title: Torchwood

text: "Torchwood" has "a heavy online presence". At the Edinburgh International Television Festival, BBC Director of Television Jana Bennett originally promised that the series' online tie-ins were to include the ability to explore the Hub, an imaginary desktop, weekly 10-minute behind-the-scenes vodcasts."You can join the corporation of Torchwood and be one of its employees," said Bennett. The Adobe Flash-based interactive website, including the Hub Tour, debuted on 12 October 2006. Due to digital media rights restrictions most video content on the BBC Three websites is only accessible to users within the UK.


title: Torchwood

text: "Torchwood" many tie-in websites amount to an alternate reality game; the show's online presence was an example of electronic literature. On the first website (for series 1), the alternate reality game was mostly composed of weekly updates to the site in the form of fictional intercepted blogs, newspaper cutouts and confidential letters and IM conversations between members of the Torchwood Three crew. "Convergence: the International Journal of Research into New Media" commented on "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood" foray into "convergence culture" as an achievement "on an unprecedented scale, with the BBC currently using the series to trial a plethora of new technologies, including: mini-episodes on mobile phones, podcast commentaries, interactive red-button adventures, video blogs, companion programming, and 'fake' metatextual websites." For the second series in 2008, a second interactive "Torchwood" online game was devised, scripted by series writer Phil Ford; this more heavily featured the actors of the series, particularly Gareth David-Lloyd, and Siwan Morris was cast as a pirate radio jockey investigating "Torchwood".


title: Torchwood

text: During the fourth series of the revival of "Doctor Who", a crossover webcast production called "Captain Jack's Monster Files" was launched, featuring Barrowman, in character as Jack, hosting a series of shorts profiling various monsters and aliens featured on "Doctor Who". These segments, posted to the BBC's official "Doctor Who" website, included specially shot footage of Jack in the Hub. After Series 4, the segments were produced less frequently, with the last featuring Jack, released in December 2009, taking the form of Jack narrating a mini-episode featuring the Weeping Angels entitled "A Ghost Story for Christmas". Subsequent "Monster Files" webcasts released since 2010 have been hosted by "Doctor Who" co-star Alex Kingston as her character, River Song. As with most other online video content from the BBC, "Captain Jack's Monster Files" are not viewable outside the UK and to date (2011) have never been included on a DVD or Blu-ray release of either "Doctor Who" or "Torchwood". "The Torchwood Archives" by Gary Russell collects much of this online literature for the first two series in hardback form, including the Captain's Blog section of the BBC America "Torchwood" website.


title: Torchwood

text: To promote its rebroadcasts of "Torchwood", the UK digital channel Watch has twice commissioned the creative team of the "Torchwood Magazine" comic strip to produce brief online-exclusive comic strip stories for the Watch website. The first of these, "The Return of the Vostok", was uploaded in February 2009, with a follow-up, "Ma and Par", appearing in February 2010.


title: Torchwood

text: Tying in with the launch of "Torchwood: Miracle Day", Starz produced a 2011 "Torchwood" webseries entitled "", which starred American actress Eliza Dushku.


title: Torchwood

text: Set between the end of Series Two and the beginning of Series Three, the BBC aired four Torchwood radio dramas featuring the cast of the series. As a tie in with Radio 4's CERN-themed day on 10 September 2008, a CERN-themed radio episode of Torchwood written by Joseph Lidster, entitled "Lost Souls", aired as the day's Afternoon Play. This was the first Torchwood drama not to feature Burn Gorman and Naoko Mori. Three further episodes were broadcast on 1–3 July 2009: "Asylum", "Golden Age" and "The Dead Line".


title: Torchwood

text: In May 2011, the BBC Radio Drama newsletter announced that a further three "Torchwood" radio plays had entered production. The new plays, titled "Torchwood: The Lost Files", Part 1: "The Devil and Miss Carew", Part 2: "Submission" & Part 3: "The House of the Dead" were broadcast on 11, 12 & 13 July 2011 in the Afternoon Play slot at 14.15 BST and were available to listen to in the iPlayer for one week after the broadcast. (By 2019 the BBC made radio dramas available on demand for one month to one year; about 25 radio plays were usually available, including 29 Nov. 2019 these three Torchwood episodes.) While "The Devil and Miss Carew" & "Submission" were set before "Children of Earth" with Gareth David-Lloyd reprising the role of Ianto, "The House of the Dead" on the other hand was set an unspecified time after "Children of Earth" and saw the return of Ianto this time as a ghost.


title: Torchwood

text: In January 2015, Barrowman announced that "Torchwood" would return, for the first time since "", in the form of several BBC radio plays, One will feature the original Torchwood team from Series 1–2, including Barrowman; the others will be character-based.


title: Torchwood

text: Accompanying the main series of "Torchwood" are a series of novels. The books are published in paperback-sized hardcover format, the same format BBC Books uses for its New Series Adventures line for "Doctor Who". The first three novels were later released, abridged, as audiobooks, along with other audiobook that have not been novels. To date all of the core cast members from the first two series have narrated at least one abridged or audio-exclusive reading.


title: Torchwood

text: On 3 May 2015, it was announced that Big Finish Productions would produce a series of six "Torchwood" audio adventures starring John Barrowman as Jack. The new series of audio dramas will each focus on different members of the Torchwood team, exploring the impact that a mysterious event has on them, taking place at various times in and around the TV episodes. Starting off the range was John Barrowman, who stars in "The Conspiracy" by David Llewellyn, which was released September 2015.


title: Torchwood

text: Big Finish later released shows billed as a continuation of "Torchwood", or "series five", featuring a regular cast of nine. Barrowman, Myles, Owen, and Price returned to voice their characters. New to the series were civil servant St John Colchester (Paul Clayton), Ng (Alexandria Riley), news reporter Tyler Steele (Jonny Green), shapeshifting alien Orr (Samantha Béart), and a parallel universe version of Yvonne Hartman (Tracy Ann Oberman).


title: Torchwood

text: On 22 September 2008, Silva Screen Records released a compilation of music featured in the show's first and second series. The disc features 32 tracks composed by Ben Foster and Murray Gold. A second compilation disc was released on 17 July 2009, featuring 40 tracks from the show's third series, "Children of Earth".


title: Torchwood

text: As a spin-off of long-running British cultural artefact "Doctor Who", "Torchwood"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s launch into British popular culture has received many positive and negative reviews, commentary and parody following the hype of its inception, especially regarding its status as an "adult" "Doctor Who" spin-off as well as its characterisation and portrayal of sex. Reviews for the first series were largely negative, with sites such as Behind the Sofa giving many more negative reviews than positive ones. Reviews of the second series were more positive. The third series, which took the form of a five-part story arc with the blanket title of "", received a number of positive reviews. Critics described it separately as a "powerful human drama"; "Best. Torchwood. Ever."; and "... against all expectations, a work of Proper Drama". Conversely, "The Daily Mirror" gave the mini-series a negative review, describing it as "the modern-day "Blake's 7": ludicrous plot, hammy acting, an adolescent penchant for 'Issues'". Metacritic, an American review aggregator website, gives "Torchwood" series one a rating of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favourable reviews". The show's second series rates above the first, scoring an aggregated 80 out of 100. The third series rated higher, at 81, indicating "universal acclaim". Its highest scores were a 100 from "TV Guide" and a 91 from "TIME"; the lowest was a 60 from "The New York Times". The fourth series had an average rating of 70, based on 24 critics.


title: Torchwood

text: The death of character Ianto Jones in "Children of Earth" triggered protests from fans of the show, among them the "Save Ianto Jones" campaign which collected more than £10,000 for the British Children in Need annual charity event. Other fans resorted to abuse and threats, causing writer James Moran to fire off an angry missive in a blog post. Showrunner Russell T Davies made no apologies for the decision to kill off the character, saying, "I'm just delighted that the fans are so wrapped in the character to have that reaction." The plot point attracted more controversy from some commentators, additionally, because it depicted the death of a main character involved in a same-sex relationship. This led several writers to analyse the death in view of the character's earlier refusal to admit to his relationship with a man, and claimed that the death was a sign that the LGBT community was leaving behind its image of victimhood.


title: Torchwood

text: Positive and negative attention has been given to the portrayal of same-sex relationships in "Torchwood". Maria Boyd of the University of Texas at Austin published her paper at a conference, "Gay Sex and Aliens! How the Press frames Russell T Davies' "Torchwood"." She argues through "a discourse analysis of 109 reviews of the Series 1 and Series 2 premiere episodes" how "TV critics are more concerned with the depictions of bisexuality among the principal characters on "Torchwood"." Furthermore, she argues that the show's reviews "highlight the same-sex interactions depicted on the show utilising sensationalist, assimilationist, or condemnatory language" and that the "hegemonic, heterosexist language used by TV critics covering "Torchwood" has framed the program in such a way that it limits audience's ability to make meaning of the text themselves."


title: Torchwood

text: Although fewer in number than "Doctor Who" spoofs, there have been a number of parodies of "Torchwood" in various media. Verity Stob, a technology columnist for online newspaper "The Register", wrote a parody of "Torchwood" called "Under Torch Wood". The piece is in the style of "Under Milk Wood", a Dylan Thomas radio play. The piece comments on the level of swearing present in "Torchwood" and the role of Rhys Williams, whom the piece describes as "Barry Backstory". In its third series, the "Doctor Who" parody "Nebulous" also began to parody "Torchwood", with references to "baby dinosaurs falling through a hole in time" and "the sheer amount of paranormal activity in the Cardiff area alone ... starting to threaten the Earth's plausibility shield".


title: Torchwood

text: Satirical impressionist television series "Dead Ringers" also parodied "Torchwood", with Jon Culshaw playing Captain Jack and Jan Ravens as Gwen Cooper. The sketches parodied the level of sex in "Torchwood", claiming "we never deal with an alien unless at least one [of the team] has shagged it", and describing the lack of motivations of the characters. It also parodies the bisexuality of the characters and the melodramatic personality of Jack, who in the sketch walks extremely dramatically, swinging his coat about himself. Barrowman is described as a "pound shop Tom Cruise", and reference is made to the perceived low-budget of the show, with Owen describing the "Torchwood" equipment as "an Apple Mac with stickers on the case". Later spoofs in the final episode of the 2007 series of "Dead Ringers" featured Jack Harkness in a threesome with two "Attack of the Cybermen"-era Cybermen, and an elderly version called "Driftwood", which claims to be "separate from the Post Office, beyond the bingo hall and outside the Oxfam", a parody of "Torchwood's" opening narration. It also featured Albert Steptoe of "Steptoe and Son" as the leader of the team, claiming "a terrible event in my past means that I can't die. It's called UK Gold", and parodied its use of amnesia pills (unnecessary for this team due to the onset of senile amnesia).


title: Torchwood

text: The first episodes of Torchwood on BBC Three gave the channel its highest-ever ratings and the highest ratings of any digital-only non-sports channel at the time with 2.519 million viewers (though this has since been surpassed by "Bionic Woman" on ITV2, which gained 2.553 million in March 2008). The audience share was 12.7%, increasing to 13.8% for the second episode (shown immediately after the first episode on the same day), despite viewership dropping to 2.498 million.


title: Torchwood

text: Ratings for later episodes dropped to around 1.1 to 1.2 million viewers during the first showing on BBC Three (the lowest being 0.8 million for week ending 24 December 2006), but nevertheless, the show remained the most-viewed programme on BBC Three by a wide margin. Viewing figures for the repeat screenings on BBC Two later the same week were around 2.2 to 2.3 million (dropping to under 1.1 and 1.8 respectively for the weeks ending 03/12/06 and 10/12/06).


title: Torchwood

text: For its second series, which began in January 2008, Torchwood was moved to the more established channel BBC Two. Again, initial ratings were respectable, and the first episode garnered 4.22 million viewers. However, the series again began to decline and had lost a million viewers by its fourth episode. It dropped to a low of 2.52 million viewers towards the end of its run, even after the BBC had moved it from its usual Wednesday-night slot (where it was being consistently beaten by ITV's programming and Channel 4's number-one series, "Grand Designs") to Friday nights. The second series had an overall average rating of 3.26 million viewers on BBC Two.


title: Torchwood

text: Torchwood's five-part third series, entitled "", premiered on BBC One in July 2009, with an estimated 5.9 million viewers, according to overnight figures. Ratings for the second episode dropped to 5.58m, but rose to a high of 6.24m for the fourth episode. According to the overnight figures, the mini-series garnered an average rating of 5.88 million viewers. According to official figures, published by Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB), all five episodes of the mini-series garnered more than 6 million viewers, with the fourth episode gaining the largest audience.


title: Torchwood

text: The first episode of series four, "", attracted a consolidated audience of 6.59 million, which was slightly higher than the figure for the opening episode of the previous series, as well as an AI rating of 85 out of 100, considered "excellent". However, viewing figures steadily declined as the series continued, dropping to a low of 4.48 for the seventh episode, though figures picked up slightly with 4.85 million viewers for the final episode.


title: Torchwood

text: The complete first series has been released on Region 2 DVD in the UK. A North American Region 1 release occurred 22 January 2008, following the broadcast of Series 1 on BBC America in the United States and the CBC in Canada. Series One Part One, Two and Three have been released in Australia Region 4, The complete series 1 sets released in the UK and US also include the episodes of the behind-the-scenes series "Torchwood Declassified". The Complete Second Series was released on 30 June 2008 (Region 2), along with the Complete First series on Blu-ray and HD DVD. Series One, Two, Three and Four episodes are currently available for download through iTunes, Amazon, and Netflix.


title: Torchwood

text: After its première on 18 June 2007, a reviewer for "The Sydney Morning Herald"s "The Guide" said, "The appeal of "Torchwood" is not so much that it's gloriously implausible sci-fi pulp, but that it knows it's gloriously implausible, sci-fi pulp." Ten's press release cites rival programming in their decision to move the show to a Wednesday 12 am timeslot halfway through the series. "Torchwood" now airs on UKTV in Australia. Series 1 was played on Imparja, but as of 3 February 2008 the station is no longer affiliated with Ten and will not screen more. Series 2 of "Torchwood" aired on Ten HD from 1 September 2008. On 19 June 2009, ABC2 began broadcasting series 1, 2 and 3 on Fridays at 8:30 pm. When series 2 started broadcasting on 18 September 2009, ABC2 started broadcasting "Torchwood Declassified" after each episode. ABC2 began airing "Children of Earth" on 8 January 2010 weekly and it was earlier fasttracked by UKTV. Miracle Day was fast tracked by UKTV for July 2011 following the global premiere on Starz.


title: Torchwood

text: The first series began screening on TV2 in New Zealand on Wednesday, 9 July 2008, starting with series 1 and running straight through to the fourth episode ("Meat") in the second series. Series 2 continued airing on 11 February 2009 and series 3 premiered on 10 February 2010. Repeat screenings of the first two series began on 16 March 2010 after the conclusion of during the previous week. On 13 August 2010, Children of Earth began repeated transmission after the conclusion of the second series on 6 August 2010. Repeats also aired on BBC UKTV.


title: Torchwood

text: In France, the first series began airing on 12 October 2007 on NRJ 12, and since 13 January 2009 on Syfy. The second series began on 5 September 2008 on NRJ 12 and the third series began on 17 November 2009 also on NRJ 12. In Germany, RTL 2 broadcast series 1 to 4. The first series started airing on 28 June 2010 on Icelandic network Stöð 2. In Italy, the first series started airing on 3 September 2007 on Jimmy, in 2011–12, Rai4 started to broadcast the whole show around 07.00 pm, starting with series 1, and then broadcasting Series 4 on primetime.


title: Torchwood

text: Portuguese network SIC Radical started transmitting the first series in January 2009. Subsequently, the complete series was picked up by AXN Black and the Portuguese Syfy channel. The first series premiered on 24 June 2007 and the second series 6 July 2007 on Swedish network TV4+. Serbia aired the first and second series on the network RTS from 19 August 2009, RTS began showing the third series from 25 March 2010. Bulgaria aired first, second and third series on the AXN Sci-fi channel. In Poland, BBC Entertainment broadcast series 1; premiere: 16 September 2008, 2, 3 and 4 (premiere: 28 October 2012) in censored version.


title: Torchwood

text: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation helped to finance the first two series, as they had the revived production of "Doctor Who" in 2005. On 2 April 2007, BBC America had acquired the rights to broadcast the series in the United States. The series started on 8 September 2007; the initial broadcast of the series was tied into a "radical makeover" of the channel that was to occur later in 2007. The second series started on BBC America 26 January 2008, and the third on 20 July 2009. "Torchwood" has become one of the higher rated programmes for BBC America with its first series première in September 2007 attracting an audience of almost half a million viewers. HDNet acquired the US high definition rights for the first 26 episodes (series 1 and 2) and began airing series 1 episodes on Monday evenings, starting 17 September 2007. On 11 February 2008, HDNet began showing series 2 episodes.


title: Torchwood

text: The Canadian network CBC was a co-producer of series 1, and premiered in October 2007. The show airs for French-speaking Canadian audiences on Ztélé.


title: Torchwood

text: Series 2 began airing on Space on 8 August 2008 and series 3 was aired on Space over five consecutive nights in 20–24 July 2009. "Miracle Day" premiered on 9 July 2011 on Space. on 2 January 2012 Space aired a Torchwood marathon of Children of Earth and Miracle Day. "Miracle Day" was repeated on Starz in Black in a marathon format on Labour Day Weekend 2012.


title: Love Sux

text: Love Sux is the seventh studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Avril Lavigne, released on February 25, 2022, by DTA and Elektra Records. Her first studio album in three years since "Head Above Water" (2019), Lavigne worked on "Love Sux" with various artists including Machine Gun Kelly, Blackbear and Mark Hoppus of Blink-182. Musically, it embraces emo pop angst and Lavigne's early skate punk influences from Blink-182, Green Day, NOFX and the Offspring. The album was preceded by two singles: "Bite Me", and "Love It When You Hate Me".


title: Love Sux

text: The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, becoming Lavigne's highest-rated album to date. It debuted at number nine on US "Billboard" 200 with 30,000 equivalent-album units, of which 19,000 were pure album sales. It also entered the top 10 in Australia, Germany, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom, among many others. Lavigne promoted "Love Sux" through a series of public appearances and televised performances.


title: Love Sux

text: A deluxe edition of the album was released on November 25, 2022, following the release of the single "I'm a Mess", a collaboration with British singer Yungblud.


title: Love Sux

text: Following the release of her previous studio album "Head Above Water" (2019), Lavigne mentioned in a May 2020 interview with "American Songwriter" magazine that she would like to release some music in 2021 and that she had started working on new material.


title: Love Sux

text: Lavigne was without a record label or management team when she began working on new music, and began writing with American musician Travis Barker. "F.U." was the first song written by the pair in November 2020. The same month, American musician Mod Sun, on whose single "Flames" Lavigne featured in January 2021, introduced Lavigne to producer John Feldmann, who stated "my experience with Avril was unbelievable" adding that "her voice is incredible — her pitch, her tone."


title: Love Sux

text: In December 2020, Lavigne confirmed she was recording new music with Feldmann, Barker, Mod Sun and Machine Gun Kelly. With recording for the album being reportedly completed by February 2021.


title: Love Sux

text: On November 3, 2021, Lavigne announced she had signed with Barker's label, DTA Records. On January 13, 2022, Lavigne revealed the title of her seventh studio album, along with the release date of February 25, 2022.


title: Love Sux

text: Four of the tracks of "Love Sux" are vocal collaborations with other artists, namely Machine Gun Kelly, Blackbear, Mark Hoppus and Yungblud; the largest amount of collaborations Lavigne had ever included on an album. On working with Hoppus, Lavigne said "...he blew me away... He was writing in front of me, recording his vocals, playing his bass. He can engineer and he's obviously an awesome songwriter and I got to see that firsthand. I have so much respect for him that I just keep gushing about him."


title: Love Sux

text: "Love Sux" was described by Lavigne in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" as the "most alternative record I've made from front to back", further explaining "most of my albums have like pop songs, ballads, and it's quite diverse. The people I worked with really understood me and come from that genre of music". She described the recording of the album as feeling as though she was "back in high school hanging out with the type of people [she] grew up with, and it was just effortless." In an interview with "Nylon", Lavigne said that "the album is light and happy, even though there's songs about heartbreak and breaking up" but that "it's also anthemic, and it's powerful, and it has a positive message for people to stand up for yourself, to have self-worth." She further stated that "Love Sux" is the album she had "wanted to make for [her] whole career," drawing skate punk influences from NOFX, Blink-182, Green Day and the Offspring.


title: Love Sux

text: The album has been described by critics as being pop-punk, skate punk, alternative rock, and emo pop.


title: Love Sux

text: "Love Sux" opens with the track "Cannonball", described by Ali Shutler of "NME" as "a furious electro dance opener" which "starts with a burst of buoyant guitars and the angsty scream of "like a ticking time bomb, I'm about to explode" and that "less than 20 seconds in, the tune veers drastically into hyper-pop territory". The second track "Bois Lie" features American musician Machine Gun Kelly, and was described by Bobby Olivier of "Spin" as a "speedy duet" which "builds to a he-said-she-said climax", and as "a sonic sequel to MGK's "Forget Me Too"".


title: Love Sux

text: "Bite Me" is the album's third track and lead single, and has drawn comparisons to Lavigne's earlier studio albums "Let Go" (2002) and "The Best Damn Thing" (2007), as well as to the band Paramore. "Billboard" described it as a "guitar- and drum-heavy track" which "features Lavigne raging at her former lover for failing to treat her properly, promising that they'll always regret being kicked out of her life." Fourth track and second single "Love It When You Hate Me" was described by Shutner as a "pop-punk banger", and Emily Carter writing for "Kerrang!" noted that the song "hears the Canadian star embracing nostalgic pop-punk in the chorus – 'The highs the lows the yes, the nos / You're so hot when you get cold / Don't call me baby / I love it when you hate me' – and fresher elements in the verses." The title track "Love Sux" follows as the album's fifth track, and was described by Tom Williams of "The Line of Best Fit" as featuring "a fantastic guitar-riff that recalls "Celebrity Skin"-era Hole".


title: Love Sux

text: "Kiss Me like the World Is Ending" is the sixth track, which was said by Jessie Atkinson of "Gigwise" to contain a guitar riff reminiscent of Blink-182's "All the Small Things". Seventh track "Avalanche" was described by Shutler as "find[ing] Lavigne, now 37, just as confused as she was on her 2002 breakout track "Complicated", featuring the lyrics "I wish my life came with instructions" but that "with a delicious, synth-driven breakdown, she's far more self-assured here." 10th track "All I Wanted", featuring Mark Hoppus, "sees the two punk veterans trade in various past memories for a surprisingly affecting number". 11th track "Dare to Love Me" is a "delicate ballad" containing "fraught emotion", and was described by Atkinson as a "piano led beauty". "Break of a Heartache" is the album's 12th and final track, and was said by Shannon Garner of "Clash" to be a "bombastic number that confidently brushes off past trauma and reassures people that you can overcome things and change how you feel towards certain situations given the time."


title: Love Sux

text: Lavigne made a concert at The Roxy Theater in New York City, celebrating on "Love Sux" album release party with Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker she performed the songs from the album "Bite Me", "Love It When You Hate Me", and "Bois Lie" with Machine Gun Kelly and her other hit songs.


title: Love Sux

text: The album's lead single, "Bite Me", was released on November 10, 2021. The second single, "Love It When You Hate Me", featuring Blackbear, was released on January 14, 2022. An acoustic version of "Bois Lie", featuring Machine Gun Kelly, was released as a promotional single on August 26, 2022. A live video for this song was released on YouTube the same day, featuring footage from Machine Gun Kelly's Mainstream Sellout Tour, on which Lavigne was part of as a supporting act.


title: Love Sux

text: To promote the album, Lavigne embarked on the Love Sux Tour, originally titled the Bite Me Tour, in 2022. The European leg was originally scheduled for that year until it got pushed to 2023 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the pandemic also delayed some dates in the Canadian leg due to positive cases within the tour and subsequent exposures.


title: Love Sux

text: "Love Sux" received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 74 based on 11 reviews. It marks Lavigne's highest-rated album of her career to date.


title: Love Sux

text: In a positive review from "Clash", Shannon Garner wrote that "it would be easy to disregard Lavigne's album as part of the current 2000s nostalgia storm that's on the rise but it's far from hazy nostalgia", further remarking that "Love Sux" "showcases growth in Lavigne as an artist", and that the album is "more of an antidote to pop progress rather than a nostalgic throwback", concluding that "it just has all the elements of what made us fall in love with Avril Lavigne in the first place."


title: Love Sux

text: Tom Williams of "The Line of Best Fit" complimented "Love Sux", commenting that the album "brings the energy up to a 10 almost immediately and rarely turns it down across the album's 33 minutes."


title: Love Sux

text: Roisin O'Connor of "The Independent" wrote that the album is "Lavigne's best album since 2007's "The Best Damn Thing", which moved away from her earlier grunge-based sound and into catchier territory. It says a lot about the 37-year-old's conviction that her rebel-girl schtick doesn't feel hackneyed." While critical of some of the album's lyrics, O'Connor concluded that "Love Sux" is "shameless but cathartic hit of nostalgia".


title: Love Sux

text: Writing for "NME", Ali Shutler reviewed "Love Sux" positively, remarking that the album "is an unapologetic blast of self-empowerment" and "a progressive pop-punk album that eschews the old rules – but not at the expense of maximalist, joyful guitar anthems."


title: Love Sux

text: Hannah Jane Parkinson of "The Guardian" opined that the album contains "high-energy bangers one after the other", and is "exuberant enough to have you partying like it's 2002."


title: Love Sux

text: In a more mixed review, Jessie Atkinson of "Gigwise" commented "Now thirty-seven years old, Avril is still playing with schoolbook colloquialisms and the dramas of one who is unlucky in love. The results are undeniably fun, especially for those of us who were young at the time of 2002's "Let Go" – and the new youth, who are dabbling in chequered wrist warmers and smudged liner. Sadly, "Love Sux" sounds too much like a 2002 carbon copy to truly impress in 2022."


title: Love Sux

text: In Canada, "Love Sux" debuted at number three on the "Billboard" Canadian Albums chart, it was Lavigne's seventh album to enter the top 10 on the chart. In Australia the album debuted at number three on the ARIA Albums Chart, becoming Lavigne's seventh top 10 album in the country and her highest charting album since "Goodbye Lullaby" in 2011. In Germany, "Love Sux" debuted at number six on Offizielle Deutsch Chart, becoming her sixth top 10 album in the country. In the United Kingdom, the album debuted at number three on the UK Albums chart with 13,622 units sold on its first week, making it her highest position on the chart since her 2007 album "The Best Damn Thing". "Love Sux" is also the best-selling female cassette of 2022 (third overall).


title: Love Sux

text: In the United States, "Love Sux" debuted at number nine on the "Billboard" 200 chart with 30,000 album-equivalent units on its first week, which consisted 19,000 pure copies, and 10,000 streaming units. It became Lavigne's sixth top ten effort overall and her first since her 2013 self-titled record. The album went straight to number two on the "Billboard" Top Album Sales chart, it was the second best selling album on that week, debuting at number two on the Top Rock Albums chart and Top Alternative Albums chart, it was Lavigne's first album to enter the Top Rock Albums chart and her highest position on the Top Alternative Albums chart since 2007.


title: Love Sux

text: In Japan, "Love Sux" debuted at number seven on the Oricon Japanese Albums chart with 11,573 units sold on its first week (9,882 physical copies and 1,252 digital copies), making it Lavigne's seventh studio album to enter the top ten in Japan. On the "Billboard" Japanese Hot Albums chart the album debuted at number six. Uniquely in Japan, the album was released by Sony Music instead of DTA and Elektra Records. "Love Sux" is the 67th most downloaded album in Japan in 2022. In November, by the vinyl edition release of "Love Sux" it debuted at number 24 on the UK Vinyl Albums Chart.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The 2010–11 UEFA Champions League was the 56th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 19th under the UEFA Champions League format. The final was held at Wembley Stadium in London on 28 May 2011, where Barcelona defeated Manchester United 3–1. Internazionale were the defending champions, but were eliminated by Schalke 04 in the quarter-finals. As winners, Barcelona earned berths in the 2011 UEFA Super Cup and the 2011 FIFA Club World Cup.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: A total of 76 teams participated in the 2010–11 Champions League, from 52 UEFA associations (Liechtenstein organises no domestic league competition). Associations were allocated places according to their 2009 UEFA country coefficient, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2004–05 to 2008–09.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: Since the winners of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League, Internazionale, obtained a place in the group stage through their domestic league placing, the reserved title holder spot in the group stage was effectively vacated. To compensate:


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The draws for the qualifying rounds, the play-off round and the group stage are all seeded based on the 2010 UEFA club coefficients. The coefficients are calculated on the basis of a combination of 20% of the value of the respective national association's coefficient for the period from 2005–06 to 2009–10 inclusive and the clubs' individual performances in the UEFA club competitions during the same period. Clubs are ordered by their coefficients and then divided into pots as required.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the draws for the qualifying rounds and the play-off round, the teams are divided evenly into one seeded and one unseeded pot, based on their club coefficients. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the order of legs in each tie also being decided randomly. Due to the limited time between matches, the draws for the second and third qualifying rounds take place before the results of the previous round are known. The seeding in each draw is carried out under the assumption that all of the highest-ranked clubs of the previous round are victorious. If a lower-ranked club is victorious, it simply takes the place of its defeated opponent in the next round. Moreover, in the third qualifying round and play-off round, champion clubs and non-champion clubs are kept separated. Prior to these draws, UEFA may form "groups" in accordance with the principles set by the Club Competitions Committee, but they are purely for convenience of the draw and do not resemble any real groupings in the sense of the competition, while ensuring that teams from the same association not drawn against each other.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the draw for the group stage, the 32 teams are split into four pots of eight teams, based on their club coefficients, with the title holder automatically placed into Pot 1. Each group contains one team from each pot, but teams from the same association cannot be drawn into the same group. The draw is controlled in order to split teams of the same national association evenly between Groups A-D and Groups E-H, where the two sets of groups alternate between playing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for each matchday.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the draw for the first knockout stage, the eight group winners are seeded, and the eight group runners-up are unseeded. A seeded team is drawn against an unseeded team, with the seeded team hosting the second leg. Teams from the same group or the same association cannot be drawn against each other.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the draws for the quarter-finals onwards, there are no seedings, and teams from the same group or the same association may be drawn with each other.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the qualifying and play-off rounds, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The draws for the first two qualifying rounds were held on 21 June 2010 by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and Michael Heselschwerdt, Head of Club Competitions, while the draw for the third qualifying round was held on 16 July 2010 by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and Giorgio Marchetti, Competitions Director.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The first legs were planned to be played on 29 and 30 June, and the second legs were played on 6 and 7 July 2010. However, the first match of the entire competition (FC Santa Coloma vs. Birkirkara on 29 June) was cancelled due to the pitch being declared unfit.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The first legs were played on 13 and 14 July, and the second legs were played on 20 and 21 July 2010.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The third qualifying round was split into two separate sections: one for champions and one for non-champions. The losing teams in both sections entered the play-off round of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. The first legs were played on 27 and 28 July, and the second legs were played on 3 and 4 August 2010.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The draw for the play-off round was held on 6 August 2010 by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and UEFA Competitions Director Giorgio Marchetti. The play-off round was split into two separate sections: one for champions and one for non-champions. The losing teams in both sections entered the group stage of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. The first legs were played on 17 and 18 August, and the second legs were played on 24 and 25 August 2010.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: Following a trial at the previous year's UEFA Europa League, UEFA announced that in both the 2010–11 and 2011–12 competitions, two extra officials would be used – with one on each goal line.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The 32 clubs were drawn into eight groups of four on 26 August 2010 in Monaco. In each group, teams play against each other home-and-away in a round-robin format. The matchdays are 14–15 September, 28–29 September, 19–20 October, 2–3 November, 23–24 November, and 7–8 December 2010. The group winners and runners-up advance to the round of 16, while the third-placed teams enter the round of 32 of the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: If two or more teams are equal on points on completion of the group matches, the following criteria are applied to determine the rankings (in descending order):


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: Bursaspor, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Braga, Tottenham Hotspur, Twente and Žilina made their debut in the group stage. Bursaspor, Hapoel Tel Aviv, and Žilina came last in their respective groups, Twente and Braga came third in their respective groups and dropped into the knockout stages of the Europa League, and Tottenham Hotspur came first in their group and continued to play in the knockout stages of the tournament.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: In the knockout phase, teams play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, except for the one-match final.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The draw for the round of 16 was held on 17 December 2010. The draws for the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final (to determine the "home" team) was held on 18 March 2011.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The first legs of the round of 16 were played on 15, 16, 22 and 23 February, and the second legs were played on 8, 9, 15 and 16 March 2011.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The first legs were played on 5 and 6 April, and the second legs were played on 12 and 13 April 2011.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: The 2011 UEFA Champions League Final was played on 28 May 2011 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.


title: 2010–11 UEFA Champions League

text: Just for being in the group stage, each club received €3.9 million (compared with €3.8 million last season 2009–2010), followed by €550,000 for each group match they played, or €3.3 million for the whole group stage, giving them each a total of €7.2 million in participation bonuses. In addition, each club had the possibility of netting up to €4.8m in group stage performance bonuses (€800,000 for a win; €400,000 for a draw). Real Madrid CF took the most from this pot, with a near-maximum €4.4 million. A place in the round of 16 was worth €3 million, in the quarter-finals €3.3 million and in the semi-finals €4.2 million. The overall winners, FC Barcelona, received an additional €9 million, bringing their total bonuses to €30.7 million (out of a maximum €31.5 million). Manchester United FC, the runners-up, received a final match bonus of €5.6 million. The second payments category, the market pool, depends primarily on the value of the clubs' domestic markets. If an association is represented by more than one club, however, the clubs' shares are calculated, first, on the basis of their position in the previous season's domestic championship and, second, on the basis of the number of matches they play in the competition (group stage onwards). With €27.023m, Chelsea FC received the largest market pool share of all the clubs in the 2010/11 UEFA Champions League. In addition, the clubs all keep their own gate receipts.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Orange Free State (; ;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.


title: Orange Free State

text: Extending between the Orange and Vaal rivers, its borders were determined by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1848 when the region was proclaimed as the Orange River Sovereignty, with a British Resident based in Bloemfontein. Bloemfontein and the southern parts of the Sovereignty had previously been settled by Griqua and by "Trekboere" from the Cape Colony.


title: Orange Free State

text: The "Voortrekker" Republic of Natalia, founded in 1837, administered the northern part of the territory through a "landdrost" based at Winburg. This northern area was later in federation with the Republic of Potchefstroom which eventually formed part of the South African Republic (Transvaal).


title: Orange Free State

text: Following the granting of sovereignty to the Transvaal Republic, the British sought to drop their defensive and administrative responsibilities between the Orange and Vaal rivers, while local European residents wanted the British to remain. This led to the British recognising the independence of the Orange River Sovereignty and the country officially became independent as the Orange Free State on 23 February 1854, with the signing of the Orange River Convention. The new republic incorporated the Orange River Sovereignty and continued the traditions of the Winburg-Potchefstroom Republic.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Orange Free State developed into a politically and economically successful republic and for the most part enjoyed good relationships with its neighbours. It was annexed as the Orange River Colony in 1900. It ceased to exist as an independent Boer republic on 31 May 1902 with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging at the conclusion of the Second Boer War. Following a period of direct rule by the British, it attained self-government in 1907 and joined the Union of South Africa in 1910 as the Orange Free State Province, along with the Cape Province, Natal, and the Transvaal. In 1961, the Union of South Africa became the Republic of South Africa.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Republic's name derives partly from the Orange River, which was named by the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon in honour of the Dutch ruling family, the House of Orange, whose name in turn derived from its partial origins in the Principality of Orange in French Burgundy.


title: Orange Free State

text: Europeans first visited the country north of the Orange River towards the close of the 18th century. One of the most notable visitors was the Dutch explorer Robert Jacob Gordon, who mapped the region and gave the Orange River its name. At that time, the population was sparse. The majority of the inhabitants appear to have been members of the Sotho people (colonial form Basuto), but in the valleys of the Orange and Vaal were Korana and other Khoikhoi, and in the Drakensberg and on the western border lived numbers of Bushmen. Early in the 19th century Griqua established themselves north of the Orange.


title: Orange Free State

text: In 1824 farmers of Dutch, French Huguenot and German descent known as Trekboers (later named Boers by the English) emerged from the Cape Colony, seeking pasture for their flocks and to escape British governmental oversight, settling in the country. Up to this time the few Europeans who had crossed the Orange had come mainly as hunters or as missionaries. These early migrants were followed in 1836 by the first parties of the Great Trek. These emigrants left the Cape Colony for various reasons, but all shared the desire for independence from British authority. The leader of the first large party, Hendrik Potgieter, concluded an agreement with Makwana, the chief of the Bataung tribe of Batswana, ceding to the farmers the country between the Vet and Vaal rivers. When Boer families first reached the area they discovered that the country had been devastated, in the northern parts by the chief Mzilikazi and his Matabele in what was known as the Mfecane, and also by the Difaqane, in which three tribes roamed across the land attacking settled groups, absorbing them and their resources until they collapsed because of their sheer size. Consequently, large areas were depopulated. The Boers soon came into collision with Mzilikazi's raiding parties, which attacked Boer hunters who crossed the Vaal River. Reprisals followed, and in November 1837 the Boers decisively defeated Mzilikazi, who thereupon fled northward and eventually established himself on the site of the future Bulawayo in Zimbabwe.


title: Orange Free State

text: In the meantime another party of Cape Dutch emigrants had settled at Thaba Nchu, where the Wesleyans had a mission station for the Barolong. These Barolong had trekked from their original home under their chief, Moroka II, first south-westwards to the Langberg, and then eastwards to Thaba Nchu. The emigrants were treated with great kindness by Moroka, and with the Barolong the Boers maintained uniformly friendly relations after they defeated Mzilikazi. In December 1836 the emigrants beyond the Orange drew up in general assembly an elementary republican form of government. After the defeat of Mzilikazi the town of Winburg (so named by the Boers in commemoration of their victory) was founded, a Volksraad elected, and Piet Retief, one of the ablest of the Voortrekkers, chosen "governor and commandant-general". The emigrants already numbered some 500 men, besides women and children and many servants. Dissensions speedily arose among the emigrants, whose numbers were constantly added to, and Retief, Potgieter and other leaders crossed the Drakensberg and entered Natal. Those that remained were divided into several parties.


title: Orange Free State

text: Meanwhile, a new power had arisen along the upper Orange and in the valley of the Caledon. Moshoeshoe, a minor Basotho chief, had welded together a number of scattered and broken clans which had sought refuge in that mountainous region after fleeing from Mzilikazi, and had formed the Basotho nation which acknowledged him as king. In 1833 he had welcomed as workers among his people a band of French Protestant missionaries, and as the Boer immigrants began to settle in his neighborhood he decided to seek support from the British at the Cape. At that time the British government was not prepared to exercise control over the immigrants. Acting upon the advice of Dr John Philip, the superintendent of the London Missionary Society’s stations in South Africa, a treaty was concluded in 1843 with Moshoeshoe, placing him under British protection. A similar treaty was made with the Griqua chief Adam Kok III. By these treaties, which recognised native sovereignty over large areas on which Boer farmers were settled, the British sought to keep a check on the Boers and to protect both the natives and Cape Colony. The effect was to precipitate collisions between all three parties.


title: Orange Free State

text: The year in which the treaty with Moshoeshoe was made, several large parties of Boers recrossed the Drakensberg into the country north of the Orange, refusing to remain in Natal when the British annexed the newly formed Boer republic of Natalia to form the Colony of Natal. During their stay in Natal the Boers inflicted a severe defeat on the Zulus under Dingane in the Battle of Blood River in December 1838, which, following on the flight of Mzilikazi, greatly strengthened the position of Moshoeshoe, whose power became a menace to that of the Boer farmers. Trouble first arose, however, between the Boers and the Griqua in the Philippolis district. Some of the Boer farmers in this district, unlike their fellows dwelling farther north, were willing to accept British rule. This fact induced Mr Justice Menzies, one of the judges of the Cape Colony then on circuit at Colesberg, to cross the Orange and proclaim the country British territory in October 1842. The proclamation was disallowed by the Governor, Sir George Napier, who, nevertheless, maintained that the Boer farmers remained British subjects. After this episode the British negotiated their treaties with Adam Kok III and Moshoeshoe.


title: Orange Free State

text: The treaties gave great offence to the Boers, who refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the native chiefs. The majority of the Boer farmers in Kok's territory sent a deputation to the British commissioner in Natal, Henry Cloete, asking for equal treatment with the Griquas, and expressing the desire to come under British protection under such terms. Shortly afterwards hostilities between the farmers and the Griqua broke out. British troops moved up to support the Griquas, and after a skirmish at Zwartkopjes (2 May 1845) a new arrangement was made between Kok and Peregrine Maitland, the then Governor of Cape Colony, virtually placing the administration of his territory in the hands of a British resident, a post filled in 1846 by Captain Henry Douglas Warden. The place purchased by Captain (afterwards Major) Warden as the seat of his court was known as Bloemfontein, and it subsequently became the capital of the whole country. Bloemfontein lay to the south of the region settled by Voortrekkers.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Volksraad at Winburg during this period continued to claim jurisdiction over the Boers living between the Orange and the Vaal and was in federation with the Volksraad at Potchefstroom, which made a similar claim upon the Great Boers living north of the Vaal. In 1846 Major Warden occupied Winburg for a short time, and the relations between the Boers and the British were in a continual state of tension. Many of the farmers deserted Winburg for the Transvaal. Sir Harry Smith became governor of the Cape at the end of 1847. He recognised the failure of the attempt to govern on the lines of the treaties with the Griquas and Basotho, and on 3 February 1848 he issued a proclamation declaring British sovereignty over the country between the Orange and the Vaal eastward to the Drakensberg. Sir Harry Smith's popularity among the Boers gained for his policy considerable support, but the republican party, at whose head was Andries Pretorius, did not submit without a struggle. They were, however, defeated by Sir Harry Smith in the Battle of Boomplaats on 29 August 1848. Thereupon Pretorius, with those most bitterly opposed to British rule, retreated across the Vaal.


title: Orange Free State

text: In March 1849 Major Warden was succeeded at Bloemfontein as civil commissioner by Mr C. U. Stuart, but he remained the British resident until July 1852. A nominated legislative council was created, a high court established and other steps taken for the orderly government of the country, which was officially styled the Orange River Sovereignty. In October 1849 Moshoeshoe was induced to sign a new arrangement considerably curtailing the boundaries of the Basotho reserve. The frontier towards the Sovereignty was thereafter known as the Warden line. A little later the reserves of other chieftains were precisely defined.


title: Orange Free State

text: The British Resident had, however, no force sufficient to maintain his authority, and Moshoeshoe and all the neighboring clans became involved in hostilities with one another and with the Europeans. In 1851 Moshoeshoe joined the republican party in the Sovereignty in an invitation to Pretorius to recross the Vaal. The intervention of Pretorius resulted in the Sand River Convention of 1852, which acknowledged the independence of the Transvaal but left the status of the Sovereignty untouched. The British government (under the first Russell administration), which had reluctantly agreed to the annexation of the country, had, however, already repented its decision and had resolved to abandon the Sovereignty. Lord Henry Grey, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, in a dispatch to Sir Harry Smith dated 21 October 1851, declared, "The ultimate abandonment of the Orange Sovereignty should be a settled point in our policy."


title: Orange Free State

text: A meeting of representatives of all European inhabitants of the Sovereignty, elected on manhood suffrage, held at Bloemfontein in June 1852, nevertheless declared in favour of the retention of British rule. At the close of that year a settlement was at length concluded with Moshoeshoe, which left, perhaps, that chief in a stronger position than he had hitherto been. There had been ministerial changes in England and the Aberdeen ministry, then in power, adhered to the determination to withdraw from the Sovereignty. Sir George Russell Clerk was sent out in 1853 as special commissioner "for the settling and adjusting of the affairs" of the Sovereignty, and in August of that year he summoned a meeting of delegates to determine upon a form of self-government.


title: Orange Free State

text: At that time there were some 15,000 Europeans in the country, many of them recent immigrants from Cape Colony. There were among them numbers of farmers and tradesmen of British descent. The majority of the whites still wished for the continuance of British rule provided that it was effective and the country guarded against its enemies. The representations of their delegates, who drew up a proposed constitution retaining British control, were unavailing. Sir George Clerk announced that, as the elected delegates were unwilling to take steps to form an independent government, he would enter into negotiations with other persons. " And then," wrote George McCall Theal, "was seen forced the strange spectacle of an English commissioner addressing men who wished to be free of British control as the friendly and well-disposed inhabitants, while for those who desired to remain British subjects and who claimed that protection to which they believed themselves entitled he had no sympathising word." While the elected delegates sent two members to England to try and induce the government to alter their decision, Sir George Clerk speedily came to terms with a committee formed by the republican party and presided over by Mr J. H. Hoffman. Even before this committee met a royal proclamation had been signed (30 January 1854) "abandoning and renouncing all dominion" in the Sovereignty.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Orange River Convention, recognising the independence of the country, was signed at Bloemfontein on 23 February by Sir George Clerk and the republican committee, and in March the Boer government assumed office and the republican flag was hoisted. Five days later the representatives of the elected delegates had an interview in London with the colonial secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, who informed them that it was now too late to discuss the question of the retention of British rule. The colonial secretary added that it was impossible for England to supply troops to constantly advancing outposts, "especially as Cape Town and the port of Table Bay were all she really required in South Africa." In withdrawing from the Sovereignty the British government declared that it had "no alliance with any native chief or tribes to the northward of the Orange River with the exception of the Griqua chief Captain Adam Kok [III]". Kok was not formidable in a military sense, nor could he prevent individual Griquas from alienating their lands. Eventually, in 1861, he sold his sovereign rights to the Free State for £4000 and moved with his followers to the district later known as Griqualand East.


title: Orange Free State

text: On the abandonment of British rule, representatives of the people were elected and met at Bloemfontein on 28 March 1854, and between then and 18 April were engaged in framing a constitution. The country was declared a republic and named the Orange Free State. All persons of European blood possessing a six months' residential qualification were to be granted full burgher rights. The sole legislative authority was vested in a single popularly elected chamber of the Volksraad. Executive authority was entrusted to a president elected by the burghers from a list submitted by the Volksraad. The president was to be assisted by an executive council, was to hold office for five years and was eligible for re-election. The constitution was subsequently modified but remained of a liberal character. A residence of five years in the country was required before aliens could become naturalised. The first president was Josias Philip Hoffman, but he was accused of being too complaisant towards Moshoeshoe and resigned, being succeeded in 1855 by Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff, one of the voortrekkers, who had previously taken an active part in the affairs of the Natalia Republic.


title: Orange Free State

text: Distracted among themselves, with the formidable Basotho power on their southern and eastern flank, the troubles of the infant state were speedily added to by the action of the Transvaal Boers of the South African Republic. Marthinus Pretorius, who had succeeded to his father's position as commandant general of Potchefstroom, wished to bring about a confederation between the two Boer states. Peaceful overtures from Pretorius were declined, and some of his partisans in the Orange Free State were accused of treason in February 1857. Thereupon Pretorius, aided by Paul Kruger, conducted a raid into the Orange Free State's territory. On learning of the invasion, President Jacobus Nicolaas Boshoff proclaimed martial law throughout the country. The majority of the burghers rallied to his support, and on 25 May, the two opposing forces faced one another on the banks of the Rhenoster. President Boshoff not only got together some 800 men within the Orange Free State, but he received offers of support from Commandant Stephanus Schoeman, the Transvaal leader in the Zoutpansberg district and from Commandant Joubert of Lydenburg. Pretorius and Kruger, realising that they would have to sustain attack from both north and south, abandoned their enterprise. Their force, too, only amounted to some three hundred. Kruger came to Boshoff's camp with a flag of truce, the "army" of Pretorius returned north and on 2 June a treaty of peace was signed, each state acknowledging the absolute independence of the other.


title: Orange Free State

text: The conduct of Pretorius was stigmatised as "blameworthy." Several of the malcontents in the Orange Free State who had joined Pretorius permanently settled in the Transvaal, and other Orange Free Staters who had been guilty of high treason were arrested and punished. This experience did not, however, heal the party strife within the Orange Free State. In consequence of the dissensions among the burghers, President Boshoff tendered his resignation in February 1858, but was for a time induced to remain in office. The difficulties of the state were at that time so great that the Volksraad in December 1858 passed a resolution in favour of confederation with the Cape Colony. This proposition received the strong support of Sir George Grey, the then Governor of Cape Colony, but his view did not commend itself to the British government, and was not adopted.


title: Orange Free State

text: In the same year, the disputes between the Basotho and the Boers culminated in open war. Both parties laid claims to land beyond the Warden line, and each party had taken possession of what it could, the Basotho being also expert cattle-lifters. In the war the advantage rested with the Basotho; thereupon the Orange Free State appealed to Sir George Grey, who induced Moshoeshoe to come to terms. On 15 October 1858, a treaty was signed defining the new boundary. The peace was nominal only, while the burghers were also involved in disputes with other tribes. Mr. Boshoff again tendered his resignation in February 1859 and retired to Natal. Many of the burghers would have at this time welcomed union with the Transvaal, but learning from Sir George Grey that such a union would nullify the conventions of 1852 and 1854 and necessitate the reconsideration of Great Britain's policy towards the native tribes north of the Orange and Vaal rivers, the project was dropped. Commandant Marthinus Wessel Pretorius was, however, elected President in place of Boshoff. Though unable to effect a durable peace with the Basotho, or to realise his ambition for the creation of a single united Boer republic, Pretorius oversaw a period of increased strength and prosperity for the Orange Free State. The fertile district of Bethulie as well as Adam Kok's territory was acquired, and there was a considerable increase in the Boer population. The burghers generally, however, had little confidence in their elected rulers and little desire for taxes to be levied. Wearied like Boshoff, and disillusioned with the affairs of the Orange Free State, Pretorius resigned the presidency in 1863 and moved to the Transvaal.


title: Orange Free State

text: After an interval of seven months, Johannes Brand, an advocate at the Cape bar, was elected president. He assumed office in February 1864. His election proved a turning-point in the history of the country, which, under his guidance, became peaceful and prosperous. But before peace could be established an end had to be made of the difficulties with the Basothos. Moshoeshoe continued to menace the Free State border. Attempts at accommodation made by the Governor of Cape Colony, Sir Philip Wodehouse, failed, and war between the Orange Free State and Moshoeshoe was renewed in 1865. The Boers gained considerable successes, and this induced Moshoeshoe to sue for peace. The terms exacted were, however, too harsh for a nation yet unbroken to accept permanently. A treaty was signed at Thaba Bosiu in April 1866, but war again broke out in 1867, and the Free State attracted to its side a large number of adventurers from all parts of South Africa. The burghers thus reinforced gained at length a decisive victory over their great antagonist, every stronghold in Basutoland save Thaba Bosiu being stormed. Moshoeshoe now turned to Sir Philip Wodehouse for preservation. His call was heeded, and in 1868 he and his country were taken under British protection. Thus the thirty years' strife between the Basothos and the Boers came to an end. The intervention of the Governor of Cape Colony led to the conclusion of the treaty of Aliwal North (12 February 1869), which defined the borders between the Orange Free State and Basutoland. The country lying to the north of the Orange River and west of the Caledon River, formerly a part of Basutoland, was ceded to the Orange Free State, and became known as the Conquered Territory.


title: Orange Free State

text: A year after the addition of the Conquered Territory to the state another boundary dispute was settled by the arbitration of Robert William Keate, lieutenant-governor of Natal. By the Sand River Convention, independence had been granted to the Boers living "north of the Vaal", and the dispute turned on the question as to what stream constituted the true upper course of that river. Keate decided on 19 February 1870 against the Free State and fixed the Klip River as the dividing line, the Transvaal thus securing the Wakkerstroom and adjacent districts.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Basutoland difficulties were no sooner arranged than the Free Staters found themselves confronted with a serious difficulty on their western border. In the years 1870–1871 a large number of foreign diggers had settled on the diamond fields near the junction of the Vaal and Orange rivers, which were situated in part on land claimed by the Griqua chief Nicholas Waterboer and by the Orange Free State.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Free State established a temporary government over the diamond fields, but the administration of this body was satisfactory neither to the Free State nor to the diggers. At this juncture Waterboer offered to place the territory under the administration of Queen Victoria. The offer was accepted, and on 27 October 1871 the district, together with some adjacent territory to which the Transvaal had laid claim, was proclaimed, under the name of Griqualand West, British territory. Waterboer's claims were based on the treaty concluded by his father with the British in 1834, and on various arrangements with the Kok chiefs; the Free State based its claim on its purchase of Adam Kok's sovereign rights and on long occupation. The difference between proprietorship and sovereignty was confused or ignored. That Waterboer exercised no authority in the disputed district was admitted. When the British annexation took place a party in the Volksraad wished to go to war with Britain, but the counsels of President Johannes Brand prevailed. The Free State, however, did not abandon its claims. The matter involved no little irritation between the parties concerned until July 1876. It was then disposed of by Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon, at that time Secretary of State for the Colonies, who granted to the Free State a £90,000 payment "in full satisfaction of all claims which it considers it may possess to Griqualand West." Lord Carnarvon declined to entertain the proposal made by Mr Brand that the territory should be given up by Great Britain. In the opinion of historian George McCall Theal, the annexation of Griqualand West was probably in the best interests of the Free State. "There was," he stated, "no alternative from British sovereignty other than an independent diamond field republic."


title: Orange Free State

text: At this time, largely owing to the struggle with the Basothos, the Free State Boers, like their Transvaal neighbors, had drifted into financial straits. A paper currency had been instituted, and the notes, known as "bluebacks", soon dropped to less than half their nominal value. Commerce was largely carried on by barter, and many cases of bankruptcy occurred in the state. The influx of British and other immigrants to the diamond fields, in the early 1870s, restored public credit and individual prosperity to the Boers of the Free State. The diamond fields offered a ready market for stock and other agricultural produce. Money flowed into the pockets of the farmers. Public credit was restored. "Bluebacks" recovered par value, and were called in and redeemed by the government. Valuable diamond mines were also discovered within the Free State, of which the one at Jagersfontein was the richest. Capital from Kimberley and London was soon provided with which to work them.


title: Orange Free State

text: The relations between the British and the Orange Free State, after the question of the boundary was settled, remained perfectly amicable down to the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899. From 1870 onward the history of the state was one of quiet, steady progress. At the time of the first annexation of the Transvaal the Free State declined Lord Carnarvon's invitation to federate with the other South African communities. In 1880, when a rising of the Boers in the Transvaal was threatening, President Brand showed every desire to avert the conflict. He suggested that Sir Henry de Villiers, Chief Justice of Cape Colony, should be sent into the Transvaal to endeavour to gauge the true state of affairs in that country. This suggestion was not acted upon, but when war broke out in the Transvaal, Brand declined to take any part in the struggle. In spite of the neutral attitude taken by their government a number of the Orange Free State Boers, living in the northern part of the country, went to the Transvaal and joined their brethren then in arms against the British. This fact was not allowed to influence the friendly relations between the Free State and Great Britain. In 1888 Sir Johannes Brand died.


title: Orange Free State

text: During the period of Brand's presidency a great change, both political and economic, had come over South Africa. The renewal of the policy of British expansion had been answered by the formation of the Afrikaner Bond, which represented the aspirations of the Afrikaner people, and had active branches in the Free State. This alteration in the political outlook was accompanied, and in part occasioned, by economic changes of great significance. The development of the diamond mines and of the gold and coal industries – of which Brand saw the beginning – had far-reaching consequences, bringing the Boer republics into contact with the new industrial era. The Orange Free Staters, under Brand's rule, had shown considerable ability to adapt their policy to meet the altered situation. In 1889 an agreement made between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony government, whereby the latter was empowered to extend, at its own cost, its railway system to Bloemfontein. The Orange Free State retained the right to purchase this extension at cost, a right it exercised after the Jameson Raid.


title: Orange Free State

text: Having accepted the assistance of the Cape government in constructing its railway, the state also in 1889 entered into a Customs Union Convention with them. The convention was the outcome of a conference held at Cape Town in 1888, at which delegates from Natal, the Free State and the Cape Colony attended. Natal at this time had not seen its way to entering the Customs union, but did so at a later date.


title: Orange Free State

text: In January 1889 Francis William Reitz was elected president of the Orange Free State. Reitz had no sooner got into office than a meeting was arranged with Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic, at which various terms were discussed and decided upon regarding an agreement dealing with the railways, terms of a treaty of amity and commerce, and what was called a political treaty. The political treaty referred in general terms to a federal union between the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, and bound each of them to help the other, whenever the independence of either should be assailed or threatened from without, unless the state so called upon for assistance should be able to show the injustice of the cause of quarrel in which the other state had engaged. While thus committed to an alliance with its northern neighbour no change was made in internal administration. The Free State, in fact, from its geographical position reaped the benefits without incurring the anxieties consequent on the settlement of a large Uitlander population on the Witwatersrand. The state, however, became increasingly identified with the reactionary party in the South African Republic.


title: Orange Free State

text: In 1895 the Volksraad passed a resolution, in which they declared their readiness to entertain a proposition from the South African Republic in favour of some form of federal union. In the same year Ritz retired from the presidency of the Orange Free State. The 1896 presidential election to succeed him was won by M. T. Steyn, a judge of the High Court, who took office in February 1896. In 1896 President Steyn visited Pretoria, where he received an ovation as the probable future president of the two Republics. A further offensive and defensive alliance between the two Republics was then entered into, under which the Orange Free State took up arms on the outbreak of hostilities between the British and the South African Republic in October 1899.


title: Orange Free State

text: In 1897 President Kruger, bent on still further cementing the union with the Orange Free State, had visited Bloemfontein. It was on this occasion that Kruger, referring to the London Convention, spoke of Queen Victoria as a "kwaaje Vrouw" (angry woman), an expression which caused a good deal of offence in England at the time, but which, in the phraseology of the Boers, was not meant by President Kruger as insulting.


title: Orange Free State

text: In December 1897 the Free State revised its constitution in reference to the franchise law, and the period of residence necessary to obtain naturalization was reduced from five to three years. The oath of allegiance to the state was alone required, and no renunciation of nationality was insisted upon. In 1898 the Free State also acquiesced in the new convention arranged with regard to the Customs Union between the Cape Colony, Natal, Basutoland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. But events were moving rapidly in the Transvaal, and matters had proceeded too far for the Free State to turn back. In May 1899 President Steyn suggested the conference at Bloemfontein between President Kruger and Sir Alfred Milner, but this act was too late. The Free Staters were practically bound to the South African Republic, under the offensive and defensive alliance, in case hostilities arose with Great Britain.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Orange Free State began to expel British subjects in 1899, and the first act of the Second Boer War was committed by Orange Free State Boers, who, on 11 October 1899, seized a train upon the border belonging to Natal. For President Steyn and the Free State of 1899, neutrality was impossible. A resolution was passed by the Volksraad on 27 September declaring that the state would observe its obligations to the Transvaal whatever might happen.


title: Orange Free State

text: After the surrender of Piet Cronjé in the Battle of Paardeberg on 27 February 1900, Bloemfontein was occupied by the British troops under Lord Roberts from 13 March onward, and on 28 May a proclamation was issued annexing the Free State to the British dominions under the title of Orange River Colony. For nearly two years longer the burghers kept the field under Christiaan de Wet and other leaders, but by the articles of peace signed on 31 May 1902 British sovereignty was acknowledged.


title: Orange Free State

text: The Orange Free State was one of two Boer Republics, alongside the Transvaal, able to persist and prosper long enough to gain international recognition. The Orange Free State would eventually establish diplomatic relations with the Netherlands, France, Germany, Belgium, the United States, and the United Kingdom.


title: Orange Free State

text: In addition to connections with the Great Powers, the Orange Free State maintained political ties, manifested in varying forms with neighboring Transvaal and regularly sent and received official missions to and from regional significant native African tribes.


title: Orange Free State

text: Despite the republic's small size, immense distance and relative historical poverty, the Orange Free State established consuls of official representation in several European states and in the United States of America between 1855 and 31 May 1902, when the republic ceased to exist. The first, and throughout the existence of the republic, most important consular post was the Consulate General of the Orange Free State in the Netherlands. Between 1871 and 1902, the consul general in the Netherlands at times also held diplomatic prerogatives, with the title of 'special envoy'. In this capacity the incumbent was charged with negotiating and concluding treaties with other states and international organisations on behalf of the Orange Free State government.


title: Orange Free State

text: An estimate in 1875: White: 75,000; Native and Coloured: 25,000. The first census, carried out in 1880, found that 'Europeans' made up 45.7% of the population. Bloemfontein, the capital, had 2,567 inhabitants. The 1890 census, which was reportedly not very accurate, found a population of 207,503.


title: Orange Free State

text: In 1904 the colonial census was taken. The population was 387,315, of whom 225,101 (58.11%) were blacks, 142,679 (36.84%) were whites, 19,282 (4.98%) were coloureds and 253 (0.07%) were Indians. The largest cities were Bloemfontein (33,883) (whites – 15,501 or 45.74%), Harrismith (8,300) (whites – 4,817 or 58.03%), Kroonstad (7,191) (whites – 3,708 or 51.56%).


title: Orange Free State

text: In 1911 population was 528,174, of whom 325,824 (61.68%) were blacks, 175,189 (33.16%) were whites, 26,554 (5.02%) were coloureds and 607 (0.11%) were Indians. The capital, Bloemfontein, had a population of 26,925.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The Battle of Borodino () took place near the village of Borodino on during Napoleon's invasion of Russia. The ' won the battle against the Imperial Russian Army but failed to gain a decisive victory and suffered tremendous losses. Napoleon fought against General Mikhail Kutuzov, whom the Emperor Alexander I of Russia had appointed to replace Barclay de Tolly on after the Battle of Smolensk. After the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon remained on the battlefield with his army; the Imperial Russian forces retreated in an orderly fashion southwards. Because the Imperial Russian army had severely weakened the ', they allowed the French occupation of Moscow since they used the city as bait to trap Napoleon and his men. The failure of the "" to completely destroy the Imperial Russian army, in particular Napoleon's reluctance to deploy his guard, has been widely criticised by historians as a huge blunder, as it allowed the Imperial Russian army to continue its retreat into territory increasingly hostile to the French.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Napoleon with the French "Grande Armée" began his invasion of Russia on 24 June 1812 by crossing the Niemen.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: As his Russian army was outnumbered by far, Mikhail Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly successfully used a "delaying operation", defined as an operation in which a force under pressure trades space for time by slowing down the enemy's momentum and inflicting maximum damage on the enemy without, in principle, becoming decisively engaged, using a Fabian strategy as a defence in depth by retreating further eastwards into Russia without giving battle. After the Battle of Smolensk, the Tsar replaced the unpopular Barclay de Tolly with Kutuzov, who on 18 August took over the army at Tsaryovo-Zaymishche and ordered his men to prepare for battle. Kutuzov understood that Barclay's decision to retreat had been correct, but the Tsar, the Russian troops and Russia could not accept further retreat. A battle had to occur in order to preserve the morale of the soldiers and the nation. He then ordered not another retreat eastwards but a search for a battleground eastwards to Gzhatsk (Gagarin) on 30 August, by which time the ratio of French to Russian forces had shrunk from 3:1 to 5:4 thus using Barclay's delaying operation again. The main part of Napoleon's army had entered Russia with 286,000 men but by the time of the battle was reduced mostly through starvation and disease


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Kutuzov's army established a defensive line near the village of Borodino. Although the Borodino field was too open and had too few natural obstacles to protect the Russian center and the left flank, it was chosen because it blocked both Smolensk–Moscow roads and because there were simply no better locations. Starting on 3 September, Kutuzov strengthened the line with earthworks, including the Raevski redoubt (named after Nikolay Raevsky) in the center-right of the line and three open, arrow-shaped "Bagration flèches" (named after Pyotr Bagration) on the left.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The initial Russian position, which stretched south of the new Smolensk Highway (Napoleon's expected route of advance), was anchored on its left by a pentagonal earthwork redoubt erected on a mound near the village of Shevardino. The Russian generals soon realized that their left wing was too exposed and vulnerable, so the Russian line was moved back from this position, but the Redoubt remained manned, Kutuzov stating that the fortification was manned simply to delay the advance of the French forces. Historian Dmitry Buturlin reports that it was used as an observation point to determine the course of the French advance. Historians Witner and Ratch, and many others, reported it was used as a fortification to threaten the French right flank, despite being beyond the effective reach of guns of the period.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The Chief of Staff of the Russian 1st Army, Aleksey Yermolov, related in his memoirs that the Russian left was shifting position when the French Army arrived sooner than expected; thus, the Battle of Shevardino became a delaying effort to shield the redeployment of the Russian left. The construction of the redoubt and its purpose is disputed by historians to this day.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The conflict began on September 5 when Marshal Joachim Murat's French forces met Konovnitzyn's Russians in a massive cavalry clash, the Russians eventually retreating to the Kolorzkoi Cloister when their flank was threatened. Fighting resumed the next day but Konovnitzyn again retreated when Viceroy Eugène de Beauharnais' Fourth Corps arrived, threatening his flank. The Russians withdrew to the Shevardino Redoubt, where a pitched battle ensued. Murat led Nansouty's First Cavalry Corps and Montbrun's Second Cavalry Corps, supported by Compans's Division of Louis-Nicolas Davout's First Infantry Corps against the redoubt. Simultaneously, Prince Józef Poniatowski's Polish infantry attacked the position from the south. Fighting was heavy and very fierce, as the Russians refused to retreat until Kutuzov personally ordered them to do so. The French captured the redoubt, at a cost of 4,000–5,000 French and 6,000 Russian casualties. The small redoubt was destroyed and covered by the dead and dying of both sides.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The unexpected French advance from the west and the fall of the Shevardino redoubt threw the Russian formation into disarray. Since the left flank of their defensive position had collapsed, Russian forces withdrew to the east, constructing a makeshift position centered around the village of Utitsa. The left flank of the Russian position was thus ripe for a flanking attack.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: A series of reforms to the Russian army had begun in 1802, creating regiments of three battalions, each battalion having four companies. The defeats of Austerlitz, Eylau and Friedland led to important additional reforms, though continuous fighting in the course of three wars with France, two with Sweden and two with the Ottoman Empire had not allowed time for these to be fully implemented and absorbed. A divisional system was introduced in 1806, and corps were established in 1812. Prussian influence may be seen in the organizational setup. By the time of Borodino the Russian army had changed greatly from the force which met the French in 1805–07.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Russian forces present at the battle included 180 infantry battalions, 164 cavalry squadrons, 20 Cossack regiments and 55 artillery batteries (637 artillery pieces). In total, the Russians fielded 155,200 troops. There were 10,000 Cossacks as well as 33,000 Russian militiamen in the area who did not participate in the battle. After the battle the militia units were broken up to provide reinforcements to depleted regular infantry battalions. Of the 637 Russian artillery pieces, 300 were held in reserve and many of these were never committed to the battle.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: According to historian Alexander Mikaberidze, the French army remained the finest army of its day by a good margin. The fusion of the legacy of the Ancien Régime with the formations of the French revolution and Napoleon's reforms had transformed it into a military machine that had dominated Europe since 1805. Each corps of the French army was in fact its own mini-army capable of independent action.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: French forces included 214 battalions of infantry, 317 squadrons of cavalry and 587 artillery pieces totaling 128,000 troops. However, the French Imperial Guard, which consisted of 30 infantry battalions, 27 cavalry squadrons and 109 artillery pieces—a total of 18,500 troops—never committed to action.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: According to Carl von Clausewitz, although the Russian left was on marginally higher ground, this was but a superficial matter and did not provide much of a defensive advantage. The positioning of the Russian right was such that for the French the left seemed an obvious choice. The Russian position at Borodino consisted of a series of disconnected earthworks running in an arc from the Moskva River on the right, along its tributary, the Kolocha (whose steep banks added to the defense), and towards the village of Utitsa on the left. Thick woods interspersed along the Russian left and center (on the French side of the Kolocha) made the deployment and control of French forces difficult, aiding the defenders. The Russian center was defended by the Raevsky Redoubt, a massive open-backed earthwork mounting nineteen 12-pounder cannons which had a clear field of fire all the way to the banks of the Kolocha stream.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Kutuzov was very concerned that the French might take the New Smolensk Road around his positions and on to Moscow so placed the more powerful 1st Army under Barclay on the right, in positions which were already strong and virtually unassailable by the French. The 2nd Army under Bagration was expected to hold the left. The fall of Shevardino unanchored the Russian left flank but Kutuzov did nothing to change these initial dispositions despite the repeated pleas of his generals to redeploy their forces.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Thus, when the action began and became a defensive rather than an offensive battle for the Russians, their heavy preponderance in artillery was wasted on a right wing that would never be attacked, while the French artillery did much to help win the battle Colonel Karl Wilhelm von Toll and others would make attempts to cover up their mistakes in this deployment and later attempts by historians would compound the issue. Indeed, Clausewitz also complained about Toll's dispositions being so narrow and deep that needless losses were incurred from artillery fire. The Russian position therefore was just about long with about 80,000 of the 1st Army on the right and 34,000 of the 2nd Army on the left.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The first area of operations was on the Bagration flèches, as had been predicted by both Barclay de Tolly and Bagration.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Napoleon, in command of the French forces, made errors similar to those of his Russian adversary, deploying his forces inefficiently and failing to exploit the weaknesses in the Russian line. Despite Marshal Davout's suggestion of a maneuver to outflank the weak Russian left, the Emperor instead ordered Davout's First Corps to move directly forward into the teeth of the defense, while the flanking maneuver was left to the weak Fifth Corps of Prince Poniatowski.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The initial French attack was aimed at seizing the three Russian positions collectively known as the Bagration flèches, three arrowhead-shaped, open-backed earthworks which arced out to the left "en échelon" in front of the Kolocha stream. These positions helped support the Russian left, which had no terrain advantages. There was much to be desired in the construction of the flèches, one officer noting that the ditches were much too shallow, the embrasures open to the ground, making them easy to enter, and that they were much too wide, exposing infantry inside them. The "flèches" were supported by artillery from the village of Semyanovskaya, whose elevation dominated the other side of the Kolocha.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The battle began at 06:00 with the opening of the 102-gun French grand battery against the Russian center. Davout sent Compans's Division against the southernmost of the "flèches", with Dessaix's Division echeloned out to the left. When Compans exited the woods on the far bank of the Kolocha, he was hit by massed Russian cannon fire; both Compans and Dessaix were wounded, but the French continued their assault.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Davout, seeing the confusion, personally led the 57th Line Regiment ("Le Terrible") forward until he had his horse shot from under him; he fell so hard that General Sorbier reported him as dead. General Rapp arrived to replace him, only to find Davout alive and leading the 57th forward again. Rapp then led the 61st Line Regiment forward when he was wounded (for the 22nd time in his career).


title: Battle of Borodino

text: By 07:30, Davout had gained control of the three "flèches". Prince Bagration quickly led a counterattack that threw the French out of the positions, only to have Marshal Michel Ney lead a charge by the 24th Regiment that retook them. Although not enamoured of Barclay, Bagration turned to him for aid, ignoring Kutuzov altogether; Barclay, to his credit, responded quickly, sending three guard regiments, eight grenadier battalions and twenty-four 12-pounder cannon at their best pace to bolster Semyаnovskaya. Colonel Toll and Kutuzov moved the Guard Reserve units forward as early as 09:00 hours.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: During the confused fighting, French and Russian units moved forward into impenetrable smoke and were smashed by artillery and musketry fire that was horrendous even by Napoleonic standards. Infantry and cavalrymen had difficulty maneuvering over the heaps of corpses and masses of wounded. Murat advanced with his cavalry around the "flèches" to attack Bagration's infantry, but was confronted by General Duka's 2nd Cuirassier Division supported by Neverovsky's infantry.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The French carried out seven assaults against the flèches and each time were beaten back in fierce close combat. Bagration in some instances was personally leading counterattacks, and in a final attempt to push the French completely back he got hit in the leg by cannonball splinters somewhere around 11:00 hours. He insisted on staying on the field to observe Duka's decisive cavalry attack.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: This counter-punch drove Murat to seek the cover of allied Württemberger infantry. Barclay's reinforcements, however, were sent into the fray only to be torn to pieces by French artillery, leaving Friant's Division in control of the Russian forward position at 11:30. Dust, smoke, confusion and exhaustion all combined to keep the French commanders on the field (Davout, Ney and Murat) from comprehending that all the Russians before them had fallen back, were in confusion, and ripe for the taking.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The 2nd Army's command structure fell apart as Bagration was removed from the battlefield and the report of his being hit quickly spread and caused morale collapse. Napoleon, who had been sick with a cold and was too far from the action to really observe what was going on, refused to send his subordinates reinforcements. He was hesitant to release his last reserve, the Imperial Guard, so far from France.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Prince Eugène de Beauharnais advanced his corps against Borodino, rushing the village and capturing it from the Russian Guard Jägers. However, the advancing columns rapidly lost their cohesion; shortly after clearing Borodino, they faced fresh Russian assault columns and retreated back to the village. General Delzons was posted to Borodino to prevent the Russians retaking it.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Morand's division then crossed to the north side of the Semyenovka stream, while the remainder of Eugène's forces traversed three bridges across the Kolocha to the south, placing them on the same side of the stream as the Russians. He then deployed most of his artillery and began to push the Russians back toward the Raevsky redoubt. Broussier and Morand's divisions then advanced together with furious artillery support. The redoubt changed hands as Barclay was forced to personally rally Paskevitch's routed regiment.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Kutuzov ordered Yermolov to take action; the general brought forward three horse artillery batteries that began to blast the open-ended redoubt, while the 3rd Battalion of the Ufa Regiment and two Jäger regiments brought up by Barclay rushed in with the bayonet to eliminate Bonami's Brigade. The Russian reinforcements' assault returned the redoubt to Russian control.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Eugène's artillery continued to pound Russian support columns, while Marshals Ney and Davout set up a crossfire with artillery positioned on the Semyonovskaya heights. Barclay countered by moving the Prussian General Eugen over to the right to support Miloradovich in his defense of the redoubt. The French responded to this move by sending forward General Sorbier, commander of the Imperial Guard artillery. Sorbier brought forth 36 artillery pieces from the Imperial Guard Artillery Park and also took command of 49 horse artillery pieces from Nansouty's Ist Cavalry Corps and La Tour Maubourg's IV Cavalry Corps, as well as of Viceroy Eugène's own artillery, opening up a massive artillery barrage.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: When Barclay brought up troops against an attacking French brigade, he described it as "a walk into Hell". During the height of the battle, Kutuzov's subordinates were making all of the decisions for him; according to Colonel Carl von Clausewitz, famous for his work "On War", the Russian commander "seemed to be in a trance." With the death of General Kutaisov, Chief of Artillery, most of the Russian cannon sat useless on the heights to the rear and were never ordered into battle, while the French artillery wreaked havoc on the Russians.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: On the morning of the battle at around 07:30, Don Cossack patrols from Matvei Platov's "pulk" had discovered a ford across the Kolocha river, on the extreme Russian right (northern) flank. Seeing that the ground in front of them was clear of enemy forces, Platov saw an opportunity to go around the French left flank and into the enemy's rear. He at once sent one of his aides to ask for permission from Kutuzov for such an operation. Platov's aide was lucky enough to encounter Colonel von Toll, an enterprising member of Kutuzov's staff, who suggested that General Uvarov's Ist Cavalry Corps be added to the operation and at once volunteered to present the plan to the commander-in-chief.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Together, they went to see Kutuzov, who nonchalantly gave his permission. There was no clear plan and no objectives had been drawn up, the whole manoeuvre being interpreted by both Kutuzov and Uvarov as a feint. Uvarov and Platov thus set off, having just around 8000 cavalrymen and 12 guns in total, and no infantry support. As Uvarov moved southwest and south and Platov moved west, they eventually arrived in the undefended rear of Viceroy Eugène's IV Corps. This was towards midday, just as the Viceroy was getting his orders to conduct another assault on the Raevski redoubt.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: The sudden appearance of masses of enemy cavalry so close to the supply train and the Emperor's headquarters caused panic and consternation, prompting Eugène to immediately cancel his attack and pull back his entire Corps westwards to deal with the alarming situation. Meanwhile, the two Russian cavalry commanders tried to break what French infantry they could find in the vicinity. Having no infantry of their own, the poorly coordinated Russian attacks came to nothing.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: Unable to achieve much else, Platov and Uvarov moved back to their own lines and the action was perceived as a failure by both Kutuzov and the Russian General Staff. As it turned out, the action had the utmost importance in the outcome of the battle, as it delayed the attack of the IV Corps on the Raevski redoubt for a critical two hours. During these two hours, the Russians were able to reassess the situation, realize the terrible state of Bagration's 2nd Army and send reinforcements to the front line. Meanwhile, the retreat of Viceroy Eugène's Corps had left Montbrun's II French Cavalry Corps to fill the gap under the most murderous fire, which used up and demoralized these cavalrymen, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness. The delay contradicted a military principle the Emperor had stated many times: "Ground I may recover, time never." The Cossack raid contributed to Napoleon's later decision not to commit his Imperial Guard to battle.


title: Battle of Borodino

text: At 14:00, Napoleon renewed the assault against the redoubt, as Broussier's, Morand's and Gérard's divisions launched a massive frontal attack, with Chastel's light cavalry division on their left and the II Reserve Cavalry Corps on their right;