along one side of each single carriageway grid road, there is usually a (grassed) reservation to permit dualling or additional transport infrastructure at a later date. , this has been limited to some dualling. The edges of each grid square are landscaped and densely planted some additionally have noise attenuation mounds to minimise traffic noise from the grid road impacting the adjacent grid square. Traffic movements are fast, with relatively little congestion since there are alternative routes to any particular destination other than during peak periods. The national speed limit applies on the grid roads, although lower speed limits have been introduced on some stretches to reduce accident rates. Pedestrians rarely need to cross grid roads at grade, as underpasses and bridges were specified at frequent places along each stretch of all of the grid roads. In contrast, the later districts planned by English Partnerships have departed from this model, without a road hierarchy but with conventional junctions with traffic lights and at grade pedestrian crossings.


title: Milton Keynes

text: There is a separate network (approximately total length) of cycle and pedestrian routes the redways that runs through the grid-squares and often runs alongside the grid-road network. This was designed to segregate slow moving cycle and pedestrian traffic from fast moving motor traffic. In practice, it is mainly used for leisure cycling rather than commuting, perhaps because the cycle routes are shared with pedestrians, cross the grid-roads via bridge or underpass rather than at grade, and because some take meandering scenic routes rather than straight lines. It is so called because it is generally surfaced with red tarmac. The national Sustrans national cycle network routes 6 and 51 take advantage of this system.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The original design guidance declared that commercial building heights in the centre should not exceed six storeys, with a limit of three storeys for houses (elsewhere), paraphrased locally as "no building taller than the tallest tree". In contrast, the Milton Keynes Partnership, in its expansion plans for Milton Keynes, believed that Central Milton Keynes (and elsewhere) needed "landmark buildings" and subsequently lifted the height restriction for the area. As a result, high rise buildings have been built in the central business district.


title: Milton Keynes

text: More recent local plans have protected the existing boulevard framework and set higher standards for architectural excellence.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The flood plains of the Great Ouse and of its tributaries (the Ouzel and some brooks) have been protected as linear parks that run right through Milton Keynes; these were identified as important landscape and flood-management assets from the outset. At ten times larger than London's Hyde Park and a third larger than Richmond Park the landscape architects realised that the Royal Parks model would not be appropriate or affordable and drew on their National Park experience. As Bendixson and Platt (1992) write: "They divided the Ouzel Valley into 'strings, beads and settings'. The 'strings' are well-maintained routes, be they for walking, bicycling or riding; the 'beads' are sports centres, lakeside cafes and other activity areas; the 'settings' are self-managed land-uses such as woods, riding paddocks, a golf course and a farm".


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Grand Union Canal is another green route (and demonstrates the level geography of the area there is just one minor lock in its entire meandering route through from the southern boundary near Fenny Stratford to the "Iron Trunk" aqueduct over the Ouse at Wolverton at its northern boundary). The initial park system was planned by Peter Youngman (Chief Landscape Architect), who also developed landscape precepts for all development areas: groups of grid squares were to be planted with different selections of trees and shrubs to give them distinct identities. The detailed planning and landscape design of parks and of the grid roads was evolved under the leadership of Neil Higson, who from 1977 took over from Youngman. Campbell Park is described by Nikolaus Pevsner as "... the largest and most imaginative park to have been laid out in Britain in the 20th century". The park is listed (grade 2) by Historic England,


title: Milton Keynes

text: In a national comparison of urban areas by open space available to residents, Milton Keynes ranked highest in the UK.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Development Corporation's original design concept aimed for a "forest city" and its foresters planted millions of trees from its own nursery in Newlands in the following years. Parks, lakes and green spaces cover about 25% of Milton Keynes; , there are 22 million trees and shrubs in public open spaces. When the Development Corporation was being wound up, it transferred the major parks, lakes, river-banks and grid-road margins to the Parks Trust, a charity which is independent of the municipal authority. MKDC endowed the Parks Trust with a portfolio of commercial properties, the income from which pays for the upkeep of the green spaces. , approximately 25% of the urban area is parkland or woodland. It includes two Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Howe Park Wood and Oxley Mead.


title: Milton Keynes

text: As a key element of the planners' vision, Milton Keynes has a purpose built centre, with a very large "covered high street" shopping centre,


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes consists of many pre-existing towns and villages that anchored the urban design, as well as new infill developments. The modern-day urban area outside the original six main towns (Bletchley, Fenny Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Stony Stratford, Wolverton, and Woburn Sands) was largely rural farmland but included many picturesque North Buckinghamshire villages and hamlets: Bradwell village and its Abbey, Broughton, Caldecotte, Great Linford, Loughton, Milton Keynes Village, New Bradwell, Shenley Brook End, Shenley Church End, Simpson, Stantonbury, Tattenhoe, Tongwell, Walton, Water Eaton, Wavendon, Willen, Great and Little Woolstone, Woughton on the Green. These historical settlements were made the focal points of their respective grid square. Every other district has an historical antecedent, if only in original farms or even field names.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Bletchley was first recorded in the 12th century as "Blechelai". Its station was an important junction (the London and North Western Railway with the Oxford-Cambridge Varsity Line), leading to the substantial urban growth in the town in the Victorian period. It expanded to absorb the village of Water Eaton and town of Fenny Stratford.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Bradwell is a traditional rural village with earthworks of a Norman motte and bailey and parish church. There is a YHA hostel beside the church.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Bradwell Abbey, a former Benedictine Priory and scheduled monument, was of major economic importance in this area of North Buckinghamshire before its dissolution in 1524. Nowadays there is only a small medieval chapel and a manor house occupying the site.


title: Milton Keynes

text: New Bradwell, to the north of Bradwell and east of Wolverton, was built specifically for railway workers. The level bed of the old Wolverton to Newport Pagnell Line near here has been converted to a redway, making it a favoured route for cycling. A working windmill is sited on a hill outside the village.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Great Linford appears in the Domesday Book as "Linforde", and features a church dedicated to Saint Andrew, dating from 1215. Today, the outer buildings of the 17th century manor house form an arts centre.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes (Village) is the original village to which the New Town owes its name. The original village is still evident, with a pleasant thatched pub, village hall, church and traditional housing. The area around the village has reverted to its 11th century name of Middleton "(Middeltone"). The oldest surviving domestic building in the area (c. 1300 CE), "perhaps the manor house", is here.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Stony Stratford began as a settlement on Watling Street during the Roman occupation, beside the ford over the Great Ouse. There has been a market here since 1194 (by charter of King Richard I). The former Rose and Crown Inn on the High Street is reputedly the last place the Princes in the Tower were seen alive.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The manor house of Walton village, Walton Hall, is the headquarters of the Open University and the tiny parish church (deconsecrated) is in its grounds.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The small parish church (1680) at Willen was designed by the architect and physicist Robert Hooke. Nearby, there is a Buddhist Temple and a Peace Pagoda, which was built in 1980 and was the first built by the Nipponzan-Myōhōji Buddhist Order in the western world.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The original Wolverton was a medieval settlement just north and west of today's town. The ridge and furrow pattern of agriculture can still be seen in the nearby fields. The 12th century (rebuilt in 1819) 'Church of the Holy Trinity' still stands next to the Norman motte and bailey site. Modern Wolverton was a 19th-century New Town built to house the workers at the Wolverton railway works, which built engines and carriages for the London and North Western Railway.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Among the smaller villages and hamlets are three Broughton, Loughton and Woughton on the Green that are of note in that their names each use a different pronunciation of the ough letter sequence in English.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In early planning, education provision was carefully integrated into the development plans with the intention that school journeys would, as far as possible, be made by walking and cycling. Each residential grid square was provided with a primary school (ages 5 to 8) for c.240 children, and for each two squares there was a middle school (ages 8 to 12) for c.480 children. For each eight squares there was a large secondary education campus, to contain between two and four schools for a total of 3,000 – 4,500 children. A central resource area served all the schools on a campus. In addition, each campus included a leisure centre with indoor and outdoor sports facilities and a swimming pool, plus a theatre. These facilities were available to the public outside school hours, thus maximising use of the investment. Changes in central government policy from the 1980s onwards subsequently led to much of this system being abandoned. Some schools have since been merged and sites sold for development, many converted to academies, and the leisure centres outsourced to commercial providers.


title: Milton Keynes

text: As in most parts of the UK, the state secondary schools in Milton Keynes are comprehensives, although schools in the rest of Buckinghamshire still use the tripartite system. Private schools are also available.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Open University's headquarters are in the Walton Hall district; though because this is a distance learning institution, the only students resident on campus are approximately 200 full-time postgraduates. Cranfield University, an all-postgraduate institution, is in nearby Cranfield, Bedfordshire. Milton Keynes College provides further education up to foundation degree level. A campus of the University of Bedfordshire provides some tertiary education facilities locally. , Milton Keynes is the UK's largest population centre without its own conventional university, a shortfall that the Council aims to rectify. In January 2019, the Council and its partner, Cranfield University, invited proposals to design a campus near the Central station for a new university, code-named MK:U. Through Milton Keynes University Hospital, the city also has links with the University of Buckingham's medical school.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes City Discovery Centre at Bradwell Abbey holds an extensive archive about the planning and development of Milton Keynes and has an associated research library. The Centre also offers an education programme (with a focus on urban geography and local history) to schools, universities and professionals.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In Wavendon, the Stables founded by the jazz musicians Cleo Laine and John Dankworth provides a venue for jazz, blues, folk, rock, classical, pop and world music. It presents around 400 concerts and over 200 educational events each year and also hosts the National Youth Music Camps summer camp for young musicians. In 2010, the Stables founded the biennial "IF Milton Keynes International Festival", producing events in unconventional spaces and places across Milton Keynes.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The municipal public art gallery, MK Gallery, presents free exhibitions of international contemporary art. The gallery was extended and remodelled in 2018/19 and includes an art-house cinema. There are also two multiplex cinemas; one in CMK and one in Denbigh.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In 1999, the adjacent 1,400-seat Milton Keynes Theatre opened. The theatre has an unusual feature: the ceiling can be lowered closing off the third tier (gallery) to create a more intimate space for smaller-scale productions. There is a further professional performance space in Stantonbury.


title: Milton Keynes

text: There are three museums: the Bletchley Park complex, which houses the museum of wartime cryptography; the National Museum of Computing (adjacent to Bletchley Park, with a separate entrance), which includes a working replica of the Colossus computer; and the Milton Keynes Museum, which includes the Stacey Hill Collection of rural life that existed before the foundation of MK, the British Telecom collection, and the original Concrete Cows.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Other numerous public sculptures in Milton Keynes include work by Elisabeth Frink, Philip Jackson, Nicolas Moreton and Ronald Rae.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes Arts Centre offers a year-round exhibition programme, family workshops and courses. The centre is based in some of Linford Manor's historical exterior buildings, barns, almshouses and pavilions. The Westbury Arts Centre in Shenley Wood is based in a 16th-century grade II listed farmhouse building. Westbury Arts has been providing spaces and studios for professional artists since 1994.


title: Milton Keynes

text: For television, the area is allocated to BBC East and ITV Anglia. For radio, Milton Keynes is served by Heart East (a regional commercial station based locally) and two community radio stations ("MKFM" and "Secklow 105.5"). BBC Three Counties Radio is the local BBC Radio station. CRMK (Cable Radio Milton Keynes) is a voluntary station broadcasting on the Internet.


title: Milton Keynes

text: , Milton Keynes has one local newspaper, the "Milton Keynes Citizen", which has a significant online presence.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes has professional teams in football (Milton Keynes Dons F.C. at Stadium MK), in ice hockey (Milton Keynes Lightning at Planet Ice Milton Keynes), and in Formula One (Red Bull Racing).


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Xscape indoor ski slope and the iFLY indoor sky diving facility are important attractions in CMK; the National Badminton Centre in Loughton is home to the national badminton squad and headquarters of Badminton England.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Near the central station, in a space beside the former Milton Keynes central bus station, there is a purpose-built street skateboarding plaza named the Buszy.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The responsible local government is Milton Keynes City Council, which controls the City of Milton Keynes, a unitary authority, and non-metropolitan county in law, since May 1996. Until then, it was controlled by Buckinghamshire County Council. Historically, most of the area that became Milton Keynes was known as the "Three Hundreds of Newport".


title: Milton Keynes

text: Although Milton Keynes has no formalised twinning agreements, it has partnered and co-operated with various cities over the years. The most contact has been with Almere, Netherlands, especially on energy management and urban planning. For several years from 1995, the city co-operated with Tychy, Poland, after participating in the European City Cooperation System in Tychy in March 1994.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Due to the twinning of the borough and the equivalent administrative region of Bernkastel-Wittlich, the council worked with Bernkastel-Kues, Germany, for example on art projects.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes University Hospital, in the Eaglestone district, is an NHS general hospital with an Accident and Emergency unit.


title: Milton Keynes

text: It is associated for medical teaching purposes with the University of Buckingham medical school. There are two small private hospitals: BMI Healthcare's Saxon Clinic and Ramsay Health Care's Blakelands Hospital.


title: Milton Keynes

text: There is a Category A male prison, HMP Woodhill, on the western boundary. A section of the prison is a Young Offenders Institution.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The Grand Union Canal, the West Coast Main Line, the A5 road and the M1 motorway provide the major axes that influenced the urban designers.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The urban area is served by seven railway stations. , and stations are on the West Coast Main Line and are served by local commuter services between London and Birmingham or Crewe. Milton Keynes Central is also served by inter-city services between London and Scotland, Wales and the North West and the West Midlands of England: express services to London take 35 minutes. Bletchley, , , and railway stations are on the Marston Vale line to .


title: Milton Keynes

text: The M1 motorway runs along the east flank of MK and serves it from junctions 13 and 14 within the environs of the MK urban area, and junctions 11a and 15 slightly further away via other connecting roads. The A5 road runs right through as a grade separated dual carriageway. Other main roads are the A509 to Wellingborough and Kettering, and the A421 and A422, both running west towards Buckingham and east towards Bedford. Additionally, the A4146 runs from (near) junction 14 of the M1 to Leighton Buzzard. Proximity to the M1 has led to construction of a number of distribution centres, including Magna Park at the south-eastern flank of Milton Keynes, near Wavendon.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Many long-distance coaches stop at the Milton Keynes coachway, (beside M1 Junction 14), about from the centre and from Milton Keynes Central railway station. There is also a park and ride car park on the site. Regional coaches stop at Milton Keynes Central.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes is served by (and, via its Redway network, provides part of) routes 6 and 51 on the National Cycle Network.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The nearest international airport is London Luton and is easily reached by coach. Cranfield Airport, an airfield, is away.


title: Milton Keynes

text: At the 2011 census, the population of the Milton Keynes urban area, including the adjacent Newport Pagnell and Woburn Sands, was 229,941. The population of the borough in total was 248,800, compared with a population of around 53,000 for the same area in 1961. In 2016, the Office for National Statistics estimated that it will reach 300,000 by 2025. As of June 2019, the population is estimated to have reached 245,404.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The average age of the population is lower than is typical for the UK's 63 primary urban areas: 25.3% of the borough population were aged under 18 (5th place) and 13.4% were aged 65+ (57th out of 63). The "mean age is 35.7 and the median age is 35. 18.5% of residents were born outside the UK (11th). At the 2011 census, the ethnic profile was 78.9% white, 3.4% mixed, 9.7% Asian/Asian British, 7.3% Black/African/Caribbean/Black British, and 0.7% other. The religious profile was that 62.0% of people were reported having a religion and 31.4% having none; the remainder declined to say: 52% are Christian, 5.1% Muslim, 3.0% Hindu; other religions each had less than 1% of the population.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In 2014 and 2017, Milton Keynes ranked third in terms of contribution to the national economy, as measured by gross value added per worker, of the 63 largest conurbations in the UK. In 2020, its ranking slipped to seventh.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes has consistently benefited from above-average economic growth, ranked as one of the UK's top five cities. In 2020 it was ranked sixth of 63 for business startups (per 10,000 people).


title: Milton Keynes

text: In 2013, 99.4% of enterprises being SMEs, just 0.6% of businesses locally employ more than 250 people (but more than one third of employees), whereas 81.5% employ fewer than 10 people. The 'professional, scientific and technical sector' contributes the largest number of business units, 16.7%. The retail sector is the largest contributor of employment. Milton Keynes has one of the highest number of business start-ups in England, but also of failures. Although education, health and public administration are important contributors to employment, the contribution is significantly less than the averages for England or the South East.


title: Milton Keynes

text: 75% of the population is economically active, including 8.3% (of the population) who are self-employed. 90% work in service industries of various sorts (of which wholesale and retail is the largest sector) and 9% in manufacturing.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In 2015, the City of Milton Keynes had nine 'lower super output areas' that are in the 10% most deprived in England, but also had twelve 'lower super output areas' in the 10% least deprived in England. This contrast between areas of affluence and areas of deprivation in spite of a thriving local economy, inspired local charity The Community Foundation (in its 2016 'Vital Signs' report) to describe the position as a 'Tale of Two Cities'.


title: Milton Keynes

text: In 2018, the number of homeless young people sleeping rough in tents around CMK attracted national headlines as it became the apex of a national problem of poverty, inadequate mental health care and unaffordable housing. On a visit to refurbishment and extension work on the YMCA building, Housing Minister Heather Wheeler declared that 'Nobody in this day and age should be sleeping on the street'.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes is in south central England, at the northern end of the South East England region, about north-west of London.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The nearest larger towns are Northampton, Bedford, Luton and Aylesbury. The nearest larger cities are Coventry, Leicester, Cambridge, London and Oxford.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Its highest points are in the centre () and at Woodhill on the western boundary (). The lowest point of the urban area is in Newport Pagnell, where the Ouzel joins the Great Ouse ().


title: Milton Keynes

text: Because of the (poorly drained) clay soils and the urban hard surfaces, the development corporation identified water runoff into the Ouzel and its tributaries as a significant risk to be managed and so put in place two large balancing lakes (Caldecotte and Willen) and a number of smaller detention ponds. These provide an important leisure amenity for most of the year. Building in the floodplains of the Ouse and Ouzel was precluded too, thus providing long-distance linear parks that are within easy reach of most residents.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The two Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Howe Park Wood and Oxley Mead, are the most significant of a number of important wildlife sites in and around MK.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Just outside the Milton Keynes urban area lies Little Linford Wood, a conservation site and nature reserve managed by the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust. It is considered to be one of the best habitats for dormice.


title: Milton Keynes

text: Milton Keynes experiences an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification "Cfb") as is typical of almost all of the United Kingdom.


title: Milton Keynes

text: The nearest Met Office weather station is in Woburn, just outside the south eastern fringe of Milton Keynes. Recorded temperature extremes range from during July 2022, to as low as on 25 February 1947; this is the lowest temperature ever reported in England in February. In 2010, the temperature fell to


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Bonnie Lynn Raitt (; born November 8, 1949) is an American blues singer and guitarist. In 1971, Raitt released her self-titled debut album. Following this, she released a series of critically acclaimed roots-influenced albums that incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk, and country. She was also a frequent session player and collaborator with other artists, including Warren Zevon, Little Feat, Jackson Browne, The Pointer Sisters, John Prine and Leon Russell.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 1989, after several years of limited commercial success, she had a major hit with her tenth studio album "Nick of Time", which included the song of the same name. The album reached number one on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year. It has since been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry. Her following two albums, "Luck of the Draw" (1991) and "Longing in Their Hearts" (1994), were multimillion sellers, generating several hit singles, including "Something to Talk About", "Love Sneakin' Up On You", and the ballad "I Can't Make You Love Me" (with Bruce Hornsby on piano).


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt has received ten competitive Grammy Awards, as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She was ranked number 50 in "Rolling Stone"s list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time", and was placed on the magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Australian country music artist Graeme Connors has said "Bonnie Raitt does something with a lyric no one else can do; she bends it and twists it right into your heart." In 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She has also received the Icon Award from the Billboard Women in Music Awards.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Bonnie Lynn Raitt was born on November 8, 1949, in Burbank, California. Her mother, Marge Goddard (née Haydock), was a pianist, while her father, John Raitt, was an actor in musical productions including "Oklahoma!" and "The Pajama Game". Raitt is of Scottish ancestry; her ancestors constructed Rait Castle near Nairn. As a child, Raitt would often play with her two brothers, Steve and David, and was a self-described tomboy. John Raitt's job as a theater actor meant Bonnie did not interact with him as much as she would have liked. Raitt grew to resent her mother, as she became the main authority figure of the household whenever John was away.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt's musically inclined parents had a strong influence on her life. From a young age, she and her brothers were encouraged to pursue music. Initially Raitt played the piano but was intimidated by her mother's abilities. She instead began playing a Stella guitar, which she received as a Christmas gift in 1957 at the age of eight. Raitt did not take lessons, and instead took influence from the American folk music revival of the 1950s. She was also influenced by the beatnik movement, stating: "It represented my whole belief ... I'd grow my hair real long so I looked like a beatnik."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: From ages eight through fifteen, Raitt and her brothers attended a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains called Camp Regis. It was there where Raitt learned of her musical talents, when camp counselors would ask her to play in front of the campers. Learning how to play songs from folk albums then became a hobby for Raitt. As a teenager, Raitt was self-conscious about her weight and her freckles, and saw music as an escape from reality. "That was my saving grace. I just sat in my room and played my guitar,” said Raitt.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: After graduating from Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1967, Raitt entered Radcliffe College of Harvard University, majoring in Social Relations and African studies. She said her "plan was to travel to Tanzania, where President Julius Nyerere was creating a government based on democracy and socialism". She was the lead singer in a campus music group called the "Revolutionary Music Collective" founded by songwriter Bob Telson which played for striking Harvard students during the Student strike of 1970. Raitt became friends with blues promoter Dick Waterman. During her second year of college, Raitt left school for a semester and moved to Philadelphia with Waterman and other local musicians. Raitt said it was an "opportunity that changed everything."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In the summer of 1970, she played with her brother David on stand-up bass with Mississippi Fred McDowell at the Philly Folk Festival as well as opening for John Hammond at the Gaslight Cafe in New York, she was seen by a reporter from "Newsweek", who began to spread the word about her performance. Scouts from major record companies were soon attending her shows to watch her play. She eventually accepted an offer from Warner Bros., who soon released her debut album, "Bonnie Raitt", in 1971. The album was warmly received by the music press, with many writers praising her skills as an interpreter and as a bottleneck guitarist; at the time, few women in popular music had strong reputations as guitarists.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: While admired by those who saw her perform, and respected by her peers, Raitt gained little public acclaim for her work. Her critical stature continued to grow but record sales remained modest. Her second album, "Give It Up", was released in 1972 to positive reviews. One journalist described the album as "an excellent set" and "established the artist as an inventive and sympathetic interpreter". However, it did not change her commercial fortunes. 1973's "Takin' My Time" was also met with critical acclaim, but these notices were not matched by the sales.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt began to receive greater press coverage, including a 1975 cover story for "Rolling Stone", but with 1974's "Streetlights", reviews for her work were becoming increasingly mixed. By this point, Raitt was already experimenting with different producers and different styles, and she began to adopt a more mainstream sound that continued through 1975's "Home Plate". In 1976, Raitt made an appearance on Warren Zevon's eponymous album.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: She came to know Lowell George of the band Little Feat and was strongly influenced by his style of playing slide guitar with a pre-amp compressor. B.B. King once called Raitt the "best damn slide player working today".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: 1977's "Sweet Forgiveness" album gave Raitt her first commercial breakthrough, when it yielded a hit single in her remake of "Runaway". Recast as a heavy rhythm and blues recording based on a rhythmic groove inspired by Al Green, Raitt's version of "Runaway" was disparaged by many critics. However, the song's commercial success prompted a bidding war for Raitt between Warner Bros. and Columbia Records. "There was this big Columbia–Warner war going on at the time", recalled Raitt in a 1990 interview. "James Taylor had just left Warner Bros. and made a big album for Columbia... And then, Warner signed Paul Simon away from Columbia, and they didn't want me to have a hit record for Columbia – no matter what! So, I renegotiated my contract, and they basically matched Columbia's offer. Frankly the deal was a really big deal."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Warner Brothers held higher expectations for Raitt's next album, "The Glow", in 1979, but it was released to poor reviews as well as modest sales. Raitt had one commercial success in 1979 when she helped organize the five Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE) concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The shows spawned the three-record gold album "No Nukes", as well as a Warner Brothers feature film of the same name. The shows featured co-founders Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, John Hall, and Raitt as well as Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the Doobie Brothers, Carly Simon, James Taylor, Gil Scott-Heron, and others.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 1980, she appeared as herself in the Paramount film "Urban Cowboy" where she sang "Don't It Make You Wanna Dance".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: For her next record, 1982's "Green Light", Raitt made a conscious attempt to revisit the sound of her earlier records. However, to her surprise, many of her peers and the media compared her new sound to the burgeoning new wave movement. The album received her strongest reviews in years, but her sales did not improve and this had a severe impact on her relationship with Warner Brothers.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 1983, Raitt was finishing work on her follow-up album, "Tongue and Groove". The day after mastering was completed on "Tongue & Groove", the record company dropped Raitt from its roster, not being happy with her commercial performance up to that point. The album was shelved and not released, and Raitt was left without a record contract. At this time Raitt was also struggling with alcohol and drug abuse problems.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Despite her personal and professional problems, Raitt continued to tour and participate in political activism. In 1985, she sang and appeared in the video of "Sun City", the anti-apartheid song written and produced by guitarist Steven Van Zandt. Along with her participation in Farm Aid and Amnesty International concerts, Raitt traveled to Moscow, Russia in 1987 to participate in the first joint Soviet/American Peace Concert, later shown on the Showtime cable network. Also in 1987, Raitt organized a benefit in Los Angeles for Countdown '87 to Stop Contra Aid. The benefit featured herself, along with Don Henley, Herbie Hancock, and others.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Two years after being dropped from Warner Brothers Records, the label notified Raitt of their plans to release the "Tongue and Groove" album. "I said it wasn't really fair," recalled Raitt. "I think at this point they felt kind of bad. I mean, I was out there touring on my savings to keep my name up, and my ability to draw was less and less. So they agreed to let me go in and recut half of it, and that's when it came out as "Nine Lives"." A critical and commercial disappointment, "Nine Lives", released in 1986, was Raitt's last new recording for Warner Brothers.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In late 1987, Raitt joined singers k.d. lang and Jennifer Warnes as female background vocalists for Roy Orbison's television special, "Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night". Following this highly acclaimed broadcast, Raitt began working on new material. By then, she was clean and sober, having resolved her problems with substance abuse. She later credited Stevie Ray Vaughan for his help in a Minnesota State Fair concert the night after Vaughan's 1990 death. During this time, Raitt considered signing with the Prince-owned Paisley Park Records, but they could not come to an agreement and negotiations fell through. Instead, she began recording a bluesy mix of pop and rock songs under the production guidance of Don Was at Capitol Records.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt had met Was through Hal Wilner, who was putting together "", a tribute album to Disney music for A&M. Was and Wilner both wanted Raitt to sing lead on an adult-contemporary arrangement created by Was for "Baby Mine", the lullaby from "Dumbo". Raitt was very pleased with the sessions, and she asked Was to produce her next album.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: After working with Was on the "Stay Awake" album, Raitt's management, Gold Mountain, approached numerous labels about a new record deal and found interest from Capitol Records. Raitt was signed to Capitol by A&R executive Tim Devine. With her first Capitol Records release, and after nearly twenty years in the business, Raitt achieved commercial success with "Nick of Time", her tenth overall album of her career. Released in the spring of 1989, "Nick of Time" went to number one on the U.S. album chart following Raitt's Grammy sweep in early 1990. This album has also been voted number 230 in the "Rolling Stone" list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Raitt later stated that her 10th try was "my first sober album."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: At the same time, Raitt received a fourth Grammy Award for her duet "I'm in the Mood" with John Lee Hooker on his album "The Healer". "Nick of Time" was also the first of many of her recordings to feature her longtime rhythm section of Ricky Fataar and James "Hutch" Hutchinson (although previously Fataar had played on her "Green Light" album and Hutchinson had worked on "Nine Lives"), both of whom continue to record and tour with her. Since its release in 1989, "Nick of Time" has currently sold over five million copies in the US alone.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt followed up this success with three more Grammy Awards for her next album, 1991's "Luck of the Draw", which sold seven million copies in the United States. Three years later, in 1994, she added two more Grammys with her album "Longing in Their Hearts", her second number one album, that sold two million copies in the US. Raitt's collaboration with Don Was amicably came to an end with 1995's live release "Road Tested". Released to solid reviews, it was certified gold in the US.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: "Rock Steady" was a hit written by Bryan Adams and Gretchen Peters in 1995. The song was written as a duet with Bryan Adams and Bonnie Raitt for her Road Tested tour, which also became one of her albums. The original demo version of the song appears on Adams' 1996 single "Let's Make a Night to Remember".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: For her next studio album, Raitt hired Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake as her producers. "I loved working with Don Was but I wanted to give myself and my fans a stretch and do something different," Raitt stated. Her work with Froom and Blake was released on "Fundamental" in 1998.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In March 2000, Raitt was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. "Silver Lining" was released in 2002. In the US, it reached number 13 on the "Billboard" chart and was later certified Gold. It contains the singles "I Can't Help You Now", "Time of Our Lives", and the title track. All three singles charted within the top 40 of the US Adult Contemporary chart.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: On March 19, 2002, Bonnie Raitt received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to the recording industry, located at 1750 N. Vine Street. In 2003 Capitol Records released the compilation album "The Best of Bonnie Raitt". It contains songs from her prior Capitol albums from 1989 to 2002 including "Nick of Time", "Luck of the Draw", "Longing in Their Hearts", "Road Tested", "Fundamental", and "Silver Lining". Raitt was featured on the album "True Love" by Toots and the Maytals, which won the Grammy Award in 2004 for Best Reggae Album.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: "Souls Alike" was released in September 2005. In the US, it reached the top 20 on the "Billboard" chart. It contains the singles "I Will Not Be Broken" and "I Don't Want Anything to Change", which both charted in the top 40 of the US Adult Contemporary chart. In 2006, she released the live DVD/CD "", which was filmed as part of the critically acclaimed VH1 Classic "Decades Rock Live!" concert series, featuring special guests Keb' Mo', Alison Krauss, Ben Harper, Jon Cleary, and Norah Jones. The DVD was released by Capitol Records on August 15. "Bonnie Raitt and Friends", which was recorded live in Atlantic City, NJ on September 30, 2005, features never-before-seen performance and interview footage, including four duets not included in the VH1 Classic broadcast of the concert. The accompanying CD features 11 tracks, including the radio single "Two Lights in the Nighttime" (featuring Ben Harper). In 2007, Raitt contributed to "". With Jon Cleary, she sang a medley of "I'm in Love Again" and "All by Myself" by Fats Domino.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt is interviewed on screen and appears in performance footage in the 2005 documentary film "Make It Funky!", which presents a history of New Orleans music and its influence on rhythm and blues, rock and roll, funk and jazz. In the film, Raitt performs "What is Success" with Allen Toussaint and band, a song he wrote and that Raitt included on her 1974 album "Streetlights".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt appeared on the June 7, 2008 broadcast of Garrison Keillor's radio program "A Prairie Home Companion". She performed two blues songs with Keb' Mo': "No Getting Over You" and "There Ain't Nothin' in Ramblin'". Raitt also sang "Dimming of the Day" with Richard Thompson. This show, along with another one with Raitt and her band in October 2006, is archived on the "Prairie Home Companion" website. Raitt appeared in the 2011 documentary "Reggae Got Soul: The Story of Toots and the Maytals", which was featured on the BBC and described as "The untold story of one of the most influential artists ever to come out of Jamaica".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In February 2012, Raitt performed a duet with Alicia Keys at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012 honoring Etta James. In April 2012, Raitt released her first studio album since 2005, entitled "Slipstream". It charted at Number 6 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart marking her first top ten album since 1994's "Longing in Their Hearts". The album was described as "one of the best of her 40-year career" by "American Songwriter" magazine. In September 2012, Raitt was featured in a campaign called "30 Songs / 30 Days" to support "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide", a multi-platform media project inspired by a project outlined in a book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. In 2013, she appeared on Foy Vance's album "Joy of Nothing."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: On May 30, 2015, Leon Russell, Bonnie Raitt and Ivan Neville gave a performance at The Canyon Club in Agoura Hills, California to raise cash for Marty Grebb who was battling cancer. Grebb had played on some of their albums.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In February 2016, Raitt released her seventeenth studio album "Dig In Deep". The album charted at number 11 on the US "Billboard" 200 chart and received favorable reviews. The album features the single "Gypsy in Me" as well as a cover of the INXS song "Need You Tonight".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt cancelled the first leg of her 2018 spring-summer touring schedule due to a recently discovered medical issue requiring surgical intervention. She reported that a "full recovery" is expected and that she planned to resume touring with already-scheduled dates in June 2018.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 2022, Raitt announced the title of her 21st studio album would be "Just Like That...". The record was released on April 22, 2022, and coincided with the beginning of a nationwide tour to run through November 2022. Preceding the album, Raitt released "Made Up Mind" as the lead single.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt possesses a contralto vocal range. Music journalist Robert Christgau described Raitt's voice as not particularly beautiful but "textured", capable of shouting, crooning, "carry[ing] a tune or fill[ing] a room". Christgau likened her vocal style to "a loving woman who has the touch, soft and hard at the right times in the right places". Journalist Will Hermes described Raitt's voice as warm and precise. Describing her as a "A master interpreter of other writers’ songs", Chris Hansen Orf of "The Arizona Republic" note that Raitt is equally skilled at singing blues, folk, country, rock and pop music. Kevin McKeough of the "Chicago Tribune" observed that blues has "remained the bedrock of all of Raitt's musical excursions", with her voice alternating between "sigh to a call to a sustained cry". Discussing the ability of a singer to make use of her voice, singer Linda Ronstadt stated "Of my own peers, Bonnie Raitt has way more musicianship than I do." Singer and guitarist David Crosby has said that Raitt is his favorite singer of all time.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt used alcohol and drugs, but began psychotherapy and joined Alcoholics Anonymous in the late 1980s. "I thought I had to live that partying lifestyle in order to be authentic," she said, "but in fact if you keep it up too long, all you're going to be is sloppy or dead." She became clean in 1987. She has credited Stevie Ray Vaughan for breaking her substance abuse, saying that what gave her the courage to admit her alcohol problem and stop drinking was seeing that Stevie Ray Vaughan was an even better musician when sober. She has also said that she stopped because she realized that the "late night life" was not working for her. In 1989, she said, "I really feel like some angels have been carrying me around. I just have more focus and more discipline, and consequently more self-respect."


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt has taken sabbaticals, including after the deaths of her parents, brother, and best friend. She has said "When I went through a lot of loss, I took a hiatus." Raitt and actor Michael O'Keefe were married on April 27, 1991. They announced their divorce on November 9, 1999, with a factor appearing to be that their careers caused considerable time apart.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt's political involvement goes back to the early 1970s. Her 1972 album "Give It Up" had a dedication "to the people of North Vietnam ..." printed on the back. Raitt's web site urges fans to learn more about preserving the environment. She was a founding member of Musicians United for Safe Energy in 1979 and a catalyst for the larger anti-nuclear movement, becoming involved with groups like the Abalone Alliance and Alliance for Survival. In 1994 at the urging of Dick Waterman, Raitt funded the replacement of a headstone for one of her mentors, blues guitarist Fred McDowell through the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund. Raitt later financed memorial headstones in Mississippi for musicians Memphis Minnie, Sam Chatmon, and Tommy Johnson again with the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 2002, Raitt signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a nonprofit organization that provides free musical instruments and free lessons to children in public schools throughout the U.S. She has visited children in the program and sits on the organization's board of directors as an honorary member.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: At the Stockholm Jazz Festival in July 2004, Raitt dedicated a performance of "Your Good Thing (Is About to End)", from her 1979 album "The Glow", to sitting (and later re-elected) U.S. President George W. Bush. She was quoted as saying "We're gonna sing this for George Bush because he's out of here, people!".


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: In 2008, Raitt donated a song to the Aid Still Required's CD to assist with relief efforts in Southeast Asia from the 2004 tsunami. Raitt worked with Reverb, a non-profit environmental organization, for her 2005 fall/winter and 2006 spring/summer/fall tours. Raitt is part of the No Nukes group, which opposes the expansion of nuclear power. In 2007, No Nukes recorded a music video of a new version of the Buffalo Springfield song "For What It's Worth". During the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Raitt, along with Jackson Browne and bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson, performed at campaign appearances for candidate John Edwards.


title: Bonnie Raitt

text: Raitt's principal touring guitar is a customized Fender Stratocaster that she nicknamed Brownie. This became the basis for a signature model in 1996. Raitt was the first female musician to receive a signature Fender line.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Elizabeth Hamilton (née Schuyler ; August 9, 1757 – November 9, 1854), also called Eliza or Betsey, was an American socialite and philanthropist. Married to American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, she was a defender of his works and co-founder and deputy director of Graham Windham, the first private orphanage in New York City. Eliza is recognized as an early American philanthropist for her work with the Orphan Asylum Society.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Elizabeth was born in Albany, New York, the second daughter of Continental Army General Philip Schuyler, a Revolutionary War general, and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. The Van Rensselaers of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck were one of the richest and most politically influential families in the state of New York. She had seven siblings who lived to adulthood, including Angelica Schuyler Church and Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler Van Rensselaer, but she had 14 siblings altogether.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Her family was among the wealthy Dutch landowners who had settled around Albany in the mid-1600s, and both her mother and father came from wealthy and well-regarded families. Like many landowners of the time, Philip Schuyler owned slaves, and Eliza would have grown up around slavery. Despite the unrest of the French and Indian War, which her father served in and which was fought in part near her childhood home, Eliza's childhood was spent comfortably, learning to read and sew from her mother.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Like most Dutch families of the area, her family belonged to the Reformed Dutch Church of Albany, which still stands; however, the original 1715 building, where Elizabeth was baptized and attended services, was demolished in 1806. Her upbringing instilled in her a strong and unwavering faith she would retain throughout her life.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: When she was a girl, Elizabeth accompanied her father to a meeting of the Six Nations and met Benjamin Franklin when he stayed briefly with the Schuyler family while traveling. She was said to have been something of a tomboy when she was young; throughout her life she retained a strong will and even an impulsiveness that her acquaintances noted. James McHenry, one of Washington's aides alongside her future husband, said, "Hers was a strong character with its depth and warmth, whether of feeling or temper controlled, but glowing underneath, bursting through at times in some emphatic expression." Much later, the son of Joanna Bethune, one of the women she worked alongside to found an orphanage later in her life, remembered that "Both [Elizabeth and Joanna] were of determined disposition ... Mrs. Bethune the more cautious, Mrs. Hamilton the more impulsive."


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In early 1780, Elizabeth went to stay with her aunt, Gertrude Schuyler Cochran, in Morristown, New Jersey. There she met Alexander Hamilton, one of General George Washington's aides-de-camp, who was stationed along with the General and his men in Morristown for the winter. In fact, they had met previously, if briefly, two years before, when Hamilton dined with the Schuylers on his way back from a negotiation on Washington's behalf. Also while in Morristown, Eliza met and became friends with Martha Washington, a friendship they would maintain throughout their husbands' political careers. Eliza later said of Mrs. Washington, "She was always my ideal of a true woman."


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: It is said that after returning home from meeting her, Hamilton was so excited he forgot the password to enter army headquarters. The relationship between Eliza and Hamilton quickly grew; even after he left Morristown for a short mission to negotiate a prisoners exchange, only a month after Eliza had arrived. While gone on the prisoner exchange, Hamilton wrote to Eliza continuing their relationship through letters. He then returned to Morristown where Elizabeth's father had also arrived in his capacity as representative of the Continental Congress. Also there had been some talk in at least one letter of a "secret wedding," by early April they were officially engaged with her father's blessing (something of an anomaly for the Schuyler girls—both Angelica and Catherine would end up eloping). Hamilton followed the Army when they decamped in June 1780. In September that year, Eliza learned that Major John André, head of the British Secret Service, had been captured in a foiled plot concocted by General Benedict Arnold to surrender the fort of West Point to the British. André had once been a house guest in the Schuyler Mansion in Albany as a prisoner of war en route to Pennsylvania in 1775; Eliza, then seventeen, might have had a juvenile crush on the young British officer who had once sketched for her. Hamilton, while envious of André for his actions during the war, promised Eliza he would do what he could to treat the British intelligence chief accordingly; he even begged Washington to grant André's last wish of execution by firing squad instead of by hanging, but to no avail. After two more months of separation punctuated by their correspondence, on December 14, 1780, Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler were married at the Schuyler Mansion.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: After a short honeymoon at the Pastures, Eliza's childhood home, Hamilton returned to military service in early January 1781. Eliza soon joined him at New Windsor, where Washington's army was now stationed, and she rekindled her friendship with Martha Washington as they entertained their husbands' fellow officers. Soon, however, Washington and Hamilton had a falling-out, and the newlywed couple moved, first back to Eliza's father's house in Albany, then to a new home across the river from the New Windsor headquarters. There Eliza busied herself in creating a home for them and in aiding Alexander with his political writings—parts of his 31-page letter to Robert Morris, laying out much of the financial knowledge that was to aid him later in his career, are in her handwriting.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Soon, however, Eliza moved again, this time back to her parents' house in Albany. This may have coincided with the discovery that she was pregnant with her first child, who would be born the next January and named Philip, for her father. While apart, Alexander wrote her numerous letters telling her not to worry for his safety; in addition, he wrote her concerning confidential military secrets, including the lead-up to the Battle of Yorktown that autumn. Meanwhile, the war came close to home, when a group of British soldiers stumbled upon the Pastures, looking for supplies. According to some accounts, the family was spared from any losses thanks to her sister Peggy's quick thinking: she told the soldiers that her father had gone to town to get help, causing them to flee from the area.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: After Yorktown, Alexander was able to rejoin Eliza in Albany, where they would remain for almost another two years, before moving to New York City in late 1783. Earlier that year, Angelica and her husband John Barker Church, for business reasons, had moved to Europe. Angelica lived abroad for over fourteen years, returning to America for visits in 1785 and 1789. On September 25, 1784, Eliza gave birth to her second child, Angelica, named after Eliza's older sister.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In 1787, Eliza sat for a portrait, executed by the painter Ralph Earl while he was being held in debtors' prison. Alexander had heard of Earl's predicament and asked if Eliza might be willing to sit for him, to allow him to make some money and eventually buy his way out of prison, which he subsequently did. At this time, she now had three young children (her third, Alexander, was born in May 1786) and may have been pregnant at the time with her fourth, James Alexander, who would be born the following April.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In addition to their own children, in 1787, Eliza and Alexander took into their home Frances (Fanny) Antill, the two-year-old youngest child of Hamilton's friend Colonel Edward Antill, whose wife had recently died. In October that year, Angelica wrote to Alexander, "All the graces you have been pleased to adorn me with fade before the generous and benevolent action of my sister in taking the orphan Antle under her protection." Two years later, Colonel Antill died in Canada, and Fanny continued to live with the Hamiltons for another eight years, until an older sister was married and able to take Fanny into her own home. Later, James Alexander Hamilton would write that Fanny "was educated and treated in all respects as [the Hamiltons'] own daughter."


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: The Hamiltons had an active social life, often attending the theater as well as various balls and parties. "I had little of private life in those days," she would remember. At the first Inaugural Ball, Eliza danced with George Washington; when Thomas Jefferson returned from Paris in 1790, she and Alexander hosted a dinner for him. After Alexander became Treasury Secretary in 1789, her social duties only increased: "Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. [Sarah] Jay and Mrs. [Lucy] Knox were the leaders of official society," an early historian writes. In addition, she managed their household, and James McHenry once noted to Alexander that Eliza had "as much merit as your treasurer as you have as treasurer of the United States."


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Eliza also continued to aid Alexander throughout his political career, serving as an intermediary between him and his publisher when he was writing "The Federalist Papers", copying out portions of his defense of the Bank of the United States, and sitting up with him so he could read Washington's Farewell Address out loud to her as he wrote it. Meanwhile, she continued to raise her children (a fifth, John Church Hamilton, had been born in August 1792) and maintain their household throughout multiple moves between New York, Philadelphia, and Albany. While in Philadelphia, around November 24, 1794, Eliza suffered a miscarriage in the wake of her youngest child falling extremely ill as well as of her worries over Hamilton's absence during his armed suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. Hamilton resigned from public office immediately afterwards in order to resume his law practice in New York and remain closer to his family.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: In 1797, an affair came to light that had taken place several years earlier between Hamilton and Maria Reynolds, a young woman who had first approached him for monetary aid in the summer of 1791. Eliza evidently did not believe the charges when they were first leveled against her husband: John Church, her brother-in-law, on July 13, 1797, wrote to Hamilton that "it makes not the least Impression on her, only that she considers the whole Knot of those opposed to you to be [Scoundrels]." After returning home to Eliza on July 22 and assembling a first draft dated July 1797, on August 25, 1797, Hamilton published a pamphlet, later known as the Reynolds Pamphlet, admitting to his one-year adulterous affair in order to refute the charges that he had been involved in speculation and public misconduct with Maria's husband James Reynolds.


title: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton

text: Eliza was, at the time, pregnant with their sixth child. Despite her advanced pregnancy and her previous miscarriage of November 1794, her initial reaction to her husband's disclosure of his past affair was to leave Hamilton in New York and join her parents in Albany where William Stephen was born on August 4, 1797. She only came back to her marital house in New York in early September 1797 because the local doctor had been unable to cure their eldest son Philip, who had accompanied her to Albany and contracted typhus. Over time Eliza and Alexander reconciled and remained married, and had two more children together. The first, Elizabeth, named for Eliza, was born on November 20, 1799. Before their eighth child was born, however, they lost their oldest son, Philip, who died in a duel on November 24, 1801. After being shot on the dueling field, Philip was brought to Angelica and John Church's house, where he died with both of his parents next to him. Their last child, born the next June in 1802, was named Philip in his honor. During this time, Alexander commissioned John McComb Jr. to construct the Hamilton family home. In 1802, the same year that Philip was born, the house was built and named Hamilton Grange, after Alexander's father's home in Scotland. Eliza and Alexander continued to live together in a caring relationship in their new home that can be seen in letters between the two at the time. When Eliza went away to her mother's funeral in 1803 Hamilton wrote to her from the Grange telling her:I am anxious to hear of your arrival at Albany and shall be glad to be informed that your father and all of you are composed. I pray you to exert yourself and I repeat my exhortation that you will bear in mind it is your business to comfort and not to distress.