title: Duke

text: The Franks employed dukes as the governors of Roman provinces, though they also led military expeditions far from their duchies. The dukes were the highest-ranking officials in the realm, typically Frankish (whereas the counts were often Gallo-Roman), and formed the class from which the kings' generals were chosen in times of war. The dukes met with the king every May to discuss policy for the upcoming year, the so-called Mayfield.


title: Duke

text: In Burgundy and Provence, the titles of patrician and prefect were commonly employed instead of duke, probably for historical reasons relating to the greater Romanization of those provinces. But the titles were basically equivalent.


title: Duke

text: In late Merovingian Gaul, the mayors of the palace of the Arnulfing clan began to use the title "dux et princeps Francorum": 'duke and prince of the Franks'. In this title, "duke" implied supreme military control of the entire nation ("Francorum", the Franks) and it was thus used until the end of the Carolingian dynasty in France in 987.


title: Duke

text: The stem duchies were the constituent duchies of the kingdom of Germany at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (the death of Louis the Child in 911) and the transitional period leading to the formation of the Holy Roman Empire later in the 10th century.


title: Duke

text: In Anglo-Saxon England, where the Roman political divisions were largely abandoned, the highest political rank beneath that of king was ealdorman, and the first ealdormen were referred to as "duces" (the plural of the original Latin "dux") in the chronicles. The title ealdorman was replaced by the Danish "eorl" (later earl) over time. After the Norman conquest, their power and regional jurisdiction was limited to that of the Norman counts.


title: Duke

text: Edward III of England created the first English dukedom by naming his eldest son Edward, the Black Prince, as Duke of Cornwall in 1337. Upon the death of the Black Prince, the duchy of Cornwall passed to his nine-year-old son, who would eventually succeed his grandfather as Richard II.


title: Duke

text: The title of Duke of Lancaster was created by Edward III in 1351 for Henry of Grosmont, but became extinct upon the duke's death in 1361. The following year, Edward III bestowed the title (2nd creation) on his fourth son, John of Gaunt, who was also married to the first duke's daughter. On the same day Edward III also created his second son, Lionel of Antwerp, as Duke of Clarence.


title: Duke

text: All five of Edward III's surviving sons eventually became dukes. In 1385, ten years after their father's death, his heir Richard II created dukedoms for his last two uncles on the same day. Thomas of Woodstock was named Duke of Gloucester and Edmund of Langley became Duke of York, thereby founding the House of York, which later fought for the throne with John of Gaunt's Lancastrian descendants during the Wars of the Roses.


title: Duke

text: By 1483, a total of 16 ducal titles had been created: Cornwall, Lancaster, Clarence, Gloucester, York, Ireland, Hereford, Aumale, Exeter, Surrey, Norfolk, Bedford, Somerset, Buckingham, Warwick and Suffolk. Some became extinct, others had multiple creations, and some had merged with the crown upon the holder's accession to the throne. When the Plantagenet dynasty came to an end at the Battle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, only four ducal titles remained extant, of which two were now permanently associated with the crown. John de la Pole was Duke of Suffolk and John Howard was Duke of Norfolk (2nd creation), while the duchy of Cornwall was reserved as a title and source of income for the eldest son of the sovereign, and the duchy of Lancaster was now held by the monarch.


title: Duke

text: Norfolk perished alongside Richard III at Bosworth field, and the title was forfeit. It was restored to his son Thomas thirty years later by Henry VIII, as one of a number of dukes created or recreated by the Tudor dynasty over the ensuing century. England's premier ducal title, Norfolk, remains in the Howard family to this day.


title: Duke

text: In the 19th century, the sovereign dukes of Parma and Modena in Italy, and of Anhalt, Brunswick-Lüneburg, Nassau, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen and Saxe-Altenburg in Germany survived Napoleon's reorganization.


title: Duke

text: Since the unification of Italy in 1870 and the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918, there have no longer been any reigning dukes in Europe; Luxembourg is ruled by a grand duke, a higher title, just below king.


title: Duke

text: In the United Kingdom, the inherited position of a duke along with its dignities, privileges, and rights is a dukedom. However, the title of "duke" has never been associated with independent rule in the British Isles: they hold dukedoms, not duchies (excepting the Duchy of Cornwall and the Duchy of Lancaster). Dukes in the United Kingdom are addressed as "Your Grace" and referred to as "His Grace". Currently, there are thirty-five dukedoms in the Peerage of England, Peerage of Scotland, Peerage of Great Britain, Peerage of Ireland and Peerage of the United Kingdom, held by thirty different people, as three people hold two dukedoms and one holds three (see List of dukes in the peerages of Britain and Ireland).


title: Duke

text: All Dukedoms in the UK apart from the Duchy of Lancaster are inherited through the male line only, and the word Duchess is only used for the wife of a Duke. Dukes of Lancaster are called Dukes even when they are female, and by tradition the monarch of the UK is known in the Channel Islands as the Duke of Normandy whether male or female.


title: Duke

text: Various royal houses traditionally awarded (mainly) dukedoms to the sons and in some cases, the daughters, of their respective sovereigns; others include at least one dukedom in a wider list of similarly granted titles, nominal dukedoms without any actual authority, often even without an estate. Such titles are still conferred on royal princes or princesses in the current European monarchies of Belgium, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.


title: Duke

text: Other historical cases occurred for example in Denmark, Finland (as a part of Sweden) and France, Portugal and some former colonial possessions such as Brazil and Haiti.


title: Duke

text: In the United Kingdom, a royal duke is a duke who is a member of the British royal family, entitled to the style of "His Royal Highness". Ducal titles which have been given within the royal family include Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Lancaster, Duke of Clarence, Duke of York, Duke of Gloucester, Duke of Bedford, Duke of Cumberland, Duke of Cambridge, Duke of Rothesay, Duke of Albany, Duke of Ross, Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Kent, Duke of Sussex, and Duke of Connaught and Strathearn. Following his abdication in 1936 the former King Edward VIII was given the title Duke of Windsor.


title: Duke

text: In Belgium, the title of Duke of Brabant (historically the most prestigious in the Low Countries, and containing the federal capital Brussels) is awarded to the heir apparent of the monarch, other dynasts receiving various lower historical titles (much older than Belgium, and in principle never fallen to the Belgian crown), such as Count of Flanders (King Leopold III's so-titled brother Charles held the title when he became the realm's temporary head of state as prince-regent) and Prince of Liège (a secularised version of the historical prince-bishopric; e.g. King Albert II until he succeeded his older brother Baudouin I).


title: Duke

text: When the Christian Reconquista, sweeping the Moors from the former Caliphate of Córdoba and its taifa-remnants, transformed the territory of former Suevic and Visigothic realms into Catholic feudal principalities, none of these warlords was exactly styled Duke. A few (as Portugal itself) started as Count (even if the title of Dux was sometimes added), but soon all politically relevant princes were to use the royal style of King.


title: Duke

text: In Portugal, the title of Duke was granted for the first time in 1415 to infante Peter and infante Henry, the second and third sons of king John I, following their participation in the successful Conquest of Ceuta. Pedro became the first Duke of Coimbra and Henry the first Duke of Viseu.


title: Duke

text: From the reign of king Manuel I, the title of Duke of Beja was given to the second son of the monarch. This was changed during the Liberal regime in the 19th century (with Queen Maria II), when the first infante (second son of the monarch) got the title of Duke of Porto and the second infante (third son) was known as Duke of Beja.


title: Duke

text: Usually, the title of Duke was granted to relatives of the Royal Family, such as the infantes or natural sons of the monarch. There are exceptions, such as António José de Ávila, who, although not having any relation to the royal family, was given the title of Duke of Ávila and Bolama in the 19th century.


title: Duke

text: Spanish infantes and infantas were usually given a dukedom upon marriage, excepting the heir apparent who is the Prince of Asturias. This title is nowadays not hereditary but carries a Grandeza de España. The current royal duchesses are the Duchess of Soria (Infanta Margarita) (although she inherited the title of Duchess of Hernani from her cousin and is second holder of that title), and the Duchess of Lugo (Infanta Elena). In Spain all the dukes hold the court rank of "Grande", i.e., Grandee of the realm, which had precedence over all other feudatories.


title: Duke

text: The Northern European duchies of Halland, Jutland, Lolland, Osilia and Reval existed in the Middle Ages. The longest-surviving duchy was Schleswig, i.e., "Sonderjylland" (a portion of which later became part of Germany). Its southern neighbor, the duchy of Holstein, in personal union with the Danish crown, was nonetheless always a German principality. The two duchies jointly became a member of the German "Bundesland" as "Schleswig-Holstein" in the 19th century.


title: Duke

text: Beginning in the 11th century, Danish kings frequently awarded the title of "jarl" (earl) or duke of Schleswig to a younger son of the monarch. Short-lived dukedoms were created for the same purpose in Lolland and Halland.


title: Duke

text: After the accession to the throne of Christian I, a complex system of appanages were created for male-line descendants of the king, being granted non-sovereign ducal titles in both Schleswig and Holstein, e.g. Duke of Gottorp, Duke of Sønderborg, Duke of Augustenborg, Duke of Franzhagen, Duke of Beck, Duke of Glücksburg and Duke of Nordborg. This arrangement occurred in both territories despite Schleswig being a fief of Denmark and Holstein being a fief of the Holy Roman Empire.


title: Duke

text: Key parts of Finland were sometimes under a Duke of Finland during the Swedish reign (until 1809). Some of the provinces are still considered duchies for the purposes of heraldry.


title: Duke

text: In Norway, Skule Bårdsson was first Jarl in 1217, and as such got responsibility for the army, and then in 1237, as another attempt of compromise, Skule was given the first Norwegian title of Duke (Hertug). There is no indication that those two titles meant the same thing, or was mixed. He was first Jarl, and then also Hertig (Duke), but after he became Hertig/Duke he kept his title Jarl.


title: Duke

text: 1295 was the year was the last elected jarl in Norway. 1309 archbishop and jarl Jörund, the last jarl in Norway, who was called jarl in Norway, 70 after Norway had its first hertig (Duke) Nothing indicates that Duke replaced the title Jarl in Norway.


title: Duke

text: Sweden has a history of making the sons of its kings ruling princes of vast duchies, but this ceased in 1622. Only one non-royal person was ever given a dukedom.


title: Duke

text: In 1772, King Gustav III reinstated the appointment of titular dukes but as a non-hereditary title for his brothers. Since then, all Swedish princes have been created dukes of a province at birth. When the 1810 Act of Succession was amended to allow female succession to the throne, King Carl XVI Gustaf's eldest daughter Victoria became Crown Princess (displacing her younger brother Carl Philip) and received the title of Duchess of Västergötland. The practice of conferring ducal titles has since extended to Swedish princesses as well as princes. Currently, there are five dukes and four duchesses in their own right. The territorial designations of these dukedoms refer to ten of the Provinces of Sweden.


title: Duke

text: See appanage (mainly for the French kingdom) and the list in the geographical section below, which also treats special ducal titles in orders or national significance.


title: Duke

text: The highest precedence in the realm, attached to a feudal territory, was given to the twelve original pairies (en: "peers"), who also had a traditional function in the royal coronation, comparable to the German imperial archoffices. Half of them were ducal: three ecclesiastical (the six prelates all ranked above the six secular peers of the realm) and three temporal, each time above three counts of the same social estate:


title: Duke

text: Later, the Archbishop of Paris was given the title of "duc de Saint-Cloud" with the dignity of peerage, but it was debated if he was an ecclesiastical peer or merely a bishop holding a lay peerage.


title: Duke

text: The theory of the participation of the peers in the coronation was laid down in the late 13th century, when some of the peerage (the Duchy of Normandy and the County of Toulouse) had already been merged in the crown.


title: Duke

text: At the end of this same century, the king elevated some counties into duchies, a practice that increased up until the Revolution. Many of these duchies were also peerages (the so-called 'new peerages').


title: Duke

text: In Italy, Germany and Austria the title of "duke" ("duca" in Italian, and "Herzog" in German) was quite common. As the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (HRE) was until its dissolution a feudal structure, most of its Dukes were actually reigning in their lands. As the titles from the HRE were taken over after its dissolution, or in Italy after their territories became independent of the Empire, both countries also had a share of fully sovereign dukes. Also, in Germany in many ducal families every agnate would bear the ducal title of the family as a courtesy title.


title: Duke

text: In Italy some important sovereign ducal families were the Visconti and the Sforza, who ruled Milan; the Savoy in Piedmont; the Medici of Florence; the Farnese of Parma and Piacenza; the Cybo-Malaspina of Massa; the Gonzaga of Mantua; the Este of Modena and Ferrara.


title: Duke

text: In Germany, important ducal families were the Wittelsbachs in Bavaria, the Welfs in Hannover, the ducal family of Cleves, the Wettins in Saxony (with its Ernestine branch divided into several duchies), the Württembergs and the Mecklenburgs. In the German Confederation the Nassaus, the Ascanians of Anhalt, the Welf branch of Brunswick and the Ernestine lines of the Saxon duchies were the sovereign ducal families.


title: Duke

text: In Austria, "Archduke" was the title borne from 1358 by the Habsburg rulers of the Archduchy of Austria, and later by all senior members of that dynasty.


title: Duke

text: In the Kingdom of Hungary no ducal principalities existed but duchies were often formed for members of the dynasty as appanages. During the rule of the Árpád dynasty dukes held territorial powers, some of them even minted coins, but later this title became more often nominal.


title: Duke

text: In the Jagiellonian era (1490–1526) only two dukes did not belong to the royal dynasty: John Corvin (the illegitimate son of Matthias Corvinus) and Lőrinc Újlaki (whose father was the titular king of Bosnia), and both bore the title as royal dukes.


title: Duke

text: After the Battle of Mohács the Habsburg kings rewarded Hungarian aristocrats (like the Esterházys) with princely titles, but they created these titles as Holy Roman Emperors, not as kings of Hungary.


title: Duke

text: The Byzantines retained the title "dux", transcribed as δούξ ("doux") in Medieval Greek. As in the later Roman Empire, it remained a military office and was not a feudal or hereditary rank. In the 10th century, it was given to the military commanders over several "themata" (also known as "katepano"), and in the late 11th century it became used for the governor of a "thema".


title: Duke

text: When the Catholic crusaders overran the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade, they installed several crusader states (see Frankokratia), some of which were of ducal rank:


title: Duke

text: In Italy and other western countries, the later Byzantine appanages of the Palaiologan period were sometimes translated as duchies: the Morea, Mesembria, Selymbria and Thessaloniki. The Greek rank of their holders, however, was that of "despotes".


title: Duke

text: In the independent Kingdom of Greece, the style of Duke of Sparta was instituted in 1868 upon the birth of the future Constantine I as a distinct title for the Crown Prince of Greece.


title: Duke

text: Generally, confusion reigns whether to translate the usual ruler titles, "knyaz/ knez/ książe" etc. as Prince (analogous to the German Fürst) or as Duke;


title: Duke

text: After Belgium and the Netherlands separated in 1830, the title of duke no longer existed in the Netherlands. There is, however, one exception; the title "Hertog van Limburg" ("Duke of Limburg") still exists. This title, however, is an exclusive title for the head of state (the monarch, i.e., the king or queen of the Netherlands).


title: Duke

text: In Georgia, the title of eristavi is equivalent to the duke. the word eristavi means, the head of the nation" or, the head of the army". they ruled the duchy (saeristavo). If the eristavi ruled more than one duchies he/she was called eristavt-eristavi (translates as duke of dukes). In the 6th to 9th centuries, Iberia was ruled by Erismtavari, the title similar to grand duke. Erismtavari was the first among equal dukes". however Georgians use the title of, Eristavi " to describe Georgian dukes only. When talking about foreign dukes, they use the German word "Herzog", which is the German equivalent of 'duke'. In the late 15th and early 16th century, the kingdom of Georgia collapsed and most of the western Georgian dukes became princes. In the 19th century the title of eristavi was abolished by the Russian conquerors and the former dukes took the word Eristavi as their last names.


title: Duke

text: In the Empire of Brazil duke was the highest rank for people born outside the imperial house and only three dukedoms were created. Two of these titles were for relatives of Emperor Pedro I: an illegitimate daughter and a brother-in-law who received the title when married to Pedro I's daughter Maria II. The third, given to Luís Alves de Lima e Silva, was the only dukedom created during the reign of Pedro II. None of these titles were hereditary, just like every other title in the Brazilian nobility system.


title: Duke

text: The royal Christophe dynasty created eight hereditary dukedoms, in rank directly below the nominal princes. They were short-lived and only recognized in the country.


title: Duke

text: Like other major Western noble titles, Duke is sometimes used to render (translate) certain titles in non-western languages. "Duke" is used even though those titles are generally etymologically and often historically unrelated and thus hard to compare. However, they are considered roughly equivalent, especially in hierarchic aristocracies such as feudal Japan, useful as an indication of relative rank.


title: Duke

text: Indian feudal system cannot be fully translated to its European counterparts. The closest equivalent to the title of Sovereign Duke is Rao and Nawab to a feudal duchy, a large jagir. Thus, a Rao (in the ruling system) or a Jagirdar, Deshmukh, Patil, and Zamindar (in a feudal way) are closely equivalent to a Duke.


title: Duke

text: Duke in Turkey, Afghanistan, and Iran after Mongolian war against them, was added as generals and kings of districts or states but in the Kingdom of Persians and Ottomans, the systems cannot be fully translated to its European counterparts so they called those generals and kings as Khan, a Mongolian royal and noble rank from the Turco-Mongol word for "lord," equal to Duke. After revolutions and the falling Empire system in those countries(changing the ruling system to democratic and republic systems), those Khans and the other equal ranks titles added to the titleholder's surnames, and the ranking system, as usual, was disqualified as an official ranking.


title: Duke

text: During the era of feudalism in Ancient China (Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period), the title of "gōng" (公, conventionally translated as "Duke") was sparingly granted. Under the principle of "Three Deferences and Two Royal Descendants" (三恪二王後), the three former royal houses were granted the title of Duke; however, not all scholars recognize such a tradition in the Western Zhou dynasty. For that dynasty, this would be the descendants of the Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty; their dukedoms were respectively Qi (杞) and Song (宋). According to tradition, these states were considered the king's guests rather than subjects. However, recent scholarship has yielded the conclusion that the "gōng" was, at least during the Western Zhou, not a heritable title; rather, it signified a very broad and senior position within the court.


title: Duke

text: In works like "Mencius" and others that date to the Warring States period, "gōng" was interpreted as the highest in the "five ranks of nobles" (五等爵) attributed to the Western Zhou dynasty. However, the title was not in use until the end of the Western Han, until granted to the descendants of the Shang and Zhou royal houses and the eventual usurper Wang Mang. It was also granted to Cao Cao. The title during the Han was inferior to that of prince (諸侯王), which was only available to imperial princes. The "five ranks of nobles" were implemented as such during the Jin dynasty (晉朝). During the Southern dynasties, usurpers typically sought the title of duke, then prince, before compelling the monarch to abdicate.


title: Duke

text: The Duke of Yansheng noble title was granted to the descendants of Confucius. In 1935, the Nationalist Government changed the title to Sacrificial Official to Confucius (大成至聖先師奉祀官), which still exists as an office of the Republic of China, de facto hereditary.


title: Duke

text: Dukedoms and other lesser titles were also awarded, sometimes posthumously (see posthumous names), during the imperial period of Chinese history to recognize distinguished civil and military officials. For example, Emperor Lizong of Song granted the posthumous title Duke of Hui (徽国公) to the Neo-Confucian thinker Zhu Xi.


title: Duke

text: The Javanese kingdom of Majapahit, which dominated eastern Java in the 14th and 15th centuries, was divided into "nagara" (provinces). The administration of these "nagara" was entrusted to members of the royal family, who bore the title of "Bhre"—i.e., "Bhra I", "lord of" (the word "bhra" being akin to the Thai "Phra"), followed by the name of the land they were entrusted with: for example, a sister of the king Hayam Wuruk (r. 1350–1389) was "Bhre Lasem", "lady of Lasem". This system was similar to the Apanage system in Western Europe.


title: Duke

text: Sultan Agung, king of Mataram in Central Java (r. 1613–1645), would entrust the administration of territories he gradually conquered all over the island of Java, to officials bearing the title of "Adipati", this title is hereditary. Such territories were called "Kadipaten". Prior to the unification of Java by Sultan Agung, independent "kadipaten"s also exist, e.g. the Duchy of Surabaya which was conquered by Agung in 1625.


title: Duke

text: The VOC (Dutch East Indies Company), while gradually taking control of Javanese territory, would maintain the existing Mataram administrative structure. "Adipati" were called ""regenten"" in Dutch, and the territories they administered, ""regentschappen"".


title: Duke

text: In the 19th century, the Javanese term for 'regent' was "bupati". French traveller Gérard Louis Domeny de Rienzi mentions "bapati".


title: Duke

text: The "bupati" have been maintained in the modern Indonesian administrative subdivision structure, heading a "kabupaten", the subdivision of a "provinsi" or province.


title: Duke

text: The word "Adipati" is still found in the official title of the hereditary dukes Mangkunegara of Surakarta and Paku Alam of Yogyakarta—i.e., "Kanjeng Gusti Pangeran Adipati Arya" (shortened into KGPAA).


title: Duke

text: In the Kingdom of Benin, a viceroyal chieftain that is known as an "Enogie" in the Edo language is usually referred to as a duke in English. Often a cadet of the dynasty that produces the oba of Benin, the enogie is expected to rule his domain as he sees fit, subject to the approval of the oba.


title: Duke

text: In Ife, Oyo and the other kingdoms of Nigerian Yorubaland, a viceroyalty chieftain is known as a "Baale" in the Yoruba language. He is barred from wearing a crown as a matter of tradition and is generally seen as the reigning representative of his oba, the monarch who has the right to wear one.


title: Duke

text: In Myanmar (Burma), since the Pagan era of 11th century, each and every single one of the royal family received the title of "Myosa" (also "Myoza"), literally means chief of town or territory, which is equivalent to the title of Duke. All royals were given the honor to possess at least one territory by the King. They all were mostly called by their possessions. For instance, Burma's last king, King Thibaw was called by his possession, when he was a prince, of a town Thibaw (Hsipaw in Shan State).


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Lethal Weapon is a 1987 American buddy cop action-comedy film directed and co-produced by Richard Donner, written by Shane Black, and co-produced by Joel Silver. It stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover alongside Gary Busey, Tom Atkins, Darlene Love, and Mitchell Ryan. In "Lethal Weapon", a pair of mismatched LAPD detectives – Martin Riggs (Gibson), a former Green Beret who has become suicidal following the death of his wife, and veteran officer and family man Roger Murtaugh (Glover) – work together as partners.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: The film was released on March 6, 1987. Upon its release, "Lethal Weapon" grossed over $120 million (against a production budget of $15 million) and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound. It spawned a franchise that includes three sequels and a television series, with a fourth sequel in development.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Following the recent death of his wife, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) narcotics Sergeant Martin Riggs, a former Special Forces soldier, has become suicidal and erratic. Despite the protests of the police psychiatrist, the captain believes Riggs is faking his psychosis to be forcibly retired with a generous pension and partners him with fellow war veteran and Homicide Sergeant Roger Murtaugh. Riggs and Murtaugh do not get along as Murtaugh is equally dismissive of Riggs's mental state, but is eventually convinced Riggs is truly suicidal.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Murtaugh is contacted by a former Vietnam War friend, Michael Hunsaker, ostensibly to help his daughter Amanda escape her life of prostitution and pornography, but Amanda kills herself by jumping from an apartment balcony before she and Murtaugh meet. Her autopsy shows she was fatally poisoned with tainted drugs, indicating she was potentially murdered. Riggs and Murtaugh attempt to question her pimp, but are assaulted after finding drugs on the premises, forcing Riggs to kill the pimp to save Murtaugh's life. Their final lead is Dixie, a prostitute who witnessed Amanda's death, and whom the pair believe may have poisoned her. Dixie's home explodes as they arrive and her corpse is later recovered. Riggs locates components of a mercury switch explosive among the debris, a specialty explosive he recalls being used by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mercenaries in Vietnam. The suspect is detailed by neighborhood children, who noticed he had an elite special forces tattoo similar to Riggs's. Murtaugh suspects Hunsaker is withholding information.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Riggs and Murtaugh visit Hunsaker during Amanda's funeral, where he reveals he worked for "Shadow Company", a defunct CIA paramilitary unit which secretly ran the Vietnam War out of Laos and took over the substantial heroin trade in the area from the natives. After the war, the ex-CIA agents, mercenaries, and soldiers involved reformed Shadow Company as a criminal organization and began shipping large quantities of heroin from Asia to the United States, under the leadership of retired General Peter McAllister and his right-hand man Mr. Joshua. Hunsaker's role as a banker allowed him to make the illicit funds seem legitimate. He initially called Murtaugh to confess and turn witness against Shadow Company, and McAllister had Amanda killed in retaliation. Joshua arrives in a helicopter and shoots Hunsaker to death before escaping. Joshua later attempts to kill Riggs in a drive-by shooting, but the latter is saved by his bulletproof vest; Riggs's death is faked to give the pair an advantage.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Concerned Murtaugh knows too much, Shadow Company kidnaps his daughter Rianne and forces Murtaugh to meet them at El Mirage Lake. Riggs provides sniper support to help Murtaugh and Rianne escape, but all three are captured and recovered to a nightclub basement, a Shadow Company front. Riggs and Murtaugh are tortured for information until Riggs escapes, kills several Shadow Company members, and frees Murtaugh and Rianne. Although Joshua escapes, Murtaugh kills McAllister. Deducing Joshua will seek revenge at Murtaugh's home, Riggs and Murtaugh ambush him. Riggs defeats Joshua in a brawl, but decides not to kill him. Police officers take Joshua into custody, but he breaks free, takes an officer's gun, and attempts to shoot Riggs and Murtaugh; the pair return fire, killing Joshua.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: A short time later, after visiting his wife's grave, Riggs shares a Christmas Day meal with Murtaugh and his family. Riggs gifts Murtaugh a hollow-point bullet he has been saving to commit suicide, as he no longer needs it.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Recent UCLA graduate Shane Black wrote the screenplay in mid-1985. Black stated that his intention was to do an "urban western" inspired by "Dirty Harry" where a violent character "reviled for what he did, what he is capable of, the things he believed in" is eventually recruited for being the one that could solve the problem. The protagonists would be everymen policemen, "guys shuffling in a town like Los Angeles searching for something noble as justice when they're just guys in washed and worn suits seeking a paycheck".


title: Lethal Weapon

text: According to Black, his original first draft of the script was very different and much darker than the final film. It was 140 pages long and both the plot and characters were different, and action scenes were also much bigger. The ending of the script contained a chase scene with helicopters and a trailer truck full of cocaine exploding over Hollywood Hills with cocaine snowing over the Hollywood sign. Black hated this first draft and initially discarded it but later picked it up again and re-wrote it into the new drafts that were eventually used for filming.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: His agent sent the "Lethal Weapon" script to various studios, being rejected before Warner Bros. executive Mark Canton took a liking to it. Canton brought along producer Joel Silver, who loved the story and worked with Black to further develop the script. Director Richard Donner also brought in writer Jeffrey Boam to do some uncredited re-writes on Black's script after he found parts of it to be too dark. Boam mostly added some more humor into the script, and later did a complete re-write of Shane Black and Warren Murphy's rejected script for the second film. He also wrote the script for the third film and an unused draft for the fourth film.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: After the script was purchased for $250,000, studio production executives offered it to director Richard Donner, who also loved it. Leonard Nimoy was one of the choices considered for directing, but he did not feel comfortable doing action films, and he was working on "Three Men and a Baby" at the time. With those key elements in place, the search began for the right combination of actors to play Riggs and Murtaugh.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Mel Gibson was invited by Richard Donner as he was interested in working with the actor after "Ladyhawke". Casting director Marion Dougherty first suggested teaming Gibson with Danny Glover, given Murtaugh had no set ethnicity in the script. She arranged for Gibson to fly in from his home in Sydney while Glover was flown in from Chicago, where he was appearing in a play, to read through the script. According to June 2007 "Vanity Fair" magazine article, Bruce Willis was considered for the Riggs role. This is referenced in the spoof of the "Lethal Weapon" films, "Loaded Weapon 1". Bruce (as John McClane) appears after the villains attack the wrong beach residence, looking for the protagonist.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: According to Donner: "It took about two hours and by the time we were done, I was in seventh heaven. They found innuendoes; they found laughter where I never saw it; they found tears where they didn't exist before; and, most importantly, they found a relationship — all in just one reading. So if you ask about casting... it was magical, just total dynamite".


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Gibson said that "this particular story was a cut above others I had passed on, because the action is really a sideline which heightens the story of these two great characters. I picture Riggs as an almost Chaplinesque figure, a guy who doesn't expect anything from life and even toys with the idea of taking his own. He's not like these stalwarts who come down from Mt. Olympus and wreak havoc and go away. He's somebody who doesn't look like he's set to go off until he actually does".


title: Lethal Weapon

text: The draw for Glover was equally strong. Fresh from his success as Mister in "The Color Purple", he felt the role of Roger Murtaugh offered a whole new range of character expression and experience: "Aside from the chance to work with Mel, which turned out to be pure pleasure, one of the reasons I jumped at this project was the family aspect. The chance to play intricate relationships and subtle humor that exist in every close family group was an intriguing challenge, as was playing a guy turning 50. Murtaugh's a little cranky about his age until everything he loves is threatened. His reawakening parallels Riggs'".


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Both actors were signed by early spring 1986. Gibson and Glover then flew home to pack, and, returning to Los Angeles, began an intensive two months of physical training and preparation. Meanwhile, the crucial role of Joshua was settled when Gary Busey asked for a chance to read for the part. An established star since his Academy Award-nominated performance in "The Buddy Holly Story", Busey had not auditioned for a film in years. In Busey's comment: "I had butterflies, I'd never played a bad guy. And no one had seen me since I'd lost 60 pounds and got back into shape. But I decided to take the initiative in order to have the opportunity to work with Dick, Joel, Mel, and Danny. I'm constantly looking for someone to pull the best performance out of me and any of those guys could. They even talked me into dyeing my hair!" In his "E! True Hollywood Story" biography, Busey says he was hired to play Joshua because they were looking for someone big and menacing enough to be a believable foe for Mel Gibson. Busey also credits the film for reviving his failing film career.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Stunt coordinator Bobby Bass planned and supervised all phases of Gibson's and Glover's intense pre-production training; physical conditioning, weight workouts, and weapons handling and safety. Bass also used his own military experiences to bring a greater depth of understanding to the Riggs character. To familiarize the actors with the specialized skills and sensibilities acquired by undercover cops, arrangements were made for Gibson and Glover to spend time in the field accompanying working L.A.P.D. officers. Throughout filming, technical advisers from the L.A.P.D. as well as the L.A. County Sheriff's Department worked closely with Donner and the actors to ensure authenticity.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Cedric Adams was the first technical adviser brought in. Donner said that "Adams thought the best possible way to show just how lethal Riggs really is — is to show his mastery of a form of martial arts never before seen onscreen". Donner wanted Riggs's style of fighting to be unique with the second assistant director Willie Simmons, who was interested in unusual forms of martial arts, choosing three martial arts styles. Gibson and Busey were instructed in Capoeira by Adams, Jailhouse rock by Dennis Newsome and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu by Rorion Gracie. Bobby Bass, the stunt coordinator, a former US Army Special Forces instructor and judo champion, also provided training in various techniques. At one point, the actors trained in between filming, for four hours a day for six weeks and did months of choreography.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Michael Kamen, who just completed work on "Highlander", composed the score for "Lethal Weapon". Editor Stuart Baird had used Edge of Darkness heavily as a temp score for the film, resulting in Kamen being brought on to create the score. The guitar part of Riggs's theme was performed by Eric Clapton. Kamen and Clapton had worked together on the music for the 1985 BBC TV series "Edge of Darkness" (the feature adaptation of which would later, by coincidence, star Mel Gibson). The saxophone part of Murtaugh's theme was performed by David Sanborn. The Christmas song "Jingle Bell Rock", performed by Bobby Helms, is played during the film's opening credits. Honeymoon Suite's song, "Lethal Weapon", is played during the film's end credits without being credited.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: Released on March 6, 1987, "Lethal Weapon" was 1 at the box office for three weeks before "Blind Date" supplanted it. It grossed $120.2 million worldwide and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing (Les Fresholtz, Dick Alexander, Vern Poore and Bill Nelson) (losing to "The Last Emperor"). It is widely considered to be one of the best buddy cop films of all time, influencing numerous "buddy cop" films such as "Samurai Cop", "Hot Fuzz", "Tango & Cash", "Bad Boys" and the "Rush Hour" series.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 56 reviews, with an average rating of 6.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "The most successful installment in a phenomenally successful franchise, "Lethal Weapon" helped redefine action movies for the 1980s and 1990s". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: "Variety" wrote: ""Lethal Weapon" is a film teetering on the brink of absurdity when it gets serious, but thanks to its unrelenting energy and insistent drive, it never quite falls". Richard Schickel of "Time" called it "Mad Max meets The Cosby Show", saying that it works better than expected. Richard Harrington of "The Washington Post" described it as "a vivid, visceral reminder of just how exciting an action film can be". At "The New York Times", Janet Maslin wrote: "The film is all fast action, noisy stunts and huge, often unflattering close-ups, but it packs an undeniable wallop". Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film four out of four stars, saying Donner "tops himself".


title: Lethal Weapon

text: "Lethal Weapon" has been released on Betamax, VHS and DVD numerous times, along with a single Blu-ray Disc release. The first DVD was released in 1997 and featured the film's theatrical version. The Director's Cut was released in 2000. Since then, numerous sets have been released that contain all four films in the series (featuring the same DVDs). The theatrical version was also released on Blu-ray in 2006.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: An alternate opening and ending were both filmed and can be seen on the "Lethal Weapon 4" DVD. The alternate opening featured Martin Riggs drinking alone in a bar where he is accosted by a couple of thugs who attack him for his money, but are easily subdued by Riggs. Director Richard Donner felt the film should open with a brighter look at Riggs, and replaced the bar scene with the scene in which Riggs awakens in his trailer. The alternate ending featured Riggs telling Murtaugh not to retire. Without even thinking about the possibility of sequels, Donner decided that Riggs and Murtaugh's relationship is one of friendship, and filmed the ending that appears in the completed film.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: In addition to the film's theatrical release, an extended Director's Cut version was released later on DVD. The Director's Cut version is longer (117 minutes) than the original theatrical release version (110 minutes), and features additional scenes. One extended scene depicts Riggs dispatching a sniper who had been firing at children in a playground. In another scene, Riggs picks up a street-walking prostitute, but instead of having sex with her, he takes her home to watch "The Three Stooges" on TV, thus illustrating his loneliness following the death of his wife.


title: Lethal Weapon

text: In 2011, Warner Bros. announced to reboot the "Lethal Weapon" franchise without Gibson and Glover. The new franchise was set to feature the same characters but a brand new cast. Will Beall was hired to write the script, but was eventually cancelled. A television version premiered in September 2016 on Fox starring Clayne Crawford as Martin Riggs, Damon Wayans as Roger Murtaugh, and Thomas Lennon as Leo Getz.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: The Shakti Pitha or the Shakti Peethas (, , "seat of Shakti") are significant shrines and pilgrimage destinations in Shaktism, the goddess-centric denomination in Hinduism. The shrines are dedicated to various forms of Adi Shakti. Various Puranas such as Srimad Devi Bhagavatam state the existence of varying number of 51, 64 and 108 Shakti peethas of which 18 are named as Astadasha "Maha" (major) in medieval Hindu texts.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Various legends explain how the Shakti Peetha came into existence. The most popular is based on the story of the death of the goddess Sati. Out of grief and sorrow, Lord Shiva carried Sati's body, reminiscing about their moments as a couple, and roamed around the universe with it. Lord Vishnu had cut her body into 51 body parts, using his Sudarshana Chakra, which fell on Earth to become sacred sites where all the people can pay homage to the Goddess. To complete this massively long task, Lord Shiva took the form of Bhairava.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Most of these historic places of goddess worship are in India, but there are seven in Bangladesh, three in Pakistan, three in Nepal, and one each in Tibet and Sri Lanka. There were many legends in ancient and modern sources that document this evidence. A consensus view on the number and location of the precise sites where goddess Sati's corpse fell is lacking, although certain sites are more well-regarded than others.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Brahmanda Purana, one of the major eighteen Puranas mentions 64 Shakti Peetha of Goddess Parvati in the Bharat or Greater India including present-day India, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, some parts of Southern Tibet in China and parts of southern Pakistan. Another text which gives a listing of these shrines, is the "Shakti Peetha Stotram", written by Adi Shankara, the 9th-century Hindu philosopher.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: According to the manuscript "Mahapithapurana" (c. 1690–1720 CE), there are 52 such places. Among them, 23 are located in the Bengal region, 14 of these are located in what is now West Bengal, India, 1 in Baster (Chhattisgarh), while 7 are in what is now Bangladesh.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Rishi Markandeya composed the 'Devi Saptashati' or the seven hundred hymns extolling the virtues of the Divine Goddess at the shaktipeetha in Nashik. The idol is also leaning a little to the left to listen to the sage's composition. The Saptashati or the "Durga Stuti" forms an integral part in the Vedic form of Shakti worship.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: The third eye of Mata Sati fell below a tree in a mortuary in the Ishan corner of Vakreshwar. This is on the bank of the north-flowing Dwarka river in the east of Baidyanath. Here Mata Sati is called Chandi Bhagwai Ugra Tara and Bhairav is called Chandrachur. This Shaktipeeth is called Tarapith in Birbhum district West bengal, India.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: According to legend, Lord Brahma had performed a "yagna" (Vedic ritual of fire sacrifice) to please Shakti and Shiva to aid in the creation of the universe. As a result, Goddess Shakti separated from Shiva and emerged to help Brahma. Once her purpose was fulfilled, Shakti had to be returned to Shiva. In time, Brahma's son Daksha performed several yajnas to obtain Shakti as his daughter in the form of Sati, with the motive of marrying her to Lord Vishnu.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Daksha performed a yajna with a desire to take revenge on Lord Shiva. Daksha invited all the deities to the yajna, except Shiva and Sati. The fact that she was not invited did not deter Sati's desire to attend the yajna. She expressed her desire to Shiva, who tried his best to dissuade her from going. He relented at her continued insistence, Sati went to her father's yajna. However, Sati was not given her due respect at the yajna, and had to bear witness to Daksha's insults aimed at Shiva. Anguished, Sati cursed her father and self-immolated.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Enraged at the insult and death of his spouse, Shiva in his Virabhadra avatar destroyed Daksha's yajna and cut off his head. His anger not abated and immersed in grief, Shiva then picked up the remains of Sati's body and performed the Tandava, the celestial dance of destruction, across all creation. Frightened, the other Gods requested Vishnu to intervene to stop this destruction. As a recourse, Vishnu used the Sudarshana Chakra on Sati's corpse. This caused various parts of Sati's body to fall at several spots across the world.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: The history of Daksha yajna and Sati's self-immolation had immense significance in shaping the ancient Sanskrit literature and influenced the culture of India. Each of the places on Earth where Sati's body parts were known to have fell were then considered as "Sakti Peetha"s and were deemed places of great spiritual importance. Several stories in the Puranas and other Hindu religious books refer to the Daksha yajna. It is an important incident in both Shaivism and Shaktism, and marks the replacement of Sati with Parvati, and of the beginning of Shiva's house-holder ("grihastāshramī") life from an ascetic. This event is ahead of the emergence of both of the couple's children, Kartikeya and Ganesha.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Each temple has shrines for Shakti and Kalabhairava, and most Shakti and Kalabhairava in different Shakti Peeth have different names.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Some of the great religious texts like the Shiva Purana, the Devi Bhagavata, the Kalika Purana, "the AshtaShakti", and "Pithanirnaya Tantra" recognize four major shakti Peethas (centers) / ,


title: Shakti Pitha

text: which represent respectively the parts ("Khanda"s) foot ("Pada"), breasts ("Stana"), genitals ("Yoni"), and face ("Mukha") Neck("Kanth") of the body of Maata Sati.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Further explaining the importance of these four Pithas, the "Brihat Samhita" also gives the location of these Pithas as (in Sanskrit)


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Apart from these 4 there are 48 other famous Peethas recognized by religious texts. According to the "Pithanirnaya Tantra" the 51 peethas are in the present day countries of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan and Pakistan. The "Shivacharita" besides listing 51 maha-peethas, speaks about 26 more upa-peethas. The Bengali almanac, Vishuddha Siddhanta Panjika too describes the 51 peethas including the present modified addresses. A few of the several accepted listings are given below. In South India, Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh became the site for a 2nd-century temple.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: There are believed to be 64 locations. Adi Shankara's "Asta Dasha Shakti Peetha Stotram" mentions 18 locations known as the "Maha Shakti Pithas". Among these, the Shakti Peethas at Kamakhya, Gaya and Ujjain are regarded as the most sacred as they symbolize the three most important aspects of the Mother Goddess viz. Creation (Kamarupa Devi), Nourishment (Sarvamangala Devi/Mangalagauri), and Annihilation (Mahakali Devi).


title: Shakti Pitha

text: Sharadha Peet is currently in ruined state. Only ruins are found in these places. Its ruins are near the Line of Control (LOC) between the Indian and Pakistani-controlled portions of the former princely state of Kashmir and Jammu. Instead, Sringeri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri in Karnataka even though not a Shakti Peetha, is this aspect of the goddess. Requests have been made by the Hindu community in Pakistan to the Pakistani government to renovate the temple, the issue being raised by former Indian Home minister L. K. Advani to the Pakistan authorities as a confidence-building measure, by increasing the people-to-people cross-border interaction.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: More details on this are available in the text 'Tantrachūḍamanī' where Parvati tells these details to her son Skanda.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: These are not recognised as the Shakti Peethas, but still claimed by the followers, for various reasons.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: There are disputes about the position of this peetha. Based on most presented manuscripts and facts it is situated in jaintiapur upazila, Bangladesh, which was previously the capital of jaintia hills tribe kingdom, which became the jaintia hills district of Meghalaya, India, excluding jaintiapur. However, some people say that it is the nartiang Durga temple which is the real jayanti shaktipeeth, though there is shortage of corroborating evidences. Some other people argue the actual peetha is at Amta in West Bengal, where the Devi is worshiped as "Maa Melai Chandi" in . But this fact can not be corroborated with any evidences. Moreover, refuting most text, in Melai Chandi Mandir the Bhairava is "Durgeshwar" rather than "Kramadishwar". Some also relates Jayanti Devi with the Mahakal cave temple situated in the village Jayanti of Alipurduar, where many status were created by Stalagmite and Stalactite (combination of limes with water), but strong historical support is also absent here.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: The Vindhyavasini Shakti Peetha is considered a Shakti Peetha despite the fact that any body parts of Sati did not fall there. Vindhyavasini Devi is ultimate form of goddess , she is called as aadi shakti. Maa Vindhyavasini consists of all of the dus mahavidya & all other devi present in this universe, she is tripura sundari herself. Many legends are associated with Maa vindhyavasini, she is Mahishaasurmardani . She is combined form all the 108 shaktipeeth as Devi Bhagwath mentions. This is because it is the place where Devi chose to reside after her birth in Dvapara Yuga.


title: Shakti Pitha

text: At the time of birth of Lord Krishna to Devaki and Vasudeva, the Yogamaya(Devi) took birth in Gokul to Nanda Baba and Yashoda as per instruction of Lord Vishnu.The Vasudeva replaced his son Krishna with this girl child of Yashoda. When Kansa tried to kill the girl she slipped from his hands and assumed the form of Mahadevi Adishakti. Thereafter Devi chose Vindhya Mountains as her abode to live on the earth.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Charlyne Amanda Yi (born January 4, 1986) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and writer. Their performances include music, magic, games, and often audience participation.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Their screenwriting debut, the feature film "Paper Heart", won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. They are also known for their role as Dr. Chi Park on the Fox medical drama "House", the voice of Ruby on the Cartoon Network animated series "Steven Universe" (2013–2019), and its epilogue series "Steven Universe Future", the voice of Chloe Park on "We Bare Bears" (2014–2019), the voice of Alice on "Summer Camp Island" (2018–present), and the voice of Mai in "Next Gen" (2018).


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Yi was raised in Fontana, California; their mother has Filipino and Spanish ancestry and their father is of Korean, Irish, Mexican, German, French and Native American descent. They attended the University of California, Riverside before leaving to pursue a full-time career in comedy. They had an early interest in performing while attending Bloomington High School and was involved in theatre.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Yi began their career by performing in Bloomington, California. After high school, they performed shows in Los Angeles at The Steve Allen Theater, and The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. In 2005 and 2006 they performed in the New York Comedy Festival, and in 2007 HBO's U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Yi's film debut was in Judd Apatow's 2007 film "Knocked Up". In 2008, Yi performed as part of the Apatow for Destruction Live comedy show at Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: In the 2009 film "Paper Heart", a "hybrid documentary" in which Yi served as both executive producer and co-writer, Yi starred as a fictional version of themself, alongside Michael Cera.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: They appeared alongside "Saturday Night Live" cast member Fred Armisen in the 2009 music video for the song "Rabbit Habits" by Philadelphia experimental band Man Man.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Yi and Paul Rust formed the band The Glass Beef. The duo share one electric guitar and both sing lead vocals. In 2006, they released their debut album, "The Farewell Album", produced by John Spiker, bassist of Tenacious D.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: In January 2010, Yi performed a duet about break-up lines (the opposite of pick-up lines) with Demetri Martin on the episode "2" for the Comedy Central sketch series "Important Things with Demetri Martin". However, the duet was cut from the final edit of the episode.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: From October 2011 to May 2012, Yi starred in the Fox television series "House" as Dr. Chi Park, a young doctor with anger management issues.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: Yi has been involved with Oxfam America since 2010, working to raise awareness about poverty and hunger around the world. Yi started the non-profit Caring is Cool in 2011, and hosted a benefit show to raise money for the organization.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: In 2018 Amber Tamblyn said of her husband David Cross, "Basically he was rightfully accused of doing something racist to the comedian Charlyne Yi," following tweets that Yi had posted on the subject in 2017.


title: Charlyne Yi

text: In 2021, they spoke out about their experience with James Franco, specifically discussing their efforts to quit his 2017 film, "The Disaster Artist," after learning of the sexual misconduct allegations against him. Yi also criticized Seth Rogen for enabling Franco's behavior and continuing to work with him following the allegations.


title: Sovereignty

text: Sovereignty is the defining authority within individual consciousness, social construct, or territory. Sovereignty entails hierarchy within the state, as well as external autonomy for states. In any state, sovereignty is assigned to the person, body, or institution that has the ultimate authority over other people in order to establish a law or change an existing law. In political theory, sovereignty is a substantive term designating supreme legitimate authority over some polity. In international law, sovereignty is the exercise of power by a state. "De jure" sovereignty refers to the legal right to do so; "de facto" sovereignty refers to the factual ability to do so. This can become an issue of special concern upon the failure of the usual expectation that "de jure" and "de facto" sovereignty exist at the place and time of concern, and reside within the same organization.


title: Sovereignty

text: The term arises from the unattested Vulgar Latin's "*superanus", (itself derived form of Latin "super" – "over") meaning "chief", "ruler". Its spelling, which varied from the word's first appearance in English in the fourteenth century, was influenced by the English reign.


title: Sovereignty

text: The concept of sovereignty has multiple conflicting components, varying definitions, and diverse and inconsistent applications throughout history. The current notion of state sovereignty contains four aspects consisting of territory, population, authority and recognition. According to Stephen D. Krasner, the term could also be understood in four different ways:


title: Sovereignty

text: Often, these four aspects all appear together, but this is not necessarily the case – they are not affected by one another, and there are historical examples of states that were non-sovereign in one aspect while at the same time being sovereign in another of these aspects. According to Immanuel Wallerstein, another fundamental feature of sovereignty is that it is a claim that must be recognized if it is to have any meaning:


title: Sovereignty

text: Ulpian was expressing the idea that the Emperor exercised a rather absolute form of sovereignty that originated in the people, although he did not use the term expressly.


title: Sovereignty

text: Ulpian's statements were known in medieval Europe, but sovereignty was an important concept in medieval times. Medieval monarchs were "not" sovereign, at least not strongly so, because they were constrained by, and shared power with, their feudal aristocracy. Furthermore, both were strongly constrained by custom. Sovereignty existed during the Medieval period as the "de jure" rights of nobility and royalty.


title: Sovereignty

text: Sovereignty reemerged as a concept in the late 16th century, a time when civil wars had created a craving for a stronger central authority when monarchs had begun to gather power onto their own hands at the expense of the nobility, and the modern nation state was emerging. Jean Bodin, partly in reaction to the chaos of the French wars of religion, presented theories of sovereignty calling for a strong central authority in the form of absolute monarchy. In his 1576 treatise "Les Six Livres de la République" ("Six Books of the Republic") Bodin argued that it is inherent in the nature of the state that sovereignty must be:


title: Sovereignty

text: Bodin rejected the notion of transference of sovereignty from people to the ruler (also known as "the sovereign"); natural law and divine law confer upon the sovereign the right to rule. And the sovereign is not above divine law or natural law. He is above ("ie." not bound by) only positive law, that is, laws made by humans. He emphasized that a sovereign is bound to observe certain basic rules derived from the divine law, the law of nature or reason, and the law that is common to all nations (jus gentium), as well as the fundamental laws of the state that determine who is the sovereign, who succeeds to sovereignty, and what limits the sovereign power. Thus, Bodin's sovereign was restricted by the constitutional law of the state and by the higher law that was considered as binding upon every human being. The fact that the sovereign must obey divine and natural law imposes ethical constraints on him. Bodin also held that the "lois royales", the fundamental laws of the French monarchy which regulated matters such as succession, are natural laws and are binding on the French sovereign.


title: Sovereignty

text: Despite his commitment to absolutism, Bodin held some moderate opinions on how government should in practice be carried out. He held that although the sovereign is not obliged to, it is advisable for him, as a practical expedient, to convene a senate from whom he can obtain advice, to delegate some power to magistrates for the practical administration of the law, and to use the Estates as a means of communicating with the people. Bodin believed that "the most divine, most excellent, and the state form most proper to royalty is governed partly aristocratically and partly democratically".


title: Sovereignty

text: With his doctrine that sovereignty is conferred by divine law, Bodin predefined the scope of the divine right of kings.


title: Sovereignty

text: During the Age of Enlightenment, the idea of sovereignty gained both legal and moral force as the main Western description of the meaning and power of a State. In particular, the "Social contract" as a mechanism for establishing sovereignty was suggested and, by 1800, widely accepted, especially in the new United States and France, though also in Great Britain to a lesser extent.


title: Sovereignty

text: Thomas Hobbes, in "Leviathan" (1651) put forward a conception of sovereignty similar to Bodin's, which had just achieved legal status in the "Peace of Westphalia", but for different reasons. He created the first modern version of the social contract (or contractarian) theory, arguing that to overcome the "nasty, brutish and short" quality of life without the cooperation of other human beings, people must join in a "commonwealth" and submit to a "Soveraigne Power" that can compel them to act in the common good. This expediency argument attracted many of the early proponents of sovereignty. Hobbes strengthened the definition of sovereignty beyond either Westphalian or Bodin's, by saying that it must be:


title: Sovereignty

text: Hobbes' hypothesis—that the ruler's sovereignty is contracted to him by the people in return for his maintaining their physical safety—led him to conclude that if and when the ruler fails, the people recover their ability to protect themselves by forming a new contract.


title: Sovereignty

text: Hobbes's theories decisively shape the concept of sovereignty through the medium of social contract theories. Jean-Jacques Rousseau's (1712–1778) definition of popular sovereignty (with early antecedents in Francisco Suárez's theory of the origin of power), provides that the people are the legitimate sovereign. Rousseau considered sovereignty to be inalienable; he condemned the distinction between the origin and the exercise of sovereignty, a distinction upon which constitutional monarchy or representative democracy is founded. John Locke, and Montesquieu are also key figures in the unfolding of the concept of sovereignty; their views differ with Rousseau and with Hobbes on this issue of alienability.


title: Sovereignty

text: The second book of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Du Contrat Social, ou Principes du droit politique" (1762) deals with sovereignty and its rights. Sovereignty, or the general will, is inalienable, for the will cannot be transmitted; it is indivisible since it is essentially general; it is infallible and always right, determined and limited in its power by the common interest; it acts through laws. Law is the decision of the general will regarding some object of common interest, but though the general will is always right and desires only good, its judgment is not always enlightened, and consequently does not always see wherein the common good lies; hence the necessity of the legislator. But the legislator has, of himself, no authority; he is only a guide who drafts and proposes laws, but the people alone (that is, the sovereign or general will) has authority to make and impose them.


title: Sovereignty

text: argued, "the growth of the State giving the trustees of public authority more and means to abuse their power, the more the Government has to have force to contain the people, the more force the Sovereign should have in turn to contain the Government," with the understanding that the Sovereign is "a collective being of wonder" (Book II, Chapter I) resulting from "the general will" of the people, and that "what any man, whoever he may be, orders on his own, is not a law" (Book II, Chapter VI) – and predicated on the assumption that the people have an unbiased means by which to ascertain the general will. Thus the legal maxim, "there is no law without a sovereign."


title: Sovereignty

text: According to Hendrik Spruyt, the sovereign state emerged as a response to changes in international trade (forming coalitions that wanted sovereign states) so that the sovereign state's emergence was not inevitable; "it arose because of a particular conjuncture of social and political interests in Europe."


title: Sovereignty

text: Today, no state is sovereign in the sense they were prior to the Second World War. Transnational governance agreements and institutions, the globalized economy, and pooled sovereignty unions such as the European union have eroded the sovereignty of traditional states. The centuries long movement which developed a global system of sovereign states came to an end when the excesses of World War II made it clear to nations that some curtailment of the rights of sovereign states was necessary if future cruelties and injustices were to be prevented. In the years immediately prior to the war, National Socialist theorist Carl Schmitt argued that sovereignty had supremacy over constitutional and international constraints arguing that states as sovereigns couldn’t be judged and punished. After the Holocaust, the vast majority of states rejected the prior Westphalian permissiveness towards such supremacist power based sovereignty formulations and signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. It was the first step towards circumscription of the powers of sovereign nations, soon followed by the Genocide Convention which legally required nations to punish genocide. Based on these and similar human rights agreements, beginning in 1990 there was a practical expression of this circumscription when the Westphalian principle of non-intervention was no longer observed for cases where the United Nations or another international organization endorsed a political or military action. Previously, actions in Yugoslavia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia or Liberia would have been regarded as illegitimate interference in internal affairs. In 2005, the revision of the concept of sovereignty was made explicit with the Responsibility to Protect agreement endorsed by all member states of the United Nations. If a state fails this responsibility either by perpetrating massive injustice or being incapable of protecting its citizens, then outsiders may assume that responsibility despite prior norms forbidding such interference in a nation’s sovereignty.


title: Sovereignty

text: European integration is the second form of post-world war change in the norms of sovereignty, representing a significant shift since member nations are no longer absolutely sovereign. Some theorists, such as Jacques Maritain and Bertrand de Jouvenel have attacked the legitimacy of the earlier concepts of sovereignty, with Maritain advocating that the concept be discarded entirely since it:


title: Sovereignty

text: Efforts to curtail absolute sovereignty have met with substantial resistance by sovereigntist movements in multiple countries who seek to "take back control" from such transnational governance groups and agreements, restoring the world to pre World War II norms of sovereignty.


title: Sovereignty

text: An important factor of sovereignty is its degree of absoluteness. A sovereign power has absolute sovereignty when it is not restricted by a constitution, by the laws of its predecessors, or by custom, and no areas of law or policy are reserved as being outside its control. International law; policies and actions of neighboring states; cooperation and respect of the populace; means of enforcement; and resources to enact policy are factors that might limit sovereignty. For example, parents are not guaranteed the right to decide some matters in the upbringing of their children independent of societal regulation, and municipalities do not have unlimited jurisdiction in local matters, thus neither parents nor municipalities have absolute sovereignty. Theorists have diverged over the desirability of increased absoluteness.


title: Sovereignty

text: A key element of sovereignty in a legalistic sense is that of exclusivity of jurisdiction. Specifically, the degree to which decisions made by a sovereign entity might be contradicted by another authority. Along these lines, the German sociologist Max Weber proposed that sovereignty is a community's monopoly on the legitimate use of force; and thus any group claiming the same right must either be brought under the yoke of the sovereign, proven illegitimate or otherwise contested and defeated for sovereignty to be genuine. International law, competing branches of government, and authorities reserved for subordinate entities (such as federated states or republics) represent legal infringements on exclusivity. Social institutions such as religious bodies, corporations, and competing political parties might represent "de facto" infringements on exclusivity.


title: Sovereignty

text: "De jure", or legal, sovereignty concerns the expressed and institutionally recognised right to exercise control over a territory. "De facto", or actual, sovereignty is concerned with whether control in fact exists. Cooperation and respect of the populace; control of resources in, or moved into, an area; means of enforcement and security; and ability to carry out various functions of state all represent measures of "de facto" sovereignty. When control is practiced predominantly by the military or police force it is considered "coercive sovereignty".


title: Sovereignty

text: State sovereignty is sometimes viewed synonymously with independence, however, sovereignty can be transferred as a legal right whereas independence cannot. A state can achieve "de facto" independence long after acquiring sovereignty, such as in the case of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Additionally, independence can also be suspended when an entire region becomes subject to an occupation. For example, when Iraq was overrun by foreign forces in the Iraq War of 2003, Iraq had not been annexed by any country, so sovereignty over it had not been claimed by any foreign state (despite the facts on the ground). Alternatively, independence can be lost completely when sovereignty itself becomes the subject of dispute. The pre-World War II administrations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia maintained an exile existence (and considerable international recognition) whilst their territories were annexed by the Soviet Union and governed locally by their pro-Soviet functionaries. When in 1991 Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia re-enacted independence, it was done so on the basis of continuity directly from the pre-Soviet republics.


title: Sovereignty

text: Another complicated sovereignty scenario can arise when regime itself is the subject of dispute. In the case of Poland, the People's Republic of Poland which governed Poland from 1945 to 1989 is now seen to have been an illegal entity by the modern Polish administration. The post-1989 Polish state claims direct continuity from the Second Polish Republic which ended in 1939. For other reasons, however, Poland maintains its communist-era outline as opposed to its pre-World War II shape which included areas now in Belarus, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia and Ukraine but did not include some of its western regions that were then in Germany.


title: Sovereignty

text: Additionally sovereignty can be achieved without independence, such as how the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic made the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic a sovereign entity within but not independent from the USSR.


title: Sovereignty

text: At the opposite end of the scale, there is no dispute regarding the self-governance of certain self-proclaimed states such as the Republic of Kosovo or Somaliland (see List of states with limited recognition, but most of them are puppet states) since their governments neither answer to a bigger state nor is their governance subjected to supervision. The sovereignty (i.e. legal right to govern) however, is disputed in all three cases as the first entity is claimed by Serbia and the second by Somalia.


title: Sovereignty

text: Internal sovereignty is the relationship between sovereign power and the political community. A central concern is legitimacy: by what right does a government exercise authority? Claims of legitimacy might refer to the divine right of kings, or to a social contract (i.e. popular sovereignty). Max Weber offered a first categorization of political authority and legitimacy with the categories of traditional, charismatic and legal-rational.


title: Sovereignty

text: With Sovereignty meaning holding supreme, independent authority over a region or state, Internal Sovereignty refers to the internal affairs of the state and the location of supreme power within it. A state that has internal sovereignty is one with a government that has been elected by the people and has the popular legitimacy. Internal sovereignty examines the internal affairs of a state and how it operates. It is important to have strong internal sovereignty to keeping order and peace. When you have weak internal sovereignty, organisations such as rebel groups will undermine the authority and disrupt the peace. The presence of a strong authority allows you to keep the agreement and enforce sanctions for the violation of laws. The ability for leadership to prevent these violations is a key variable in determining internal sovereignty. The lack of internal sovereignty can cause war in one of two ways: first, undermining the value of agreement by allowing costly violations; and second, requiring such large subsidies for implementation that they render war cheaper than peace. Leadership needs to be able to promise members, especially those like armies, police forces, or paramilitaries will abide by agreements. The presence of strong internal sovereignty allows a state to deter opposition groups in exchange for bargaining. While the operations and affairs within a state are relative to the level of sovereignty within that state, there is still an argument over who should hold the authority in a sovereign state.


title: Sovereignty

text: This argument between who should hold the authority within a sovereign state is called the traditional doctrine of public sovereignty. This discussion is between an internal sovereign or an authority of public sovereignty. An internal sovereign is a political body that possesses ultimate, final and independent authority; one whose decisions are binding upon all citizens, groups and institutions in society. Early thinkers believed sovereignty should be vested in the hands of a single person, a monarch. They believed the overriding merit of vesting sovereignty in a single individual was that sovereignty would therefore be indivisible; it would be expressed in a single voice that could claim final authority. An example of an internal sovereign is Louis XIV of France during the seventeenth century; Louis XIV claimed that he was the state. Jean-Jacques Rousseau rejected monarchical rule in favor of the other type of authority within a sovereign state, public sovereignty. Public Sovereignty is the belief that ultimate authority is vested in the people themselves, expressed in the idea of the general will. This means that the power is elected and supported by its members, the authority has a central goal of the good of the people in mind. The idea of public sovereignty has often been the basis for modern democratic theory.


title: Sovereignty

text: Within the modern governmental system, internal sovereignty is usually found in states that have public sovereignty and is rarely found within a state controlled by an internal sovereign. A form of government that is a little different from both is the UK parliament system. John Austin argued that sovereignty in the UK was vested neither in the Crown nor in the people but in the "Queen-in-Parliament". This is the origin of the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty and is usually seen as the fundamental principle of the British constitution. With these principles of parliamentary sovereignty, majority control can gain access to unlimited constitutional authority, creating what has been called "elective dictatorship" or "modern autocracy". Public sovereignty in modern governments is a lot more common with examples like the US, Canada, Australia and India where the government is divided into different levels.


title: Sovereignty

text: External sovereignty concerns the relationship between sovereign power and other states. For example, the United Kingdom uses the following criterion when deciding under what conditions other states recognise a political entity as having sovereignty over some territory;


title: Sovereignty

text: External sovereignty is connected with questions of international law – such as when, if ever, is intervention by one country into another's territory permissible?


title: Sovereignty

text: Following the Thirty Years' War, a European religious conflict that embroiled much of the continent, the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 established the notion of territorial sovereignty as a norm of noninterference in the affairs of other states, so-called Westphalian sovereignty, even though the actual treaty itself reaffirmed the multiple levels of the sovereignty of the Holy Roman Empire. This resulted as a natural extension of the older principle of "cuius regio, eius religio" (Whose realm, his religion), leaving the Roman Catholic Church with little ability to interfere with the internal affairs of many European states. It is a myth, however, that the Treaties of Westphalia created a new European order of equal sovereign states.


title: Sovereignty

text: In international law, sovereignty means that a government possesses full control over affairs within a territorial or geographical area or limit. Determining whether a specific entity is sovereign is not an exact science, but often a matter of diplomatic dispute. There is usually an expectation that both "de jure" and "de facto" sovereignty rest in the same organisation at the place and time of concern. Foreign governments use varied criteria and political considerations when deciding whether or not to recognise the sovereignty of a state over a territory. Membership in the United Nations requires that "[t]he admission of any such state to membership in the United Nations will be affected by a decision of the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council."


title: Sovereignty

text: Sovereignty may be recognized even when the sovereign body possesses no territory or its territory is under partial or total occupation by another power. The Holy See was in this position between the annexation in 1870 of the Papal States by Italy and the signing of the Lateran Treaties in 1929, a 59-year period during which it was recognised as sovereign by many (mostly Roman Catholic) states despite possessing no territory – a situation resolved when the Lateran Treaties granted the Holy See sovereignty over the Vatican City. Another case, "sui generis" is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the third sovereign entity inside Italian territory (after San Marino and the Vatican City State) and the second inside the Italian capital (since in 1869 the Palazzo di Malta and the Villa Malta receive extraterritorial rights, in this way becoming the only "sovereign" territorial possessions of the modern Order), which is the last existing heir to one of several once militarily significant, crusader states of sovereign military orders. In 1607 its Grand masters were also made Reichsfürst (princes of the Holy Roman Empire) by the Holy Roman Emperor, granting them seats in the Reichstag, at the time the closest permanent equivalent to an UN-type general assembly; confirmed 1620. These sovereign rights were never deposed, only the territories were lost. Over 100 modern states maintain full diplomatic relations with the order, and the UN awarded it observer status.


title: Sovereignty

text: The governments-in-exile of many European states (for instance, Norway, Netherlands or Czechoslovakia) during the Second World War were regarded as sovereign despite their territories being under foreign occupation; their governance resumed as soon as the occupation had ended. The government of Kuwait was in a similar situation "vis-à-vis" the Iraqi occupation of its country during 1990–1991. The government of Republic of China was recognized as sovereign over China from 1911 to 1971 despite that its mainland China territory became occupied by Communist Chinese forces since 1949. In 1971 it lost UN recognition to Chinese Communist-led People's Republic of China and its sovereign and political status as a state became disputed; therefore, it lost its ability to use "China" as its name and therefore became commonly known as Taiwan.


title: Sovereignty

text: The International Committee of the Red Cross is commonly mistaken to be sovereign. It has been granted various degrees of special privileges and legal immunities in many countries, including Belgium, France, Switzerland and soon in Ireland. Similarly for Australia, Russia, South Korea, South Africa and the US. that in cases like Switzerland are considerable, The Committee is a private organisation governed by Swiss law.


title: Sovereignty

text: Just as the office of head of state can be vested jointly in several persons within a state, the sovereign jurisdiction over a single political territory can be shared jointly by two or more consenting powers, notably in the form of a condominium.


title: Sovereignty

text: Likewise the member states of international organizations may voluntarily bind themselves by treaty to a supranational organization, such as a continental union. In the case of the European Union member-states, this is called "pooled sovereignty".


title: Sovereignty

text: Another example of shared and pooled sovereignty is the Acts of Union 1707 which created the unitary state now known as the United Kingdom. It was a full economic union, meaning the Scottish and English systems of currency, taxation and laws regulating trade were aligned. Nonetheless, Scotland and England never fully surrendered or pooled all of their governance sovereignty; they retained many of their previous national institutional features and characteristics, particularly relating to their legal, religious and educational systems. In 2012, the Scottish Government, created in 1998 through devolution in the United Kingdom, negotiated terms with the Government of the United Kingdom for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum which resulted in the people of Scotland deciding to continue the pooling of its sovereignty with the rest of the United Kingdom.


title: Sovereignty

text: A community of people who claim the right of self-determination based on a common ethnicity, history and culture might seek to establish sovereignty over a region, thus creating a nation-state. Such nations are sometimes recognised as autonomous areas rather than as fully sovereign, independent states.


title: Sovereignty

text: In a federal system of government, "sovereignty" also refers to powers which a constituent state or republic possesses independently of the national government. In a confederation, constituent entities retain the right to withdraw from the national body and the union is often more temporary than a federation.


title: Sovereignty

text: Different interpretations of state sovereignty in the United States of America, as it related to the expansion of slavery and fugitive slave laws, led to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Depending on the particular issue, sometimes both northern and southern states justified their political positions by appealing to state sovereignty. Fearing that slavery would be threatened by results of the 1860 presidential election, eleven slave states declared their independence from the federal Union and formed a new confederation. The United States government rejected the secessions as rebellion, declaring that secession from the Union by an individual state was unconstitutional, as the states were part of an indissoluble federation.


title: Sovereignty

text: In situations related to war, or which have arisen as the result of war, most modern scholars still commonly fail to distinguish between holding sovereignty and exercising military occupation.


title: Sovereignty

text: In regard to military occupation, international law prescribes the limits of the occupant's power. Occupation does not displace the sovereignty of the occupied state, though for the time being the occupant may exercise supreme governing authority. Nor does occupation effect any annexation or incorporation of the occupied territory into the territory or political structure of the occupant, and the occupant's constitution and laws do not extend of their own force to the occupied territory.


title: Sovereignty

text: To a large extent, the original academic foundation for the concept of "military occupation" arose from On the Law of War and Peace (1625) by Hugo Grotius and The Law of Nations (1758) by Emmerich de Vattel. Binding international rules regarding the conduct of military occupation were more carefully codified in the 1907 Hague Convention (and accompanying Hague Regulations).


title: Sovereignty

text: In 1946 the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal stated with regard to the Hague Convention on Land Warfare of 1907: "The rules of land warfare expressed in the Convention undoubtedly represented an advance over existing International Law at the time of their adoption ... but by 1939 these rules ... were recognized by all civilized nations and were regarded as being declaratory of the laws and customs of war."


title: Sovereignty

text: A number of modes for acquisition of sovereignty are presently or have historically been recognized in international law as lawful methods by which a state may acquire sovereignty over external territory. The classification of these modes originally derived from Roman property law and from the 15th and 16th century with the development of international law. The modes are:


title: Sovereignty

text: There exist vastly differing views on the moral basis of sovereignty. A fundamental polarity is between theories which assert that sovereignty is vested directly in the sovereigns by divine or natural right, and theories which assert it originates from the people. In the latter case there is a further division into those which assert that the people transfer their sovereignty to the sovereign (Hobbes), and those which assert that the people retain their sovereignty (Rousseau).


title: Sovereignty

text: During the brief period of absolute monarchies in Europe, the divine right of kings was an important competing justification for the exercise of sovereignty. The Mandate of Heaven had some similar implications in China.


title: Sovereignty

text: A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, retain sovereignty over the government and where offices of state are not granted through heritage. A common modern definition of a republic is a government having a head of state who is not a monarch.


title: Sovereignty

text: Democracy is based on the concept of "popular sovereignty". In a direct democracy the public plays an active role in shaping and deciding policy. Representative democracy permits a transfer of the exercise of sovereignty from the people to a legislative body or an executive (or to some combination of the legislature, executive and Judiciary). Many representative democracies provide limited direct democracy through referendum, initiative, and recall.


title: Sovereignty

text: Parliamentary sovereignty refers to a representative democracy where the parliament is ultimately sovereign, neither the executive power nor the judiciary.


title: Sovereignty

text: According to Matteo Laruffa "sovereignty resides in every public action and policy as the exercise of executive powers by institutions open to the participation of citizens to the decision-making processes"


title: Andy Williams

text: Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hosted "The Andy Williams Show", a television variety show, from 1962 to 1971, along with numerous TV specials. "The Andy Williams Show" won three Emmy Awards. He sold more than 45 million records worldwide, including more than 10 million certified units in the United States.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams was active in the music industry for over 70 years until his death from bladder cancer in 2012, at the age of 84.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams was born in Wall Lake, Iowa, to Florence ("née" Finley) and Jay Emerson Williams, who worked in insurance and the post office. While living in Cheviot, Ohio, Williams attended Western Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. He finished high school at University High School, in West Los Angeles, because of his family's move to California. At 17, Williams joined the United States Merchant Marine and served until the end of World War II.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams had three older brothers—Bob, Don, and Dick Williams. His first performance was in a children's choir at the local Presbyterian church. His brothers and he formed the Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938, and they performed on radio in the Midwest, first at WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at WLS in Chicago, and WLW in Cincinnati.


title: Andy Williams

text: Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, the Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on his 1944 hit record "Swinging on a Star". They appeared in four musical films: "Janie" (1944), "Kansas City Kitty" (1944), "Something in the Wind" (1947), and "Ladies' Man" (1947).


title: Andy Williams

text: A persistent myth alleges that as a teenager, the future singing star dubbed the singing for Lauren Bacall's character in the 1944 feature film "To Have and Have Not". According to authoritative sources, including Howard Hawks and Bacall herself, this was not true. Williams and some female singers were tested to dub for Bacall because of fears that she lacked the necessary vocal skills, but those fears were overshadowed by the desire to have Bacall do her own singing despite her imperfect vocal talent.


title: Andy Williams

text: The Williams Brothers were signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) to appear in "Anchors Aweigh" and "Ziegfeld Follies" (1945), but before they went before the cameras the oldest brother, Bob, was drafted into military service and the group's contract was cancelled. Kay Thompson, a former radio star who was now head of the vocal department at MGM, had a nose for talent and hired the remaining three Williams brothers to sing in her large choir on many soundtracks for MGM films, including "The Harvey Girls" (1946). When Bob completed his military service, Kay hired all four brothers to sing on the soundtrack to "Good News" (1947).


title: Andy Williams

text: By then, Thompson was tired of working behind the scenes at MGM, so with the four Williams boys as her backup singers and dancers, she formed a nightclub act, Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers. They made their debut in Las Vegas in 1947 and became an overnight sensation. Within a year, they were the highest-paid nightclub act in the world, breaking records wherever they appeared.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams revealed in his memoir "Moon River and Me" that Thompson and he became romantically involved while on tour despite the age difference (he was 19 and she was 38). The act broke up in 1949, but reunited for another hugely successful tour from the fall of 1951 through the summer of 1953. After that, the four brothers went their separate ways. A complete itinerary of both tours is listed on the Kay Thompson biography website.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams and Thompson, however, remained very close, both personally and professionally. She mentored his emergence as a solo singing star. She coached him, wrote his arrangements, and composed many songs that he recorded, including his 1958 top-20 hit "Promise Me, Love", and later, "Kay Thompson's Jingle Bells" on his 1964 number-one "The Andy Williams Christmas Album". Using her contacts in the business, Thompson helped Williams land his breakthrough television gig as a featured singer for two and a half years on "Tonight Starring Steve Allen"; it helped that the producer of the series, Bill Harbach, was Kay's former "aide-de-camp". Thompson also got Williams his breakthrough recording contract with Cadence Records, whose owner, Archie Bleyer, had gotten early career breaks because of Kay and owed her a favor. Meanwhile, Williams sang backup on many of Thompson's recordings through the 1950s, including her top-40 hit "Eloise", based on her bestselling books about the mischievous little girl who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York.


title: Andy Williams

text: Thompson also served as a creative consultant and vocal arranger on Williams's three summer-replacement network television series in 1957, 1958, and 1959. In the summer of 1961, Thompson traveled with Williams and coached him throughout his starring role in a summer stock tour of the musical "Pal Joey". Their personal and professional relationship finally ended in 1962, after Williams met and married Claudine Longet, and Thompson moved to Rome.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams's solo career began in 1953. He recorded six sides for RCA Victor's label "X", but none was a popular hit.


title: Andy Williams

text: After landing a spot as a regular on the "Tonight Starring Steve Allen" in 1954, Williams was signed to a recording contract with Cadence Records, a small label in New York, run by conductor Archie Bleyer. Williams's third single, "Canadian Sunset", reached number seven in the top 10 in August 1956; it was followed in February 1957 by his only "Billboard" number-one hit, "Butterfly", a cover of a Charlie Gracie record. "Butterfly" was also number one for two weeks on the UK Singles Chart in May 1957. More hit records followed, including "Hawaiian Wedding Song" (US number 11), "Are You Sincere?" (US number three in February 1958), "The Village of St. Bernadette" (US number seven in December 1959), "Lonely Street" (US number five in September 1959), and "I Like Your Kind of Love" with Peggy Powers (US number eight in May 1957).


title: Andy Williams

text: On December 15, 1961, Williams married Claudine Longet and signed with Columbia Records. His first album with Columbia, "Danny Boy and Other Songs I Love to Sing", was a chart success, peaking at number 19. He was then asked to sing "Moon River", the theme from "Breakfast at Tiffany's", at the 1962 Academy Awards, where it won Best Original Song. Archie Bleyer at Cadence had previously told Williams that "Moon River" would not be a hit, but the Columbia producers encouraged Andy to record the song along with 11 other movie themes for an album. After Williams performed the song at the awards show, it became a hit. "Moon River and Other Great Movie Themes" then sold across the country, garnering critical acclaim and propelling Williams into stardom. The album remained on the charts for the next three years and peaked at number three. In 1963, Williams's producer, Robert Mersey, encouraged him to record "Can't Get Used to Losing You" as the B-side to "Days of Wine and Roses". Williams initially did not like the pop song, preferring the Mancini tune, but "Can't Get Used to Losing You" reached number two in the US and UK. The album containing both songs, "Days of Wine and Roses and Other TV Requests", topped the album charts at number one for 16 weeks.


title: Andy Williams

text: From 1962 to 1972, Williams was one of the most popular vocalists in the country, and was signed to what was at that time the biggest recording contract in history. He was primarily an album artist, and at one time, he had recorded more gold albums than any solo performer except Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, and Elvis Presley. By 1973, he had earned as many as 17 gold-album awards. Among his hit albums from this period were "The Andy Williams Christmas Album", "Dear Heart", "The Shadow of Your Smile", "Love, Andy", "Happy Heart", "Get Together with Andy Williams", "Love Story", and "Love Theme from the Godfather". These recordings, along with his natural affinity for the music of the 1960s and early 1970s, combined to make him one of the premier easy-listening singers of that era.


title: Andy Williams

text: In the UK, Williams continued to reach high chart status until 1978. The albums "Dear Heart" (1965), "Love Andy" (1967), "Can't Help Falling in Love" (1970), "Andy Williams Show" (1970), "Home Lovin' Man" (number one, 1971), "Solitaire" (1973), "The Way We Were" (1974), and "Reflections" (1978) all reached the top 10.


title: Andy Williams

text: Williams forged an indirect collaborative relationship with Henry Mancini, although they never recorded together. Both "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" were written by Mancini, with lyrics by Johnny Mercer. Williams sang Mancini's "Dear Heart" at the 1965 Academy Awards and "The Sweetheart Tree" (also written with Mercer) at the 1966 Awards.


title: Andy Williams

text: On August 5, 1966, the 14-story, 700-room Caesars Palace casino and nightclub opened in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the stage production of "Rome Swings", in which Williams starred. He performed to a sold-out crowd in the Circus Maximus showroom. He headlined for Caesars for the next 20 years.