title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: The midpoint of the distribution ("a" + "b") / 2 is both the mean and the median of the uniform distribution. Although both the sample mean and the sample median are unbiased estimators of the midpoint, neither is as efficient as the sample mid-range, i.e. the arithmetic mean of the sample maximum and the sample minimum, which is the UMVU estimator of the midpoint (and also the maximum likelihood estimate).


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: Let "X", "X", "X", ..., "X" be a sample from formula_37 where "L" is the population maximum. Then "X" = max( "X", "X", "X", ..., "X" ) has the Lebesgue-Borel-density formula_38


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: The confidence interval given before is mathematically incorrect, as formula_40 cannot be solved for formula_41 without knowledge of formula_42. However one can solve


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: one then chooses the smallest formula_46 possible satisfying the condition above. Note that the interval length depends upon the random variable formula_47.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: The probabilities for uniform distribution function are simple to calculate due to the simplicity of the function form. Therefore, there are various applications that this distribution can be used for as shown below: hypothesis testing situations, random sampling cases, finance, etc. Furthermore, generally, experiments of physical origin follow a uniform distribution (e.g. emission of radioactive particles). However, it is important to note that in any application, there is the unchanging assumption that the probability of falling in an interval of fixed length is constant.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: In the field of economics, usually demand and replenishment may not follow the expected normal distribution. As a result, other distribution models are used to better predict probabilities and trends such as Bernoulli process. But according to Wanke (2008), in the particular case of investigating lead-time for inventory management at the beginning of the life cycle when a completely new product is being analyzed, the uniform distribution proves to be more useful. In this situation, other distribution may not be viable since there is no existing data on the new product or that the demand history is unavailable so there isn't really an appropriate or known distribution. The uniform distribution would be ideal in this situation since the random variable of lead-time (related to demand) is unknown for the new product but the results are likely to range between a plausible range of two values. The lead-time would thus represent the random variable. From the uniform distribution model, other factors related to lead-time were able to be calculated such as cycle service level and shortage per cycle. It was also noted that the uniform distribution was also used due to the simplicity of the calculations.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: The uniform distribution is useful for sampling from arbitrary distributions. A general method is the inverse transform sampling method, which uses the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the target random variable. This method is very useful in theoretical work. Since simulations using this method require inverting the CDF of the target variable, alternative methods have been devised for the cases where the CDF is not known in closed form. One such method is rejection sampling.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: The normal distribution is an important example where the inverse transform method is not efficient. However, there is an exact method, the Box–Muller transformation, which uses the inverse transform to convert two independent uniform random variables into two independent normally distributed random variables.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: In analog-to-digital conversion a quantization error occurs. This error is either due to rounding or truncation. When the original signal is much larger than one least significant bit (LSB), the quantization error is not significantly correlated with the signal, and has an approximately uniform distribution. The RMS error therefore follows from the variance of this distribution.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: There are many applications in which it is useful to run simulation experiments. Many programming languages come with implementations to generate pseudo-random numbers which are effectively distributed according to the standard uniform distribution.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: On the other hand, the uniformly distributed numbers are often used as the basis for non-uniform random variate generation.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: If "u" is a value sampled from the standard uniform distribution, then the value "a" + ("b" − "a")"u" follows the uniform distribution parametrised by "a" and "b", as described above.


title: Continuous uniform distribution

text: While the historical origins in the conception of uniform distribution are inconclusive, it is speculated that the term 'uniform' arose from the concept of equiprobability in dice games (note that the dice games would have discrete and not continuous uniform sample space). Equiprobability was mentioned in Gerolamo Cardano's "Liber de Ludo Aleae", a manual written in 16th century and detailed on advanced probability calculus in relation to dice.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Sacré-Cœur Basilica is located at the summit of the butte of Montmartre. From its dome two hundred meters above the Seine, the basilica overlooks the entire city of Paris and its suburbs. It is the most popular tourist destination in the capital after the Eiffel Tower.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The basilica was first proposed by Felix Fournier, the Bishop of Nantes, in 1870 after the defeat of France and the capture of Napoleon III at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. He attributed the defeat of France to the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution, and proposed a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The basilica was designed by Paul Abadie, whose Neo-Byzantine-Romanesque plan was selected from among seventy-seven proposals. Construction began in 1875 and continued for forty years under five different architects. Completed in 1914, the basilica was formally consecrated in 1919 after World War I.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Sacré-Cœur Basilica has maintained a perpetual adoration of the Holy Eucharist since 1885. The site is traditionally associated with the martrydom of Saint Denis, the patron saint of Paris.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The plan to build a new Parisian church dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was first proposed on September 4, 1870, by Felix Fournier, the Bishop of Nantes, following the defeat of France and the capture of Emperor Napoleon III by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. Until his death in 1877, Fournier was an active builder who completed the long-delayed restoration of Nantes Cathedral. He wrote that the defeat of France in 1870 was a divine punishment for the moral decline of the country since the French Revolution.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: In January 1871, Bishop Fournier was joined by the philanthropist Alexandre Legentil, who was a follower of Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. Legentil declared that France had been justly punished for its sins by the defeat of the French Army at Sedan and the imprisonment of the Pope in Italy by Italian nationalists. He wrote, "We recognize that we were guilty and justly punished. To make honourable amends for our sins, and to obtain the infinite mercy of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ and the pardon of our sins, as well as extraordinary aid which alone can delivery our sovereign Pontiff from captivity and reverse the misfortune of France, we promise to contribute to the erection in Paris of a sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." The influence of Legentil led to a successful fundraising campaign based entirely on private contributions.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Montmarte was selected as the site of the new basilica due to its prominent height and visibility from many parts of the city. Since the location included land belonging to the local government as well as private owners, the French parliament assisted in securing the site by declaring that the construction of the basilica was in the national interest. In July 1873, the proposal was finally brought forward and approved in the National Assembly with the official statement that "it was necessary to efface by this work of expiation the crimes which have crowned our sorrows." The groundbreaking for the new church finally took place in 1875.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Apart from its physical attributes, Montmartre or the "Hill of the Martyrs" was also chosen for its association with the early Christian church. According to tradition, it was the place where the patron saint of Paris, Saint Denis of Paris, was beheaded by the Romans. His tomb became the site of the Basilica of Saint Denis, the traditional resting place for the kings of France until the French Revolution.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: In addition, Montmartre was the birthplace of the Society of Jesus, one of the largest and most influential religious orders in the history of the Catholic Church. In 1534, Ignatius of Loyola and a few of his followers made their vows in Saint-Pierre de Montmartre, one of the oldest churches in Paris. The church survived the Revolution although the Montmartre Abbey to which it belonged was destroyed.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The early construction was delayed and complicated by unstable foundations. Eighty-three wells, each thirty meters deep, had to be dug under the site and filled with rock and concrete to serve as subterranean pillars supporting the basilica. Construction costs, estimated at 7 million francs drawn entirely from private donors, were expended before any above-ground structure became visible. A provisional chapel was consecrated on March 3, 1876, and pilgrimage quickly brought in additional funding.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Not long after the foundation was completed in 1884, Abadie died and was succeeded by five other architects who made extensive modifications: Honoré Daumet (1884–1886), Jean-Charles Laisné (1886–1891), Henri-Pierre-Marie Rauline (1891–1904), Lucien Magne (1904–1916), and Jean-Louis Hulot (1916–1924).


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: During construction, opponents of the basilica were relentless in their effort to hinder its progress. In 1882, the walls of the church were barely above its foundations when the left-wing coalition led by Georges Clemenceau won the parliamentary election. Clemenceau immediately proposed halting the work, and the parliament blocked all further funding for the project. However, faced with enormous liabilities of twelve million francs from project cancellation, the government had to allow the construction to proceed.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: In 1891, the interior of the basilica was completed, dedicated and opened for public worship. Still, in 1897, Clemenceau made another attempt to block its completion in the parliament, but his motion was overwhelmingly defeated since the cancellation of the project would require repaying thirty million francs to eight million people who had contributed to its construction.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The dome of the church was completed in 1899, and the bell tower finished in 1912. The basilica was completed in 1914 and formally dedicated in 1919 after World War I.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Criticism of the church by leftist journalists and politicians for its alleged connection with the destruction of the Paris Commune continued from the late 19th century into the 20th and 21st centuries, even though the church had been proposed before the Paris Commune took place. In 1898, Emile Zola wrote sarcastically, "France is guilty. It must do penitence. Penitence for what? For the Revolution, for a century of free speech and science, and emancipated reason... for that they built this gigantic landmark that Paris can see from all of its streets, and cannot be seen without feeling misunderstood and injured."


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Shortly after the completed Statue of Liberty was transported from France to the United States, opponents of Sacre-Coeur came up with a new strategy. They proposed installing a full-size copy of the Statue of Liberty on top of Montmartre, directly in front of the basilica, which would entirely block the view of the church. This idea was eventually dropped as expensive and impractical.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: A bomb was exploded inside the church in 1976. To make the government opposition to the church clear, the socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin in 2004 renamed the square in front of and below the church for Louise Michel, the prominent anarchist and participant in the Paris Commune. He expressed his wish that the basilica be demolished as a symbol of "obscurantism, bad taste and reactionism."


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: In 2021, to avoid celebrating the church's history in the same year as the 150th anniversary of the Paris Commune, leftist members of the French parliament blocked a measure to declare the church a national historic monument and postponed it until 2022.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The church was finally named as a national historic monument by a unanimous vote of the National Commission of Patrimony and Architecture on December 8, 2022.This decision was immediately attacked by the leftist politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who called it "an apology for the 32,000 Paris Communards shot during eight days."


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The church is 85 meters long and thirty-five meters wide. It is composed of a large central rotunda, around which are placed a small nave, two transepts, and an advance-choir, which form a cross. The porch of the church has three bays, and is modelled after the porch of Périgueux Cathedral. The dominant feature is the immense elongated ovoid cupola, 83.33 meters high, surrounded by four smaller cupolas. At the north end is the campanile, or bell tower, 84 meters high, containing the "Savoyarde", the largest bell in France.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The overall style of the structure is a free interpretation of Romano-Byzantine architecture. This was an unusual architectural style at the time, and was in part a reaction against the neo-Baroque of the Palais Garnier opera house by Charles Garnier, and other buildings of the Napoleon III style. The construction was eventually handed on to a series of new architects, including Garnier himself, who was a counsellor to the architect Henri-Pierre Rauline between 1891 and 1904,


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Some elements of the design, particularly the elongated domes and the structural forms of the windows on the south facade, are Neo-classical, and were added by the later architects Henri-Pierre Rauline and Lucien Magne.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The campanile, or bell tower, on the north front, houses the nineteen-ton "Savoyarde" bell (one of the world's heaviest), cast in 1895 in Annecy. It alludes to the attachment of Savoy to France in 1860.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The porch of the south facade, the main entrance, is loaded with sculpture combining religious and French national themes. It is topped with a statue representing the Sacred Heart of Christ. The arches of the facade are decorated with two equestrian statues of French national saints Joan of Arc (1927) and King Saint Louis IX, both executed in bronze by Hippolyte Lefèbvre.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The white stone of Sacré-Cœur is travertine limestone of a type called Chateau-Landon, quarried in Souppes-sur-Loing, in Seine-et-Marne, France. The particular quality of this stone is that it is extremely hard with a fine grain, and exudes calcite on contact with rainwater, making it exceptionally white.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The nave is dominated by the very high dome, which symbolises the celestial world, resting upon a rectangular space,symbolising the terrestrial world. The two are joined by massive columns, which represent the passage between the two worlds.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The plan of the interior is a Greek cross, with the altar in the center, modelled after Byzantine churches. More traditional Latin features, the choir and the disambulatory, were added around the altar. The light in interior of the church is unusually dim, due to the height of the windows above the altar, and this contributes to the mystical effect. Other Byzantine features in the interior include the designs of the tile floor and the glasswork.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The mosaic over the choir, entitled "The Triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus", is the largest and most important work of art in the church. It was created by Luc-Olivier Merson, H. M. Magne and R. Martin, and was dedicated in 1923. The mosaic is composed of 25,000 enamelled and gilded pieces of ceramic, and covers 475 square meters, making it one of the largest mosaics in the world.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The central figure is Christ, dressed in white, with open arms offering his heart, decorated with gold. He is joined by his mother, the Virgin Mary, and by the Archangel Michael, the protector of the church and of France. At his feet, kneeling, is Saint Joan of Arc offering him a crown. A figure of Pope Leo XIII offers a globe to Christ, symbolising the world.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: To the right of Christ is a scene titled "The Homage of France to the Sacred Heart;" a group of popes and cardinals present a model of the basilica to Christ. On his left is "The Homage of the Catholic Church to the Sacred Heart": where people in the costumes of the five continents pay their homage to the Sacred Heart. At the base of the mosaic is a Latin inscription, stating that the basilica is a gift from France. "To the Sacred Heart of Jesus, France fervent, penitent and grateful.” The word "grateful" was added after World War I.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: At the top of the mosaic is another procession, called "the Saints of France and Saints of the Universal Church". In all of the mosaic, the artists adapted elements of Byzantine art in the organization of the figures, the altered perspective, and the use of polychrome colors enhanced with silver and gold.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The basilica complex also includes a garden for meditation, with a fountain. The top of the dome is open to tourists and affords a spectacular panoramic view of the city of Paris, which spreads out to the south of the basilica.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The interior of the basilica is surrounded by a series of chapels, mostly offered by professional groups or religious orders. The chapels are decreed with sculpture, relief sculpture, and tapestries, often relating to the professions of the donors. For example, the Chapel of the Order of Notre Dame of the Sea is decorated with tapestries illustrating Christ walking on the water and the Miraculous Catch of fish. Beginning to the right of the main entrance, they are:


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The crypt below Sacré-Coeur is different from traditional crypts, which are usually underground. At Sacré-Coeur, the crypt has stained glass windows, thanks to a "saut-de-loup", a trench about four meters wide around it, which allows light to enter through windows and oculi of the crypt wall. In the centre of the crypt is the chapel of the Pieta, whose central element is a monument statue of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross, at the altar. The statue was made by Jules Coutain in 1895. A series of seven chapels is placed on the east side and seven on the west side of crypt, corresponding to the chapels on the level above. The crypt contains the tombs of important figures in the creation of the basilica, including Cardinals Guibert and Richard.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Decoration covers the walls, the floor, and the architecture. Much of the decoration is in a distinctly neo-Byzantine style, with intricate patterns, and abundant color.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The basilica contains a large and very fine pipe organ built by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll, the most celebrated organ builder in Paris in the 19th century. His other organs included those of Saint-Denis Basilica (1841), Sainte-Clotilde Basilica (1859), Saint-Sulpice church and Notre Dame de Paris (1868). The organ is composed of 109 ranks and 78 speaking stops spread across four 61-note manuals and the 32-note pedalboard (unusual before the start of the 20th century; the standard of the day was 56 and 30), and has three expressive divisions (also unusual for the time, even in large organs).


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The organ was originally built in 1898 for the Biarritz chateau of the Baron Albert de L'Espée. It was the last instrument built by Cavaillé-Coll.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The organ was ahead of its time, containing multiple expressive divisions and giving the performer considerable advantages over other even larger instruments of the day. It was almost identical (tonal characteristics, layout, and casework) to the instrument in Sheffield's Albert Hall, which was destroyed by fire in 1937. However, when installed in Paris in 1905 by Cavaillé-Coll's successor and son-in-law, Charles Mutin, a much plainer case was substituted for the original ornate case.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The organ was recognised as a national landmark in 1981. It has undergone several restorations. The most recent, begun in 1985, replaced only the most severely damaged pneumatic parts, but others have deteriorated and some are no longer usable. The pipes are now covered with a thick layer of dust which impacts the pitch and timbre. Though the organ is now recognized as a national monument, the church itself is not, largely due to political opposition from leftist parties. It is expected to receive landmark status in 2022.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The belfry of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre houses five bells. The four small bells named from largest to smallest are Félicité, Louise, Nicole and Elisabeth, which were the original bells of the church of Saint-Roch and moved to the basilica in 1969.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Below the four bells is a huge bourdon called "The Savoyarde", the biggest bell in France. The full name of the bourdon is “Françoise Marguerite of the Sacred Heart of Jesus". It was cast on May 13, 1891, by the Paccard foundry (Dynasty of Georges, Hippolyte-Francisque and Victor or "G & F") in Annecy-le-Vieux.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The Savoyarde itself only rings for major religious holidays, especially on the occasion of Easter, Pentecost, Ascension, Christmas, Assumption and All Saints. It can be heard from 10 km away. This bell is the fifth largest in Europe, ranking behind the "Petersglocke" of Cologne (Germany), the Olympic Bell of London, "Maria Dolens" of Rovereto (Italy), and the "Pummerin" of Vienna (Austria). It weighs 18,835 kg, measures 3,03 m of diameter for 9.60 m of outer circumference, with a base thickness of 22 cm and a leaf of 850 kg. With its accessories, its official weight reaches 19,685 kg. It was offered by the four dioceses of Savoy. It was transported to the basilica on October 16, 1895, pulled by a team of 28 horses. In the late 1990s, a crack was noticed in the bell.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The church is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was an increasingly popular devotion after the visions of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690) in Paray-le-Monial.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: In response to requests from French bishops, Pope Pius IX promulgated the feast of the Sacred Heart in 1856. The basilica itself was consecrated on 16 October 1919.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Since 1885 (before construction had been completed) the Blessed Sacrament (Christ's body, consecrated during the Mass) has been continually on display in a monstrance above the high altar. Perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has continued uninterrupted in the basilica since 1885.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: Tourists and others are asked to dress appropriately when visiting the basilica and to observe silence as much as possible, so as not to disturb persons who have come from around the world to pray in this place of pilgrimage, especially since the Blessed Sacrament is displayed. Photos are not allowed to be taken in the basilica.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: The basilica is accessible by bus or metro line 2 at Anvers station. Sacré-Cœur is open from 06:00 to 22:30 every day. The dome is accessible from 09:00 to 19:00 in the summer and to 18:00 in the winter.


title: Sacré-Cœur, Paris

text: A much smaller version of the basilica, Sacré-Cœur de la Balata, is located north of Fort-de-France, Martinique, on N3, the main inland road. Built for the refugees driven from their homes by the eruption of Mount Pelée, it was dedicated in 1915.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), commonly known as A.S.S.E. () or simply Saint-Étienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Étienne in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and competes in Ligue 2, the second division of French football, in the 2022–23 season. Saint-Étienne plays its home matches at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Saint-Étienne have won a joint-record of ten Ligue 1 titles, as well as six Coupe de France titles, a Coupe de la Ligue title and five Trophée des Champions. Saint-Étienne has also won the Ligue 2 championship on three occasions. The club achieved most of its honours in the 1960s and 1970s when the club was led by managers Jean Snella, Albert Batteux, and Robert Herbin.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Saint-Étienne is known as "Les Verts" meaning "the Greens" due to its home colours. The club's primary rivals are Olympique Lyonnais, based in nearby Lyon, with whom they contest the "Derby Rhône-Alpes". In 2009, the club added a female section.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: AS Saint-Étienne was founded in 1919 by employees of the Saint-Étienne-based grocery store chain Groupe Casino under the name Amicale des Employés de la Société des Magasins Casino (ASC). The club adopted green as its primary color mainly due to it being the principal colour of Groupe Casino. In 1920, due to the French Football Federation (FFF) prohibiting the use of trademarks in sports club, the club dropped "Casino" from its name and changed its name to simply Amical Sporting Club to retain the ASC acronym. In 1927, Pierre Guichard took over as president of the club and, after merging with local club Stade Forézien Universitaire, changed its name to Association sportive Stéphanoise.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In July 1930, the National Council of the FFF voted 128–20 in support of professionalism in French football. In 1933, Stéphanoise turned professional and changed its name to its current version. The club was inserted into the second division and became inaugural members of the league after finishing runner-up in the South Group. Saint-Étienne remained in Division 2 for four more seasons before earning promotion to Division 1 for the 1938–39 season under the leadership of the Englishman Teddy Duckworth. However, the team's debut appearance in the first division was short-lived due to the onset of World War II. Saint-Étienne returned to the first division after the war under the Austrian-born Frenchman Ignace Tax and surprised many by finishing runner-up to Lille in the first season after the war. The club failed to improve upon that finish in following seasons under Tax and, ahead of the 1950–51 season, Tax was let go and replaced by former Saint-Étienne player Jean Snella.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Under Snella, Saint-Étienne achieved its first honour after winning the Coupe Charles Drago in 1955. Two seasons later, the club won its first domestic league title. Led by goalkeeper Claude Abbes, defender Robert Herbin, as well as midfielders René Ferrier and Kees Rijvers and striker Georges Peyroche, Saint-Étienne won the league by four points over Lens. In 1958, Saint-Étienne won the Coupe Drago for the second time. After the following season, in which the club finished sixth, Snella departed the club. He was replaced by René Vernier. In the team's first season under Vernier, Saint-Étienne finished 12th, the club's worst finish since finishing 11th eight seasons ago. In the following season, François Wicart joined the coaching staff. In 1961, Roger Rocher became president of the club and quickly became one of the club's chief investors. After two seasons under Wicart, Saint-Étienne were relegated after finishing 17th in the 1961–62 season. However, Wicart did lead the club to its first Coupe de France title in 1962, alongside co-manager Henri Guérin with the team defeating FC Nancy 1–0 in the final. He also led the club back to Division 1 after one season in the second division, but after the season, Wicart was replaced by Snella, who returned as manager after a successful stint in Switzerland with Servette.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In Snella's first season back, Saint-Étienne won its second league title and, three seasons later, captured its third. Snella's third and final title with the club coincided with the arrival of Georges Bereta, Bernard Bosquier, Gérard Farison and Hervé Revelli to the team. After the season, Snella returned to Servette and former Stade de Reims manager Albert Batteux replaced him. In Batteux's first season in 1967–68, Saint-Étienne captured the double after winning the league and the Coupe de France. In the next season, Batteux won the league and, in the ensuing season, won the double again. The club's fast rise into French football led to a high-level of confidence from the club's ownership and supporters and, following two seasons without a trophy, Batteux was let go and replaced by former Saint-Étienne player Robert Herbin.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In Herbin's first season in charge, Saint-Étienne finished fourth in the league and reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de France. In the next two seasons, the club won the double, its seventh and eighth career league title and its third and fourth Coupe de France title. In 1976, Saint-Étienne became the first French club since Reims in 1959 to reach the final of the European Cup. In the match, played at Hampden Park in Scotland, Saint-Étienne faced German club Bayern Munich, who were the reigning champions and arguably the world's best team at the time. The match was hotly contested with Saint-Étienne failing to score after numerous chances by Jacques Santini, Dominique Bathenay and Osvaldo Piazza, among others. A single goal by Franz Roth eventually decided the outcome and Saint-Étienne supporters departed Scotland in tears, however, not without nicknaming the goalposts ""les poteaux carrés"" ("the square posts"). Saint-Étienne did earn a consolation prize by winning the league to cap off a successful season and, in the following season, the team won the Coupe de France. In 1981, Saint-Étienne, captained by Michel Platini, won its final league title to date after winning the league for the tenth time. After two more seasons in charge, Herbin departed the club for archrivals Lyon.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In 1982, a financial scandal involving a controversial slush fund led to the departure and eventual jailing of long-time president Roger Rocher. Saint-Étienne subsequently suffered a free-fall with the club suffering relegation in the 1983–84 season. The club returned to the first division in 1986 under the leadership of goalkeeper Jean Castaneda who had remained with the club, despite its financial state. Saint-Étienne kept its place in the first division for nearly a decade with the club reaching the semi-finals of the Coupe de France in 1990 and 1993 during the stint. In 1996, Saint-Étienne was relegated to the second division and returned to Division 1 in 1999. In the 2000–01 season, the club was supervised by five different managers and had to deal with a scandal that involved two players (Brazilian Alex Dias and Ukrainian goalkeeper Maksym Levytsky) who utilised fake Portuguese and Greek passports. Both players were suspended for four months and, at the end of a judicial inquiry, which linked some of the club's management staff to the passport forgeries, Saint-Étienne was docked seven league points and relegated.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Saint-Étienne played three seasons in the second division and returned to the first division, now called Ligue 1, for the 2004–05 season. They came fifth in the 2007–08 season, which resulted in the club qualifying for the UEFA Cup for the first time since 1982. Saint-Étienne was influenced by several youngsters within the team such as Bafétimbi Gomis, Loïc Perrin, Blaise Matuidi and Dimitri Payet. The club followed up its fifth-place finish by finishing 17th in the next two seasons.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: Having won the Coupe de la Ligue in April 2013, their first major domestic trophy for more than 30 years, Saint-Étienne qualified for the third preliminary round of the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League campaign. Following crowd trouble towards the end of the 2012–13 season, Saint-Étienne were handed a one-match stadium ban which would have forced the team to open their campaign behind closed doors. However, on 23 July 2013, this ban was lifted. On 30 November 2014, Saint-Etienne defeated fierce rivals Olympique Lyonnais 3–0 at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard for the first time since 1994.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: The 2017–18 Ligue 1 season started badly for Saint-Etienne and culminated in a 5–0 derby loss to Olympique Lyonnais, after which Óscar García Junyent was dismissed as manager and replaced by former player Julien Sablé. Sable was replaced in December by Jean-Louis Gasset because he did not hold the required qualifications to coach in Ligue 1, and the club were fined €25,000 euros for every game played with Sable in charge. Under Gasset, Saint-Etienne went 13 games unbeaten and finished 7th in the table at the end of the season.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In the 2018–19 season, Saint-Etienne came fourth, the best finish since their promotion, after which Gasset elected to leave the club. The following year they were 17th when the season was ended by the coronavirus pandemic. They also reached the Coupe de France final in this season, which they lost 1–0 to Paris Saint-Germain.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: In the 2020–21 season, Saint-Etienne started poorly and hovered above the relegation zone for most of the season before winning five of their last ten matches to finish 11th on the table. During that season, the club's board of directors announced, in a public letter on 14 April 2021, that the club was up for sale.


title: AS Saint-Étienne

text: During the beginning of the 2021–22, the team suffered a catastrophic record; the culmination of 12 consecutive games without a win in Ligue 1. On 5 December 2021, after a 5–0 defeat against Rennes, manager Claude Puel was relieved from his duties. Julien Sablé, the assistant coach, took over as caretaker manager, before Pascal Dupraz was appointed as the new manager on 15 December 2021. The team eventually finished 18th in the season, and were relegated to the Ligue 2 after losing in a penalty shootout to Auxerre in the relegation play-offs.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster (6 March 1340 – 3 February 1399) was an English royal prince, military leader, and statesman. He was the fourth son (third to survive infancy as William of Hatfield died shortly after birth) of King Edward III of England, and the father of King Henry IV. Due to Gaunt's royal origin, advantageous marriages, and some generous land grants, he was one of the richest men of his era, and was an influential figure during the reigns of both his father and his nephew, Richard II. As Duke of Lancaster, he is the founder of the royal House of Lancaster, whose members would ascend the throne after his death. His birthplace, Ghent in Flanders, then known in English as "Gaunt", was the origin of his name. When he became unpopular later in life, a scurrilous rumour circulated, along with lampoons, claiming that he was actually the son of a Ghent butcher. This rumour, which infuriated him, may have been inspired by the fact that Edward III had not been present at his birth.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John's early career was spent in France and Spain fighting in the Hundred Years' War. He made an abortive attempt to enforce a claim to the Crown of Castile that came through his second wife, Constance of Castile, and for a time styled himself as King of Castile. When Edward the Black Prince, Gaunt's elder brother and heir-apparent to the ageing Edward III, became incapacitated due to poor health, Gaunt assumed control of many government functions, and rose to become one of the most powerful political figures in England. He was faced with military difficulties abroad and political divisions at home, and disagreements as to how to deal with these crises led to tensions among Gaunt, the English Parliament, and the ruling class, making him an extremely unpopular figure for a time.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John exercised great influence over the English throne during the minority of King Richard II (Edward the Black Prince's son) and the ensuing periods of political strife. He mediated between the king and a group of rebellious nobles, which included Gaunt's own son and heir-apparent, Henry Bolingbroke. Following Gaunt's death in 1399, his estates and titles were declared forfeit to the Crown, and his son Henry, now disinherited, was branded a traitor and exiled. Henry returned from exile shortly after to reclaim his inheritance, and deposed Richard. He reigned as King Henry IV of England (1399–1413), the first of the descendants of John of Gaunt to hold the English throne.


title: John of Gaunt

text: All English monarchs beginning with Henry IV are descended from John of Gaunt. His direct male line, the House of Lancaster, would rule England from 1399 until the time of the Wars of the Roses. Gaunt is also generally considered to have fathered five children outside marriage: one early in life by a lady-in-waiting to his mother; the others, surnamed Beaufort, by Katherine Swynford, his long-term mistress and third wife. They were later legitimised by royal and papal decrees, but this did not affect Henry IV's bar to their having a place in the line of succession. Through his daughter Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland, he was an ancestor of the Yorkist kings Edward IV, Edward V and Richard III. Through his great-granddaughter Lady Margaret Beaufort he was also an ancestor of Henry VII, who married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York, and all subsequent monarchs are descendants of their marriage. Two of John's daughters married into continental royal houses (those of Portugal and Castile). Through them, many royal families of Europe can trace lineage to him.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John was the third surviving son of King Edward III of England. His first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, was also his third cousin; both were great-great-grandchildren of King Henry III. They married in 1359 at Reading Abbey as a part of the efforts of Edward III to arrange matches for his sons with wealthy heiresses. Upon the death of his father-in-law, the Duke of Lancaster, in 1361, John received half his lands, the title "Earl of Lancaster", and distinction as the greatest landowner in Northern England as heir of the Palatinate of Lancaster. He also became the 14th Baron of Halton and 11th Lord of Bowland. John inherited the rest of the Lancaster property when Blanche's sister Maud, Countess of Leicester (married to William V, Count of Hainaut), died without issue on 10 April 1362.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John received the title "Duke of Lancaster" from his father on 13 November 1362. By then well established, he owned at least thirty castles and estates across England and France and maintained a household comparable in scale and organisation to that of a monarch. He owned land in almost every county in England, a patrimony that produced a net income of between £8,000 and £10,000 a year, equivalent in 2021 to c.£6 - 7.5 million.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Because of his rank, John of Gaunt was one of England's principal military commanders in the 1370s and 1380s, though his enterprises were never rewarded with the kind of dazzling success that had made his elder brother Edward the Black Prince such a charismatic war leader.


title: John of Gaunt

text: On the resumption of war with France in 1369, John was sent to Calais with Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford and a small English army with which he raided into northern France. On 23 August, he was confronted by a much larger French army under Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. Exercising his first command, John dared not attack such a superior force and the two armies faced each other across a marsh for several weeks until the English were reinforced by the Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, at which the French withdrew without offering battle. John and Warwick then decided to strike Harfleur, the base of the French fleet on the Seine. Further reinforced by German mercenaries, they marched on Harfleur, but were delayed by French guerilla operations while the town prepared for a siege. John invested the town for four days in October, but he was losing so many men to dysentery and bubonic plague that he decided to abandon the siege and return to Calais. During this retreat, the army had to fight its way across the Somme at the ford of Blanchetaque against a French army led by Hugh de Châtillon, who was captured and sold to Edward III. By the middle of November, the survivors of the sickly army returned to Calais, where the Earl of Warwick died of the plague. Though it seemed an inglorious conclusion to the campaign, John had forced the French king, Charles V, to abandon his plans to invade England that autumn.


title: John of Gaunt

text: In the summer of 1370, John was sent with a small army to Aquitaine to reinforce his ailing elder brother, the Black Prince, and his younger brother Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, Earl of Cambridge. With them, he participated in the Siege of Limoges (September 1370). He took charge of the siege operations and at one point engaged in hand-to-hand fighting in the undermining tunnels. After this event, the Black Prince gave John the lieutenancy of Aquitaine and sailed for England, leaving John in charge. Though he attempted to defend the duchy against French encroachment for nearly a year, lack of resources and money meant he could do little but husband what small territory the English still controlled, and he resigned the command in September 1371 and returned to England. Just before leaving Aquitaine, he married the Infanta Constance of Castile in September 1371 at Roquefort, near Bordeaux, Guyenne. The following year he took part with his father, Edward III, in an abortive attempt to invade France with a large army, which was frustrated by three months of unfavourable winds.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Probably John's most notable feat of arms occurred in August–December 1373, when he attempted to relieve Aquitaine by the landward route, leading an army of some 9,000 mounted men from Calais on a great chevauchée from north-eastern to south-western France on a 900-kilometre raid. This four-month ride through enemy territory, evading French armies on the way, was a bold stroke that impressed contemporaries but achieved virtually nothing. Beset on all sides by French ambushes and plagued by disease and starvation, John of Gaunt and his raiders battled their way through Champagne, east of Paris, into Burgundy, across the Massif Central, and finally down into Dordogne. Unable to attack any strongly fortified forts and cities, the raiders plundered the countryside, which weakened the French infrastructure, but the military value of the damage was only temporary. Marching in winter across the Limousin plateau, with stragglers being picked off by the French, huge numbers of the army, and even larger numbers of horses, died of cold, disease or starvation. The army reached English-occupied Bordeaux on 24 December 1373, severely weakened in numbers with the loss of at least one-third of their force in action and another third to disease. Upon arrival in Bordeaux, many more succumbed to the bubonic plague that was raging in the city. Sick, demoralised and mutinous, the army was in no shape to defend Aquitaine, and soldiers began to desert. John had no funds with which to pay them, and despite his entreaties, none were sent from England, so in April 1374, he abandoned the enterprise and sailed for home.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John's final campaign in France took place in 1378. He planned a 'great expedition' of mounted men in a large armada of ships to land at Brest and take control of Brittany. Not enough ships could be found to transport the horses, and the expedition was tasked with the more limited objective of capturing St. Malo. The English destroyed the shipping in St. Malo harbour and began to assault the town by land on 14 August, but John was soon hampered by the size of his army, which was unable to forage because French armies under Olivier de Clisson and Bertrand du Guesclin occupied the surrounding countryside, harrying the edges of his force. In September, the siege was simply abandoned and the army returned ingloriously to England. John of Gaunt received most of the blame for the debâcle.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Partly as a result of these failures, and those of other English commanders at this period, John was one of the first important figures in England to conclude that the war with France was unwinnable because of France's greater resources of wealth and manpower. He began to advocate peace negotiations; indeed, as early as 1373, during his great raid through France, he made contact with , brother and political adviser of Pope Gregory XI, to let the pope know he would be interested in a diplomatic conference under papal auspices. This approach led indirectly to the Anglo-French Congress of Bruges in 1374–77, which resulted in the short-lived Truce of Bruges between the two sides. John was himself a delegate to the various conferences that eventually resulted in the Truce of Leulinghem in 1389. The fact that he became identified with the attempts to make peace added to his unpopularity at a period when the majority of Englishmen believed victory would be in their grasp if only the French could be defeated decisively as they had been in the 1350s. Another motive was John's conviction that it was only by making peace with France would it be possible to release sufficient manpower to enforce his claim to the throne of Castile.


title: John of Gaunt

text: After the death in 1376 of his older brother Edward of Woodstock (also known as the "Black Prince"), John of Gaunt contrived to protect the religious reformer John Wycliffe, possibly to counteract the growing secular power of the church. However, John's ascendancy to political power coincided with widespread resentment of his influence. At a time when English forces encountered setbacks in the Hundred Years' War against France, and Edward III's rule was becoming unpopular due to high taxation and his affair with Alice Perrers, political opinion closely associated the Duke of Lancaster with the failing government of the 1370s. Furthermore, while King Edward and the Prince of Wales were popular heroes due to their successes on the battlefield, John of Gaunt had not won equivalent military renown that could have bolstered his reputation. Although he fought in the Battle of Nájera (1367), for example, his later military projects proved unsuccessful.


title: John of Gaunt

text: When Edward III died in 1377 and John's ten-year-old nephew succeeded as Richard II of England, John's influence strengthened. However, mistrust remained, and some suspected him of wanting to seize the throne himself. John took pains to ensure that he never became associated with the opposition to Richard's kingship. As "de facto" ruler during Richard's minority, he made unwise decisions on taxation that led to the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, when the rebels destroyed his home in London, the Savoy Palace. Unlike some of Richard's unpopular advisors, John was away from London at the time of the uprising and thus avoided the direct wrath of the rebels.


title: John of Gaunt

text: In 1386 John left England to seek the throne of Castile, claimed in "jure uxoris" by right of his second wife, Constance of Castile, whom he had married in 1371. However, crisis ensued almost immediately in his absence, and in 1387 King Richard's misrule brought England to the brink of civil war. John had to give up on his ambitions in Spain and hurry back to England in 1389. Only John's intervention in the political crisis succeeded in persuading the Lords Appellant and King Richard to compromise to usher in a period of relative stability. During the 1390s, John's reputation of devotion to the well-being of the kingdom was largely restored.


title: John of Gaunt

text: During his second marriage, John of Gaunt had entered into an extra-marital love affair with Katherine Swynford, the daughter of an ordinary knight, which would produce four children for the couple. All of them were born out of wedlock, but legitimised upon their parents' eventual marriage. The adulterous relationship endured until 1381, when it was broken out of political necessity.


title: John of Gaunt

text: On 13 January 1396, two years after the death of Constance of Castile, Katherine and John of Gaunt married in Lincoln Cathedral. The children bore the surname "Beaufort" after a former French possession of the duke. The Beaufort children, three sons and a daughter, were legitimised by royal and papal decrees after John and Katherine married. A later proviso that they were specifically barred from inheriting the throne—the phrase "" ("except royal status")—was inserted with dubious authority by their half-brother Henry IV.


title: John of Gaunt

text: On his return from France in 1374, John took a more decisive and persistent role in the direction of English foreign policy. From then until 1377, he was effectively the head of the English government due to the illness of his father and elder brother, who were unable to exercise authority. His vast estates made him the richest man in England, and his great wealth, ostentatious display of it, autocratic manner and attitudes, enormous London mansion (the Savoy Palace on the Strand) and association with the failed peace process at Bruges combined to make him the most visible target of social resentments. His time at the head of government was marked by the so-called Good Parliament of 1376 and the Bad Parliament of 1377. The first, called to grant massive war taxation to the Crown, turned into a parliamentary revolution, with the Commons (supported to some extent by the Lords) venting their grievances at decades of crippling taxation, misgovernment, and suspected endemic corruption among the ruling classes. John was left isolated (even the Black Prince supported the need for reform) and the Commons refused to grant money for the war unless most of the great officers of state were dismissed and the king's mistress Alice Perrers, another focus of popular resentment, was barred from any further association with him. But even after the government acceded to virtually all their demands, the Commons then refused to authorise any funds for the war, losing the sympathy of the Lords as a result.


title: John of Gaunt

text: The death of the Black Prince on 8 June 1376 and the onset of Edward III's last illness at the closing of Parliament on 10 July left John with all the reins of power. He immediately had the ailing king grant pardons to all the officials impeached by the Parliament; Alice Perrers too was reinstated at the heart of the king's household. John impeached William of Wykeham and other leaders of the reform movement, and secured their conviction on old or trumped-up charges. The parliament of 1377 was John's counter-coup: crucially, the Lords no longer supported the Commons and John was able to have most of the acts of 1376 annulled. He also succeeded in forcing the Commons to agree to the imposition of the first poll tax in English history—a viciously regressive measure that bore hardest on the poorest members of society. There was organised opposition to his measures and rioting in London; John of Gaunt's arms were reversed or defaced wherever they were displayed, and protestors pasted up lampoons on his supposedly dubious birth. At one point he was forced to take refuge across the Thames, while his Savoy Palace only just escaped looting. It was rumoured (and believed by many people in England and France) that he intended to seize the throne for himself and supplant the rightful heir, his nephew Richard, the son of the Black Prince, but there seems to have been no truth in this and on the death of Edward III and the accession of the child Richard II, John sought no position of regency for himself and withdrew to his estates.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John's personal unpopularity persisted, however, and the failure of his expedition to Saint-Malo in 1378 did nothing for his reputation. By this time, too, some of his possessions were taken from him by the Crown. For example, his ship, the "Dieulagarde", was seized and bundled with other royal ships to be sold to pay off the debts of Sir Robert de Crull, who during the latter part of King Edward III's reign had been the "Clerk of the King's Ships", and had advanced monies to pay for the king's ships. During the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, John of Gaunt was far from the centre of events, on the March of Scotland, but he was among those named by the rebels as a traitor to be beheaded as soon as he could be found. The Savoy Palace was systematically destroyed by the mob and burned to the ground. Nominally friendly lords and even his own fortresses closed their gates to him, and John was forced to flee into Scotland with a handful of retainers and throw himself on the charity of King Robert II of Scotland until the crisis was over.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Upon his marriage to Constance of Castile in 1371, John assumed (officially from 29 January 1372) the title of King of Castile and León in right of his wife, and insisted his fellow English nobles henceforth address him as "my lord of Spain". He impaled his arms with those of the Spanish kingdom. From 1372, John gathered around himself a small court of refugee Castilian knights and ladies and set up a Castilian chancery that prepared documents in his name according to the style of Peter of Castile, dated by the Castilian era and signed by himself with the Spanish formula "Yo El Rey" ("I, the King"). He hatched several schemes to make good his claim with an army, but for many years these were still-born due to lack of finance or the conflicting claims of war in France or with Scotland.


title: John of Gaunt

text: It was only in 1386, after Portugal under its new King John I had entered into a full alliance with England, that he was actually able to land with an army in Spain and mount a campaign for the throne of Castile (that ultimately failed). John sailed from England on 9 July 1386 with a huge Anglo-Portuguese fleet carrying an army of about 5,000 men plus an extensive "royal" household and his wife and daughters. Pausing on the journey to use his army to drive off the French forces who were then besieging Brest, he landed at Corunna in northern Spain on 29 July.


title: John of Gaunt

text: The Castilian king, John of Trastámara, had expected John would land in Portugal and had concentrated his forces on the Portuguese border. He was wrong-footed by John's decision to invade Galicia, the most distant and disaffected of Castile's kingdoms. From August to October, John of Gaunt set up a rudimentary court and chancery at Ourense and received the submission of the Galician nobility and most of the towns of Galicia, though they made their homage to him conditional on his being recognised as king by the rest of Castile. While John of Gaunt had gambled on an early decisive battle, the Castilians were in no hurry to join battle, and he began to experience difficulties keeping his army together and paying it. In November, he met King John I of Portugal at Ponte do Mouro on the south side of the Minho river and concluded an agreement with him to make a joint Anglo-Portuguese invasion of central Castile early in 1387. The treaty was sealed by the marriage of John's eldest daughter Philippa to the Portuguese king. A large part of John's army had succumbed to sickness, however, and when the invasion was mounted, they were far outnumbered by their Portuguese allies. The campaign of April–June 1387 was an ignominious failure. The Castilians refused to offer battle and the Galician-Anglo-Portuguese troops, apart from time-wasting sieges of fortified towns, were reduced to foraging for food in the arid Spanish landscape. They were harried mainly by French mercenaries of the Castilian king. Many hundreds of English, including close friends and retainers of John of Gaunt, died of disease or exhaustion. Many deserted or abandoned the army to ride north under French safe conducts. Shortly after the army returned to Portugal, John of Gaunt concluded a secret treaty with John of Trastámara under which he and his wife renounced all claim to the Castilian throne in return for a large annual payment and the marriage of their daughter Catherine to John of Trastámara's son, Henry.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John left Portugal for Aquitaine, and he remained in that province until he returned to England in November 1389. This effectively kept him off the scene while England endured the major political crisis of the conflict between Richard II and the Lords Appellant, who were led by John of Gaunt's younger brother Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester. Only four months after his return to England, in March 1390, Richard II formally invested Gaunt with the Duchy of Aquitaine, thus providing him with the overseas territory he had long desired. However, he did not immediately return to the province, but remained in England and mainly ruled through seneschals as an absentee duke. His administration of the province was a disappointment, and his appointment as duke was much resented by the Gascons, since Aquitaine had previously always been held directly by the king of England or his heir; it was not felt to be a fief that a king could bestow on a subordinate.


title: John of Gaunt

text: From 1394 through 1395, he was forced to spend nearly a year in Gascony to shore up his position in the face of threats of secession by the Gascon nobles. He was one of England's principal negotiators in the diplomatic exchanges with France that led to the Truce of Leulinghem in 1396, and he initially agreed to join the French-led Crusade that ended in the disastrous Battle of Nicopolis, but withdrew due to ill-health and the political problems in Gascony and England.


title: John of Gaunt

text: For the remainder of his life, John of Gaunt occupied the role of valued counsellor of the king and loyal supporter of the Crown. He did not even protest, it seems, when his younger brother Thomas was murdered at Richard's behest. It may be that he felt he had to maintain this posture of loyalty to protect his son Henry Bolingbroke (the future Henry IV), who had also been one of the Lords Appellant, from Richard's wrath; but, in 1398, Richard had Bolingbroke exiled, and on John of Gaunt's death the next year he disinherited Bolingbroke completely, seizing John's vast estates for the Crown.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John of Gaunt was a patron and close friend of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, best known for his work "The Canterbury Tales". Near the end of their lives, Lancaster and Chaucer became brothers-in-law. Chaucer married Philippa (Pan) de Roet in 1366, and Lancaster took his mistress of nearly 30 years, Katherine Swynford (de Roet), who was Philippa Chaucer's sister, as his third wife in 1396. Although Philippa died c. 1387, the men were bound as brothers and Lancaster's children by Katherine—John, Henry, Thomas and Joan Beaufort—were Chaucer's nephews and niece.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Chaucer's "The Book of the Duchess", also known as the "Deeth of Blaunche the Duchesse", was written in commemoration of Blanche of Lancaster, John of Gaunt's first wife. The poem refers to John and Blanche in allegory as the narrator relates the tale of "A long castel with walles white/Be Seynt Johan, on a ryche hil" (1318–1319) who is mourning grievously after the death of his love, "And goode faire White she het/That was my lady name ryght" (948–949). The phrase "long castel" is a reference to Lancaster (also called "Loncastel" and "Longcastell"), "walles white" is thought to likely be an oblique reference to Blanche, "Seynt Johan" was John of Gaunt's name-saint, and "ryche hil" is a reference to Richmond; these thinly veiled references reveal the identity of the grieving black knight of the poem as John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Richmond. "White" is the English translation of the French word "blanche", implying that the white lady was Blanche of Lancaster.


title: John of Gaunt

text: Believed to have been written in the 1390s, Chaucer's short poem "Fortune", is also inferred to directly reference Lancaster. "Chaucer as narrator" openly defies "Fortune", proclaiming he has learned who his enemies are through her tyranny and deceit, and declares "my suffisaunce" (15) and that "over himself hath the maystrye" (14). "Fortune", in turn, does not understand Chaucer's harsh words to her for she believes she has been kind to him, claims that he does not know what she has in store for him in the future, but most importantly, "And eek thou hast thy beste frend alyve" (32, 40, 48). Chaucer retorts that "My frend maystow nat reven, blind goddesse" (50) and orders her to take away those who merely pretend to be his friends. "Fortune" turns her attention to three princes whom she implores to relieve Chaucer of his pain and "Preyeth his beste frend of his noblesse/That to som beter estat he may atteyne" (78–79). The three princes are believed to represent the dukes of Lancaster, York, and Gloucester, and a portion of line 76, "as three of you or tweyne," to refer to the ordinance of 1390 which specified that no royal gift could be authorised without the consent of at least two of the three dukes. Most conspicuous in this short poem is the number of references to Chaucer's "beste frend". "Fortune" states three times in her response to the plaintiff, "And also, you still have your best friend alive" (32, 40, 48); she also references his "beste frend" in the envoy when appealing to his "noblesse" to help Chaucer to a higher estate. A fifth reference is made by "Chaucer as narrator" who rails at "Fortune" that she shall not take his friend from him. While the envoy playfully hints to Lancaster that Chaucer would certainly appreciate a boost to his status or income, the poem "Fortune" distinctively shows his deep appreciation and affection for John of Gaunt.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John of Gaunt died of natural causes on 3 February 1399 at Leicester Castle, with his third wife Katherine by his side.


title: John of Gaunt

text: He was buried beside his first wife, Blanche of Lancaster, in the choir of St Paul's Cathedral, adjacent to the high altar. Their magnificent tomb had been designed and executed between 1374 and 1380 by Henry Yevele with the assistance of Thomas Wrek, at a total cost of £592. The two alabaster effigies were notable for having their right hands joined. An adjacent chantry chapel was added between 1399 and 1403. The monument was severely damaged, and perhaps destroyed, during the period of the Interregnum (1649–1660); and anything that survived was lost (with the rest of the cathedral) in the Great Fire of London of 1666. A wall memorial in the crypt of the present cathedral lists Gaunt's as among the important lost monuments.


title: John of Gaunt

text: As a son of the sovereign, John bore the royal arms of the kingdom ("Quarterly, France Ancient and England"), differenced by a label of three points ermine.


title: John of Gaunt

text: As claimant to the throne of Castile and León from 1372, he impaled the arms of that kingdom ("Gules, a castle or, quartering Argent, a lion rampant purpure") with his own. The arms of Castile and León appeared on the dexter side of the shield (the left-hand side as viewed), and the differenced English royal arms on the sinister; but in 1388, when he surrendered his claim, he reversed this marshalling, placing his own arms on the dexter, and those of Castile and León on the sinister. He thus continued to signal his alliance with the Castilian royal house, while abandoning any claim to the throne. There is, however, evidence that he may occasionally have used this second marshalling at earlier dates.


title: John of Gaunt

text: In addition to his royal arms, Gaunt bore an alternative coat of "Sable, three ostrich feathers ermine". This was the counterpart to his brother, the Black Prince's, "shield for peace" (on which the ostrich feathers were white), and may have been used in jousting. The ostrich feather arms appeared in stained glass above Gaunt's chantry chapel in St Paul's Cathedral.


title: John of Gaunt

text: John of Gaunt is a character in William Shakespeare's play "Richard II". Shortly before he dies, he makes a speech that includes the lines "This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle, This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars ... This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England". He is also referred to by Falstaff in "Henry IV Part I".


title: John of Gaunt

text: Hungerford in Berkshire has ancient links to the Duchy, the manor becoming part of John of Gaunt's estate in 1362 before James I passed ownership to two local men in 1612 (which subsequently became Town & Manor of Hungerford Charity). The links are visible today in the Town & Manor-owned John O'Gaunt Inn on Bridge Street, the John O'Gaunt School on Priory Road, as well as various street names. It is customary for the Loyal Toast to be given by residents as "The Queen, the Duke of Lancaster".


title: John of Gaunt

text: The John of Gaunt School on Wingfield Road in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, is built upon land that he once owned.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland (, ; , ; ) is a large island off the east coast of the North American mainland and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It has 29 percent of the province's land area. The island is separated from the Labrador Peninsula by the Strait of Belle Isle and from Cape Breton Island by the Cabot Strait. It blocks the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River, creating the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the world's largest estuary. Newfoundland's nearest neighbour is the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: With an area of , Newfoundland is the world's 16th-largest island, Canada's fourth-largest island, and the largest Canadian island outside the North. The provincial capital, St. John's, is located on the southeastern coast of the island; Cape Spear, just south of the capital, is the easternmost point of North America, excluding Greenland. It is common to consider all directly neighbouring islands such as New World, Twillingate, Fogo and Bell Island to be 'part of Newfoundland' (i.e., distinct from Labrador). By that classification, Newfoundland and its associated small islands have a total area of .


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: According to 2006 official Census Canada statistics, 57% of responding Newfoundland and Labradorians claim British or Irish ancestry, with 43.2% claiming at least one English parent, 21.5% at least one Irish parent, and 7% at least one parent of Scottish origin. Additionally 6.1% claimed at least one parent of French ancestry. The island's total population as of the 2006 census was 479,105.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Long settled by indigenous peoples of the Dorset culture, the island was possibly visited by the Icelandic explorer Leif Eriksson in the 11th century, who called the land he encountered "Vinland". The first confirmed visit was by the Norse who built a temporary base at L'Anse aux Meadows. The next European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese and French fishermen. The island was possibly visited by the Venetian navigator John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), working under contract to Henry VII of England on his expedition from Bristol in 1497.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: In 1501 when Portuguese explorers Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in an attempt to find the Northwest Passage. After European settlement, colonists first called the island "Terra Nova", from "New Land" in Portuguese and Latin. The name Newfoundland in popular discourse came from popular translation of the Portuguese name.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: On 5 August 1583, Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland as England's first overseas colony under Royal Charter of Queen Elizabeth I, thus officially establishing a forerunner to the much later British Empire. Newfoundland is considered Britain's oldest colony. At the time of English settlement, the Beothuk inhabited the island.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: L'Anse aux Meadows was a Norse settlement near the northernmost tip of Newfoundland (Cape Norman), which has been dated to be approximately 1000 years old. The site is considered the only undisputed evidence of Pre-Columbian contact between the Old and New Worlds, if the Norse–Inuit contact on Greenland is not counted. Point Rosee, in southwest Newfoundland, was thought to be a second Norse site until excavations in 2015 and 2016 found no evidence of any Norse presence. The island is a likely location of Vinland, mentioned in the "Vinland sagas", although this has been disputed.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The indigenous people on the island at the time of European settlement were the Beothuk, who spoke the now-extinct Beothuk language. Later immigrants developed a variety of dialects associated with settlement on the island: Newfoundland English, Newfoundland French. In the 19th century, it also had a dialect of Irish known as Newfoundland Irish. The closely related Scottish Gaelic was also spoken on the island during the 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the Codroy Valley area, chiefly by settlers from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. The Gaelic names reflected the association with fishing: in Scottish Gaelic, it was called , literally 'Island of the Cod'; Similarly, the Irish name means 'Land of the Fish'.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The first inhabitants of Newfoundland were the Paleo-Eskimo, who have no known link to other groups in Newfoundland history. Little is known about them beyond archeological evidence of early settlements. Evidence of successive cultures have been found. The Late Paleo-Eskimo, or Dorset culture, settled there about 4,000 years ago. They were descendants of migrations of ancient prehistoric peoples across the High Arctic thousands of years ago, after crossing from Siberia via the Bering land bridge. The Dorset died off or abandoned the island prior to the arrival of the Norse.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: After this period, the Beothuk settled Newfoundland, migrating from Labrador on the mainland. There is no evidence that the Beothuk inhabited the island prior to Norse settlement. Scholars believe that the Beothuk are related closely to the Innu of Labrador. The tribe later was declared "extinct" although people of partial Beothuk descent have been documented. The name meant 'people' in the Beothuk language, which is often considered to be a member of the Algonquian language family although the lack of sufficient records means that it is not possible to confidently demonstrate such a connection.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The tribe is now typically said to be extinct, but evidence of its culture is preserved in museum, historical and archaeological records. Shanawdithit, a woman who is often regarded as the last full-blood Beothuk, died in St. John's in 1829 of tuberculosis. However, Santu Toney, who was born around 1835 and died in 1910, was a woman of mixed Mi'kmaq and Beothuk descent, which means that some Beothuk must have lived on beyond 1829. She described her father as Beothuk and mother as Mi'kmaq, both from Newfoundland. The Beothuk may have intermingled and assimilated with Innu in Labrador and Mi'kmaq in Newfoundland. European histories also suggest potential historical competition and hostility between the Beothuk and Mi'kmaq, though this is refuted by indigenous oral history. The Mi'kmaq, Innu and Inuit all hunted and fished around Newfoundland but no evidence indicates that they lived on the island for long periods of time and would only travel to Newfoundland temporarily. Inuit have been documented on the Great Northern Peninsula as late as the 18th-Century. Newfoundland was historically the southernmost part of the Inuit's territorial range.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: When Europeans arrived from 1497 and later, starting with John Cabot, they established contact with the Beothuk. Estimates of the number of Beothuk on the island at this time vary, typically around 700.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Later both the English and French settled the island. They were followed by the Mi'kmaq, an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people from eastern Canada and present-day Nova Scotia. As European and Mi'kmaq settlement became year-round and expanded to new areas of the coast, the area available to the Beothuk to harvest the marine resources they relied upon was diminished. By the beginning of the 19th century, few Beothuk remained. Most died due to infectious diseases carried by Europeans, to which they had no immunity, and starvation. Government attempts to engage with the Beothuk and aid them came too late. The Beothuk did not have friendly relations with foreigners, unlike the Mi'kmaq. The latter readily traded with Europeans and became established in settlements in Newfoundland.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland is the site of the only authenticated Norse settlement in North America. An archaeological site was discovered in 1960 at L'Anse aux Meadows by Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad. This site was the subject of archaeological studies throughout the 1960s and 1970s. This research has revealed that the settlement dates to about the year 1000, and the site contains the earliest-known European structures in North America. Designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, it is believed to be the Vinland settlement of explorer Leif Erikson. (The Icelandic Skálholt map of 1570 refers to the area as "Promontorium Winlandiæ" and correctly shows it on a 51°N parallel with Bristol, England). Before and after the departure of the Norse, the island was inhabited by indigenous populations.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: About 500 years later, in 1497, the Italian navigator John Cabot (Zuan/Giovanni Caboto) became the first European since the Norse settlers to set foot on Newfoundland, working under commission of King Henry VII of England. His landing site is unknown but popularly believed to be Cape Bonavista, along the island's East coast. Another site claimed is Cape Bauld, at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula. A document found in the Spanish National Archives, written by a Bristol merchant, reports that Cabot's crew landed west of Dursey Head, Ireland (latitude 51°35′N), which would put Cabot within sight of Cape Bauld. This document mentions an island that Cabot sailed past to go ashore on the mainland. This description fits with the Cape Bauld theory, as Belle Isle is not far offshore.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: After Cabot, the first European visitors to Newfoundland were Portuguese, Spanish, Basque, French and English migratory fishermen. In 1501, Portuguese explorers Gaspar Corte-Real and his brother Miguel Corte-Real charted part of the coast of Newfoundland in a failed attempt to find the Northwest Passage. Late in the 17th century came Irish fishermen, who found so many fisheries that they named the island , meaning 'Land of the Fish', more loosely 'the fishing grounds' in Irish.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: In 1583, when Sir Humphrey Gilbert formally claimed Newfoundland as a colony of England, he found numerous English, French and Portuguese vessels at St. John's. There was no permanent European population. Gilbert was lost at sea during his return voyage, and plans of settlement were postponed.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: In July 1596 the Scottish vessel the "William" left Aberdeen for "new fund land" (Newfoundland) and returned in 1600.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: On 5 July 1610, John Guy set sail from Bristol, England, with 39 other colonists for Cuper's Cove. This, and other early attempts at permanent settlement failed to make a profit for the English investors, but some settlers remained, forming the very earliest modern European population on the island. By 1620, the fishermen of England's West Country dominated the east coast of Newfoundland. French fishermen dominated the island's south coast and Northern Peninsula. The decline of the fisheries, the wasting of the shoreline forests, and an overstocking of liquor by local merchants influenced the Whitehall government in 1675 to decline to set up a colonial governor on the island.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: After 1713, with the Treaty of Utrecht, the French ceded control of south and north shores of the island to the British. They kept only the nearby islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, located in the fish-rich Grand Banks off the south coast. Despite some early settlements by the English, the Crown discouraged permanent, year-round settlement of Newfoundland by migratory fishery workers. Thomas Nash was an Irish Catholic fisherman who permanently settled in Newfoundland. He established the fishing town of Branch. He and his cousin Father Patrick Power of Callan, County Kilkenny, spread Catholicism in Newfoundland. This settlement attracted a major migration of Irish Catholic immigrants to Newfoundland in the early eighteenth century.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: By the late 18th century, permanent settlement increased, peaking in the early years of the 19th century.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The French name for the island is . The name "Newfoundland" is one of the oldest European place names in Canada in continuous geographical and cartographical use, dating from a 1502 letter. It was stated in the following 1628 poem:


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The European immigrants, mostly English, Scots, Irish and French, built a society in the New World unlike the ones they had left. It was also different from those that other immigrants would build on the North American mainland. As a fish-exporting society, Newfoundland was in contact with many ports and societies around the Atlantic rim. But its geographic location and political distinctiveness isolated it from its closest neighbours, Canada and the United States. Internally, most of its population was spread widely around a rugged coastline in small outport settlements. Many were distant from larger centres of population and isolated for long periods by winter ice or bad weather. These conditions had an effect on the cultures of the immigrants. They generated new ways of thinking and acting. Newfoundland and Labrador developed a wide variety of distinctive customs, beliefs, stories, songs and dialects.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The First World War had a powerful and lasting effect on the society. From a population of about a quarter of a million, 5,482 men went overseas. Nearly 1,500 were killed and 2,300 wounded. On July 1, 1916, at Beaumont-Hamel, France, 753 men of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment went over the top of a trench. The next morning, only 68 men answered the roll-call. Even now, when the rest of Canada celebrates the founding of the country on July 1, many Newfoundlanders take part in solemn ceremonies of remembrance.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The Second World War also had a lasting effect on Newfoundland. In particular, the United States assigned forces to the military bases at Argentia, Gander, Stephenville, Goose Bay, and St. John's.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland and Labrador is the youngest province in Canada. Newfoundland was organised as a colony in 1825, was self-governing from 1855 to 1934, but after a financial crisis the legislature was suspended and it was ruled through a Commission of Government (see Dominion of Newfoundland). On June 22 and July 3, 1948, the population of the colony voted in referendums 52.3% to 47.7% in favour of joining Canada as a province. Opposition to confederation was concentrated among residents of the capital St. John's, and on the Avalon Peninsula.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland joined Canada at one minute before midnight on March 31, 1949. Union with Canada has done little to reduce Newfoundlanders' self-image as a distinctive group. In 2003, 72% of residents responding identified first as Newfoundlanders, secondarily as Canadians. Separatist sentiment is low, though, less than 12% in the same 2003 study.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The referendum campaign of 1948 was bitterly fought, and interests in both Canada and Britain favoured and supported confederation with Canada. Jack Pickersgill, a western Canadian native and politician, worked with the confederation camp during the campaign. The Catholic Church, whose members were a minority on the island, lobbied for continued independence. Canada offered financial incentives, including a "baby bonus" for each child in a family.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The Confederates were led by the charismatic Joseph Smallwood, a former radio broadcaster, who had developed socialist political inclinations while working for a socialist newspaper in New York City. Following confederation, Smallwood led Newfoundland for decades as the elected premier. His policies as premier were closer to liberalism than socialism. He was said to have a "cult of personality" among his many supporters. Some residents featured photographs of "Joey" in their living rooms in a place of prominence.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The first flag to specifically represent Newfoundland is thought to have been an image of a green fir tree on a pink background that was in use in the early 19th century. The first official flag identifying Newfoundland, flown by vessels in service of the colonial government, was the Newfoundland Blue Ensign, adopted in 1870 and used until 1904, when it was modified slightly. In 1904, the crown of the Blue Ensign was replaced with the Great Seal of Newfoundland (having been given royal approval in 1827) and the British Parliament designated Newfoundland Red and Blue ensigns as official flags specifically for Newfoundland. The Red and Blue ensigns with the Great Seal of Newfoundland in the fly were used officially from 1904 until 1965, with the Red Ensign being flown as civil ensign by merchant shipping, and the Blue being flown by governmental ships (after the British tradition of having different flags for merchant/naval and government vessel identification).


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: On September 26, 1907, King Edward VII of the United Kingdom declared the Colony of Newfoundland, as an independent Dominion within the British Empire, and from that point until 1965, the Newfoundland Red Ensign was used as the civil ensign of the Dominion of Newfoundland with the Blue Ensign, again, reserved for government shipping identification. In 1931 the Newfoundland National Assembly adopted the Union Jack as the official national flag, with the Red and Blue Ensigns retained as ensigns for shipping identification.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: On March 31, 1949, Newfoundland became a province of Canada but retained the Union Jack in legislature, still designating it as the "national" flag. This was later reaffirmed by the Revised Statutes Act of 1952, and the Union Jack remained the official flag of Newfoundland until 1980, when it was replaced by the current provincial flag. (See Province of Newfoundland and Labrador for continued discussion of provincial flags.)


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland has the most Dorset culture archeological sites. The Beothuk and Mi'kmaq did not leave as much evidence of their cultures.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: As one of the first places in the New World where Europeans settled, Newfoundland also has a history of European colonization. St. John's is the oldest city in Canada and the oldest continuously settled location in English-speaking North America.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The St. John's census metropolitan area includes 12 suburban communities, the largest of which are the city of Mount Pearl and the towns of Conception Bay South and Paradise. The province's third-largest city is Corner Brook, which is situated on the Bay of Islands on the west coast of the island. The bay was named by Captain James Cook who surveyed the coast in 1767.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The island of Newfoundland has numerous provincial parks such as Barachois Pond Provincial Park, considered to be a model forest, as well as two national parks.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The island has many tourism opportunities, ranging from sea kayaking, camping, fishing and hunting, to hiking. The International Appalachian Trail (IAT) is being extended along the island's mountainous west coast. On the east coast, the East Coast Trail extends through the Avalon Peninsula for , beginning near Fort Amherst in St. John's and ending in Cappahayden, with an additional of trail under construction.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The Marble Mountain Ski Resort near Corner Brook is a major attraction in the winter for skiers in eastern Canada.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Educational institutions include the provincial university, Memorial University of Newfoundland whose main campus is situated in St. John's, along with the Grenfell Campus in Corner Brook, in addition to the College of the North Atlantic based in Stephenville and other communities.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Bonavista, Placentia and Ferryland are all historic locations for various early European settlement or discovery activities. Tilting Harbour on Fogo Island is a provincial Registered Heritage District, as well as a National Cultural Landscape District of Canada. This is one of only two national historic sites in Canada so recognized for their Irish heritage.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Entertainment opportunities abound in the island's three cities and numerous towns, particularly during summer festivals. For nightlife, George Street, located in downtown St. John's, is closed to traffic 20 hours per day. The Mile One Stadium in St. John's is the venue for large sporting and concert events in the province.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland is roughly triangular, with each side being approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi), and having an area of 108,860 square kilometres (42,030 sq mi). Newfoundland and its associated small islands have a total area of 111,390 square kilometres (43,010 sq mi). Newfoundland extends between latitudes 46°36'N and 51°38'N.


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: Newfoundland is primarily characterized by having a subarctic (Köppen Dfc) or a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb). Locations on the extreme southeast of the island receive sufficient maritime influence to qualify as having a subpolar oceanic climate (Köppen Cfc).


title: Newfoundland (island)

text: The Terreneuvian Epoch that begins the Cambrian Period of geological time is named for "Terre Neuve" (the French term for Newfoundland).


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Rajkumar Hirani (born 20 November 1962), also called Raju Hirani, is an Indian filmmaker, director, producer and editor known for his works in Hindi films. He is the recipient of several accolades, including three National Film Awards and eleven Filmfare Awards. Hirani is referred as one of the most successful filmmakers of Indian cinema. His movies are often lighthearted but revolve around significant societal issues with humour and emotional intelligence.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Started career as a film editor after passing out from FTII in editing, bad experience forced him to shift in ad films, he made several successful ads. He edited first film as a professional editor to Vidhu Vinod Chopra's "Mission Kashmir" (2000). Although he wanted to make films, took one year break and came back with "Munna Bhai MBBS" script to Chopra to help him for financing it. Chopra decided to produce himself. The film released in 2003 and became widespread critical and commercial success. It won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film, and earned Hirani his first Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay and a nomination for the Best Director.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: After the success of" MBBS", the sequel "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" (2006) which was second highest grosser of the year and coming-of-age drama "3 Idiots" (2009), both of them won National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and nominated in Filmfare Award for Best Film, Best Screenplay and Best Director, won all for "3 Idiots", which was also a huge commercial success, became the highest grossing Indian film of its time. His next the science fiction religious satire "PK" (2014) with Aamir Khan as an alien again, the highest grossing Indian film of its time and a biography drama "Sanju" (2018) based on Sanjay Dutt released with critical and commercial success. Both films were nominated for Best Film, Best Director at Filmfare Awards, won Best Screenplay for "PK". Domestically both films are currently the second and third highest grossing Bollywood film behind Dangal. Hirani is the founder of the production house Rajkumar Hirani Films.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani was born on 20 November 1962 in Nagpur to a Sindhi family. His ancestors originally belong to Mehrabpur, a city now in the Naushahro Firoz District, Sindh, of Pakistan. His father Suresh Hirani ran a typing institute in Nagpur. Hirani studied at St. Francis De'Sales High School, Nagpur, Maharashtra. He did his graduation in commerce. His parents wanted him to be an engineer, but he was more keen on theatre and film.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: In his college days he was involved with Hindi theatre. He had many friends in Nagpur's medical college and hence, spent much time in theater at the college. Suresh had his son's photographs taken and sent him to an acting school in Mumbai. However, Hirani could not fit in and returned to Nagpur after three days. His father then asked him to apply to the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, but the acting course had shut down and his chances of admission to the directorial course looked slim as there were far too many applicants. Hirani opted for the film editing course, and earned a scholarship.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani tried his luck as a film editor for many years. Bad experiences forced him to shift to television advertising, and he gradually established himself as a director and producer of advertising films. He was also seen in a Fevicol ad where some men and elephants were trying to pull and break a Fevicol plank, saying "Jor laga ke Haisha". He was also seen in the Kinetic Luna ad campaign created by Ogilvy & Mather.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: He was doing fairly well in the advertisement industry, but he wanted to make movies, so he took a break from advertisement and started working with Vidhu Vinod Chopra. He worked on promos and trailers for "" (1994). He edited promotions for "Kareeb" (1998). He got his first opportunity as a film editor with "Mission Kashmir" (2000).


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: In 2003, Hirani made his directorial debut with the comedy film "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." starring Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Gracy Singh, Jimmy Sheirgill, and Sunil Dutt. It was about the titular protagonist (played by Sanjay Dutt), a goon going to a medical school who is helped by his sidekick (Circuit, played by Warsi). The film received a positive response from critics. Hirani's direction was praised, and the film emerged as a major commercial success with a worldwide total of . "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S." won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film, and earned Hirani his first Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay and a nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Director. The film was the first film of the franchise "Munna Bhai".


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: In 2006, Hirani directed the second installment of the "Munna Bhai franchise", titled "Lage Raho Munna Bhai", which retained some of the original cast, including Sanjay Dutt, Warsi, and Boman Irani, and added Vidya Balan as the female lead replacing Gracy Singh. The feature proved to be Hirani's highest-grossing release to that point, earning over worldwide, thus attaining a blockbuster status and becoming the third highest-grossing film of that year. Just like the previous film, it won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film, and earned Hirani a second Critics Award for Best Film award, a first Best Story award, a first Best Dialogue award, and a second Best Director nomination at Filmfare.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani's next directorial venture was the coming-of-age comedy-drama "3 Idiots" (2009), which starred Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, R. Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, and Boman Irani. It follows the friendship of three engineering students, and was a satire about social pressures under an Indian education system. "3 Idiots" received positive reviews from critics, and proved to be the highest-grossing Hindi film up until then, earning in global ticket sales. Hirani won his third National Film Award for Best Popular Film Award, first Filmfare Best Film and Best Director Award, and second Filmfare Best Screenplay and Best Story Award, for his direction. The film established Hirani as one of Hindi cinema's most prominent filmmakers.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani directed "PK", which was released on 19 December 2014. Upon release, it received positive reviews, with praise directed towards Aamir Khan's performance and the film's humour, though certain criticism was received for "hurting religious sentiments". The film received 8 nominations at the 60th Filmfare Awards, winning two. Additionally, it won five Producers Guild Film Awards, and two Screen Awards. "PK" garnered the Telstra People's Choice Award at the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne. Produced on a budget of 850 million (approx. $12 million), "PK" was the first Indian film to gross more than 7 billion and US$100 million worldwide. At the time, it emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time and ranks as the 70th highest-grossing film of 2014 worldwide. The film's final worldwide gross was 854crore (US$140million). It currently stands as the 5th highest grossing Indian film worldwide and 7th highest-grossing film in India.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: He also directed "Sanju" (2018). The film follows the life of actor Sanjay Dutt (one of Hirani's closest collaborators), his addiction with drugs, arrest for alleged association with the 1993 Bombay bombings, relationship with his father, comeback in the industry, the eventual drop of charges from bombay blasts, and release after completing his jail term. Upon release, it generally received positive reviews from critics and was praised for Ranbir Kapoor's performance; some criticised its image-cleansing of its protagonist. With a worldwide gross of , "Sanju" ranks as the highest grossing Hindi film of 2018, the second highest-earning Hindi film in India of all time, and one of the highest-grossing Indian films. "Sanju" earned seven nominations at the 64th Filmfare Awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Hirani. It won two; Best Actor for Kapoor (who played Dutt) and Best Supporting Actor for Kaushal.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani is next directing "Dunki", a comedy-drama film on immigration produced by himself and Red Chillies Entertainment (whom he is working with for the first time) and written by him and Joshi. It stars Shah Rukh Khan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal, Boman Irani, Sunil Grover, Deepak Dobriyal and Divya Dutta and will be released theatrically on 22 December 2023, coinciding with Christmas.


title: Rajkumar Hirani

text: Hirani's films are often based on themes which explore particularly different critical social issue like middle class aspirations, reforming, standing up for themselves, fighting for the right thing, relationships among family but with healthy humour and full of emotional quotient. Hirani is editor of all of his films, he himself admitted he enjoys editing film more than anything else. Rajeev Masand said "Like those good old-fashioned Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, Hirani's film reinforced importance of human goodness and basic niceties. Hirani has been cited one of his most favourite film, Mukherjee's "Anand" (1971). "Munna Bhai MBBS" deals with corruption of hospital and cruelty of doctors, "Lage Raho Munna Bhai" deals with Gandhi's thinking and reforming people with soft hearted, "3 Idiots" with education system, pressure on students for marks and passion of individuals, "PK" with religion and superstition and "Sanju" on relationships and media outrage. Film critic Komal Nahta called Rajkumar Hirani a magician more than a director during reviewing "Sanju". He added," He narrates the complex story of a misdirected, ignorant and foolish young man with such sensitivity that the human drama becomes quite a masterpiece of a film."