title: Finnish War

text: On May 26, a British fleet carrying 14,000 troops under Sir John Moore entered the port of Gothenburg. Due to various disagreements with the Swedish king, however, they never landed and sailed off to fight the French in Spain after leaving 16 battleships and 20 other ships at Sweden's disposal.


title: Finnish War

text: The Swedish battlefleet which had been expelling Russians from Gotland was ordered to blockade the Hangö Peninsula and reached the cape on 10 June. Due to bad weather and poor visibility the fleet under Admiral Rudolph Cederström chose to stay relatively far from the coast. Upon approaching the coast on 21 June, Cederström learned that the Russians had already passed the cape some time earlier. Attempts to stop the Russians deeper in the archipelago were also unsuccessful. Failure to block the Russians led the king to relieve Cederström of his duties and replace him with Commander Henrik Johan Nauckhoff.


title: Finnish War

text: Major General Eberhard von Vegesack was chosen to lead the first Swedish army to Finland. He was to lead a force of 2,600 men, land somewhere between Nystad (Finnish: "Uusikaupunki") and Åbo, and then capture the latter. Von Vegesack instead chose to land his force at the Lemo (Finnish: "Lemu") manor house a few kilometers south of Åbo. The landing began on 19 June and was initially successful. The surprised Russians garrisoned at Åbo reacted quickly, however, and deployed over 3,000 men to stop the landing force. By the morning of 20 June, the Swedish forces were forced to withdraw. In addition, Colonel Johan Bergenstråhle landed 1,100 Swedes just a few kilometers northeast of Vasa on 25 June and managed to quickly advance to the town. The Russians, however, managed to gather a force of 3,000 men which was able to force the ill-trained Swedes to withdraw.


title: Finnish War

text: The advance of the Russian coastal squadron beyond Hangö created difficulties for the Swedes. The strength of the Swedish coastal forces deployed to the Finnish archipelago was equal in size to the coastal fleet that the Russians had obtained by the Sveaborg surrender. To prevent the Russians from gaining strength, the Swedish coastal fleet's unit under Rear Admiral Claes Hjelmstjerna tried to engage them twice in battle. The first was at the Battle of Rimito Kramp on 30 June, and after Russians withdrew closer to Åbo, the second was a battle at Pukkisaari on 4 July. Fighting ended in a stalemate, but can be viewed as a Swedish failure since they failed to decisively defeat the Russians.


title: Finnish War

text: Having been alerted to the approach of additional Russian coastal units from Sveaborg, the Swedish forces moved to intercept them before they could link up with the Russian coastal unit now bottled up at Åbo. Learning that the Russians intended to go around the island of Kimito (Finnish: "Kemiönsaari"), a Swedish force of gunboats was deployed to the narrows. They met the Russians first at Tallholmen on 21 July and again on 2 August in the Battle of Sandöström. Swedish attempts to land troops and artillery in support of the gunboats at Vestankärr on 2 August ended in failure, though the attempt came very close to capturing General Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden. While none of the fights ended with a decisive winner, the overall strategic victory went to Russia, who gained advantage in the Finnish archipelago by managing to link up their separate coastal units.


title: Finnish War

text: Sweden performed several small landings along the coast near Kristinestad (Finnish: "Kristiinankaupunki") and Kaskö (Finnish: "Kaskinen") and managed to raise local men to oppose the Russians. The first occurred on 3 July with several others taking place soon after. Altogether the Swedes had several hundred local men-in-arms. The Russians, however, were able to send reinforcements to the area which were, in addition to being numerically superior, both far better trained and equipped than the peasants and militia the Swedes had raised. By the end of July the small forces Sweden had landed and the men that had supported them were either beaten or withdrawn back to their ships.


title: Finnish War

text: After the Russians were driven from Central Finland, their forces stretched along the line of Pori–Tampere–Mikkeli. Having received considerable reinforcements, their numbers increased to 55,000, as opposed to the 36,000 estimated for Sweden. On 14 August, Count Nikolay Kamensky decided to use this numerical superiority to launch a new offensive.


title: Finnish War

text: Kamensky's 11,000-strong corps achieved important victories at Kuortane (1 September) and Salmi (2 September), and although Georg Carl von Döbeln won the Battle of Jutas for Sweden on 13 September, Kamensky gained the most important victory at Oravais on 14 September. Swedish attempts to land more troops near Turku were stalled by Lieutenant-General Pyotr Bagration's prompt actions. In Eastern Finland, the guerrilla movement was gradually extinguished. As a consequence, Russia's situation in Southern Finland improved significantly.


title: Finnish War

text: In the north, the situation was more complicated. Tuchkov's battered unit strained to hold its own against Sandels, while the progress of a relief force under General Alekseyev was contained by guerrilla fighters. It was not until 26 September that Prince Dolgorukov (Alekseyev's replacement) managed to join his forces with Tuchkov's, inducing Sandels to retreat. Three days later, Buxhoeveden—pressed by the early onset of winter weather—signed an armistice, much to the dismay of Alexander I. The emperor refused to ratify the truce and replaced Buxhoeveden with a new commander-in-chief, Bogdan von Knorring, in December of that year.


title: Finnish War

text: In the south, the Swedish battle fleet remained anchored within the Finnish archipelago, blocking some of the deeper coastal sea routes from Hangö towards Åbo. Russian ships continued to arrive from the east but remained within the shallow narrows where the Swedish ships of the line could not reach. Small boat actions took place during the night time of 17–18 July which became known as the "skirmish at Lövö" (). However, the Swedish fleet dropped its blockade on 22 August, allowing the Russian coastal units to unite. Odds were very much against the Swedes as the Russians had nearly one hundred coastal ships in the Finnish archipelago, against which Sweden could deploy only 7 galleys and 30 gun sloops.


title: Finnish War

text: Swedish efforts to harass the Russians with landings continued, with roughly 1,000 volunteers under Captain Anders Gyllenbögel landing on 1 August to support Swedish-led uprisings on the coast south of Vasa. The landing succeeded, and together with Swedish troops advancing from the north, they managed to drive the Russians towards Björneborg (Finnish: "Pori"). Swedish patrol ships (consisting of armed merchant vessels) scouted and raided the coast, taking Russians prisoners to Åland. These raids caused much confusion, and Russian responses to them thinned their strength along the coast. Also the Swedish southern army of Finland, consisting of roughly 4,000 men under Major General von Vegesack, was moved from Åland to Finland, and landed at Kristinestad in late autumn, joining with von Döbeln's forces. However, since von Vegesack had been ordered to land his men at Björneborg, the king, after pursuing the matter unsuccessfully in military tribunals, condemned von Vegesack to lose his rank and title.


title: Finnish War

text: A Russian battle fleet under Admiral Pyotr Khanikov (also "Chanikoff") sortied in late July to clear the Swedish blockades in the archipelago, to cut contact between Åland and Sweden, and to stop Swedish supply transports sailing in the Gulf of Bothnia. The Russian fleet reached Hangö on 6 August and chose not to engage the scattered Swedish fleet elements in the vicinity. On 20 August, two British ships of the line (HMS "Implacable" and "Centaur") joined the Swedish fleet. The allied fleet moved on 25 August 1808 to engage the Russian fleet, which turned and attempted to reach the relative safety of Baltiyskiy Port. The British ships were far superior sailing ships compared to those of either the Swedes or Russians, and engaged the withdrawing Russian squadron (nine ships of the line and several frigates) on their own. The last of the Russian ships of the line was disabled and then captured and burned by the British ships. More Royal Navy ships (including HMS "Victory", "Mars", "Goliath", and "Africa") arrived to oversee a blockade of the Russian fleet at Baltiyskiy Port which continued until the sea started to freeze. The Swedish fleet suffered from outbreaks of scurvy and had been unable to maintain the blockade on its own.


title: Finnish War

text: Skirmishes and landings continued in the Finnish archipelago from late summer into autumn. On 30 August, the Swedish coastal fleet defeated its Russian adversaries at the Battle of Grönvikssund, forcing the Russians to abandon their plans to invade Åland and concentrate on defense. On 17 September, the Swedes landed again, this time at Lokalax (Finnish: "Lokalahti"), while the coastal fleet covering the landing managed to keep the Russians away in the Battle of Palva Sund on 18 September. The troops that landed were forced to withdraw to their ships on 18 September, but landed in Finland again on 26 September. However, owing to bad weather, only a portion of the troops that had been intended to participate in the landing actually reached the Finnish coast, and this resulted in another withdrawal on 28 September.


title: Finnish War

text: The Swedish situation was further weakened by being at war with France and Denmark, both of whom threatened Sweden's possessions, with a joint invasion force of 45,000 troops in Denmark (under French general Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte) and a further 36,000 in Norway. This forced the Swedes to allocate forces to southern Sweden and along the Norwegian border (23,000 troops). Denmark had declared war on Sweden on 14 March and some battles and skirmishes were fought along the Norwegian border. In April Napoleon began to devote more attention to the situation in Spain, and the British navy remained a continuous threat for troop movements between Denmark and Sweden.


title: Finnish War

text: By November 1808, Russian forces had overrun all of Finland. On 19 November, the Convention of Olkijoki was signed and the Swedish army was forced to leave the Finnish countryside. The Russian emperor was, however, now eager to bring hostilities to the territory of Sweden proper, which was certain to bring the war to a victorious end.


title: Finnish War

text: With this objective in mind, Kamensky suggested a daring plan, whereby the Russian army was to cross the frozen Gulf of Bothnia at two locations: one unit was to march from Vasa towards Umeå and the other from Åbo to Åland and thence towards the vicinity of Stockholm. A third unit was to advance into Sweden by land, going around the gulf and through the town of Torneå (Finnish: "Tornio").


title: Finnish War

text: Although Knorring was urged to execute the plan as quickly as possible, he regarded the idea as unrealistic and procrastinated until March, when the emperor dispatched the War Minister Arakcheyev to Finland in order to pressure Knorring into action before joining the army himself.


title: Finnish War

text: As Russian forces embarked upon their unprecedented march across the frozen gulf, King Gustav IV—accused of fatal mistakes leading to the loss of Finland—was dethroned in Stockholm on 13 March, and his uncle was proclaimed Charles XIII of Sweden. Four days later, Bagration's corps of 17,000 men occupied the strategic Åland Islands, while Kulnev led a vanguard further across the frozen sea that on 19 March reached the Swedish shore within 70 km from Stockholm.


title: Finnish War

text: When news of Kulnev's incursion spread to the Swedish capital, the new king sent an embassy to Knorring, proposing a truce. The Russian commander agreed and speedily recalled Kulnev back to Åland. Meanwhile, the other Russian contingent—5,000 men under Barclay de Tolly—endured great hardship in crossing the frozen gulf further north; they entered Umeå on 24 March.


title: Finnish War

text: The third force, commanded by Count Shuvalov, struck against Torneå and, braving fierce frost, encircled a Swedish army, which capitulated on 25 March. Six days later, the czar arrived in Åbo and, on learning about the truce, not only revoked Knorring's signature but named Barclay de Tolly as the new Commander-in-Chief. Hostilities thus continued until May, when Shuvalov finally reached Umeå, where he was succeeded by Kamensky.


title: Finnish War

text: A British Royal Navy fleet under Admiral James Saumarez had arrived in Sweden in May and he concentrated his ships, 10 ship of the line and 17 smaller ships, to the Gulf of Finland. The presence of the British naval units kept the Russian battlefleet strictly confined to Kronstadt, and after the British constructed artillery batteries to the Porkkala cape they cut off the coastal sea route from Russian ships. Total British control of the Gulf of Finland was a large obstacle to the Russian supply network and required sizable garrisons to be posted all along the Finnish coast. The Royal Navy captured 35 Russian ships and burnt 20 others before leaving the Baltic Sea on 28 September 1809.


title: Finnish War

text: In August, Charles XIII, anxious to improve his position at a peace settlement, ordered General Gustav Wachtmeister to land in the north of Sweden and to attack Kamensky's rear. Engagements at Sävar and Ratan proved inconclusive and Kamensky succeeded in neutralizing this belated counter-offensive, following up with a final victory over the Swedes at Piteå.


title: Finnish War

text: Wachtmeister's action was only a prelude to the peace negotiations that opened in August and resulted in the Treaty of Fredrikshamn (17 September), in which Sweden ceded the whole of Finland and all of its domains east of the Torne River (the north-eastern parts of what was then called "Västerbotten", today "Norrbotten") to Russia. Sweden then joined the Continental System and closed its harbours to British ships, leading to a formal declaration of war on Great Britain. A few months later, on 6 January 1810, the Russian government mediated the Treaty of Paris between Sweden and France.


title: Finnish War

text: Russia would create the Grand Duchy of Finland from the territory obtained from Sweden, and would attach the areas gained from Sweden in the 18th century (so-called Old Finland) to the new Grand Duchy in 1812. The Grand Duchy of Finland was to retain the Gustavian constitution of 1772 with only slight modifications until 1919. Almost all Finnish soldiers in Sweden (most of them in the Umeå area) were repatriated after the war.


title: Finnish War

text: Sufficient stocks of supplies had not been prepared for the Swedish army, since King Gustaf IV Adolf thought it might be taken as provocative by the Russians. Furthermore, Swedish strategy relied on the outdated plans for Finland which took into account neither the advances in weaponry, mobility of the armed forces or the greatly improved road networks of Finland. Most of the fortifications in Finland had not been completed and those that were completed had mostly fallen into neglect and disrepair. Even the strongest of the Swedish fortresses, Sveaborg, still had several of its planned fortifications missing, most notably all the land side fortifications designed to protect against a besieging enemy.


title: Finnish War

text: In 1808 a British expeditionary force under John Moore arrived in Sweden, but after months of idleness departed for the beginning of what became known as the Spanish War of Independence (in Britain, the Peninsular War). Had the king accepted the landing of 10,000 British troops in Skåne, where the expeditionary force had been authorized to disembark, it would have enabled the Swedes to release at least 10,000 trained soldiers for the Finnish War. As it happened, the bulk of the Swedish army, including the best units, were kept out of the Finnish War by the king, who reserved them for his plans for conquering either Sjælland or Norway. Swedish landings were invariably made with poorly equipped and trained forces, often with troops who had very low morale. Landings were further complicated by the Swedish Navy's failure to tightly block the coastal sea route past Hangö.


title: Finnish War

text: The 200th anniversary of the Finnish War was selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €100 200th Anniversary of Finnish War commemorative coin, minted in 2008. The motif on the coin is the passage of Finland from Sweden to Russia. The same coin depicts both the pre-war Finnish history, with the withdrawing Swedish crown on the reverse side, and the post-war future of the country, with the Russian eagle symbol on the obverse side.


title: Finnish War

text: According to two 2015 studies by political scientists Jan Teorell and Bo Rothstein, Sweden's loss in the Finnish War led to reforms of the Swedish bureaucracy. Prior to 1809, Sweden had a reputation as one of Europe's most corrupt countries, but the loss in the war created the perception of an existential threat in the East for Sweden and motivated Swedish elites to reform its bureaucracy. The motivation behind the reforms were to make the Swedish state more effective and functional, and thus protect against the existential threat in the East.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. Loudoun County's seat is Leesburg. Loudoun County is part of the Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC–VA–MD–WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2020, Loudoun County had a median household income of $147,111. Since 2008, the county has been ranked first in the U.S. in median household income among jurisdictions with a population of 65,000 or more.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Between 1952 and 2008, Loudoun was a Republican-leaning county. However, this has changed in recent years with Democrats winning Loudoun in all statewide campaigns after 2014 and Democrats holding a two-thirds majority on the county Board of Supervisors.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudoun County was established in 1757 from Fairfax County. The county is named for John Campbell, Fourth Earl of Loudoun and governor general of Virginia from 1756 to 1759. Western settlement began in the 1720s and 1730s with Quakers, Scots-Irish, Germans and others moving south from Pennsylvania and Maryland, and also by English and enslaved Africans moving upriver from Tidewater.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: By the time of the American Revolution, it was Virginia's most populous county. It was also rich in agriculture, and the county's contributions of grain to George Washington's Continental Army earned it the nickname "Breadbasket of the Revolution."


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: During the War of 1812, important Federal documents and government archives were evacuated from Washington and stored at Leesburg.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: U.S. president James Monroe treated Oak Hill Plantation as a primary residence from 1823 until his death on July 4, 1831. The Loudoun County coat of arms and flag, granted by the English College of Arms, memorialize the special relationship between Britain and the United States that developed through his Monroe Doctrine.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Early in the American Civil War, the Battle of Balls Bluff took place near Leesburg on October 21, 1861. Future jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. was critically wounded in that battle along the Potomac River. During the Gettysburg Campaign in June 1863, Confederate major general J.E.B. Stuart and Union cavalry clashed in the battles of Aldie, Middleburg, and Upperville. Confederate partisan John S. Mosby based his operations in Loudoun and adjoining Fauquier County (for a more in-depth account of the history of Loudoun County during the Civil War, see Loudoun County in the American Civil War).


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: During World War I, Loudoun County was a major Breadbasket for supplying provisions to soldiers in Europe. Loudoun farmers implemented new agricultural innovations such as vaccination of livestock, seed inoculations and ensilage. The county experienced a boom in agricultural output, outputting an annual wheat output of 1.04 million bushels in 1917, the largest of any county in Virginia that year. 1.2 million units of home produce were produced at home, much of which went to training sites across the state such as Camp Lee. The Smith–Lever Act of 1914 established increased agricultural education in Virginia counties, increasing agricultural yields. After the war, a plaque was dedicated to the "30 glorious dead" from the county who died in the Great War. Five of the thirty died on the front, while the other twenty five died while in training or in other locations inside the United States.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In 1962, Washington Dulles International Airport was built in southeastern Loudoun County in Sterling. Since then, Loudoun County has experienced a high-tech boom and rapid growth. Accordingly, many have moved to eastern Loudoun and become residents of planned communities such as Sterling Park, Sugarland Run, Cascades, Ashburn Village, and Ashburn Farm, making that section a veritable part of the Washington suburbs. Others have moved to the county seat or to the small towns and rural communities of the Loudoun Valley.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Between 1952 and 2008, Loudoun was a Republican-leaning county. However, this has changed in recent years with Democrats winning all statewide campaigns after 2014, and Democrats holding a two-thirds majority on the county Board of Supervisors.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The county's official motto, "I Byde My Time", is borrowed from the coat of arms of the Earl of Loudoun. In the mid to late 20th century, as northerners gradually migrated to Southern suburbs, Loudoun County increasingly shifted to the Republican Party in supporting presidential candidates, and more local ones. Before the 2008 election of Barack Obama, county voters had not supported a Democratic president since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In recent years, the county's rapid growth in its eastern portion, settled by educated professionals working in or near Washington, D.C., has changed the demographics of the county, and the Democratic Party has become increasingly competitive. After giving Senator Barack Obama nearly 54% of its presidential vote in 2008, the county supported Republican Bob McDonnell in 2009, who received 61% of the gubernatorial vote. Voters also replaced two incumbent Democratic delegates, making Loudoun's state House delegation all Republican. In 2012 county voters again supported Obama, who took 51.5% of the vote, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney garnering 47%.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Democrats carried the county again in the 2016 presidential election, when Loudoun swung heavily towards Hillary Clinton, giving her 55.1% to Donald Trump's 38.2%. In 2020, Joe Biden won 61.5% to Trump's 36.5%. A year later, in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe won the county with 55.3% to now Governor Glenn Youngkin's 44.2%. Loudoun was one of ten counties that was won by McAuliffe, though it was his smallest margin of victory in Northern Virginia.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Like many counties in Virginia, Loudoun is locally governed by a board of supervisors, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors. The chairman of the board is elected by county voters at-large while the remaining supervisors are elected from eight single-member districts roughly equal in population. All nine members serve concurrent terms of four years. The board handles policy and land use issues and sets the budget; it appoints a county administrator to handle the county government's day-to-day operations. As of the 2019 elections, the chairman of the board and five district supervisors are Democrats; the remaining three supervisors are Republican.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In November 2019, Democrats took over the Board of Supervisors. Voters elected Juli E. Briskman (D) in Algonkian District, with 6,763 votes (54.09%) replacing incumbent Suzanne M. Volpe (R) who polled 5,719 votes (45.74%). Juli Briskman had been fired from her job as a marketing analyst for a United States government and military subcontractor, after an AFP photo of her flipping off the motorcade of Donald Trump went viral on social media in 2017.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Loudoun County has a total area of , of which is land and (1.1%) is water. It is bounded on the north by the Potomac River; across the river are Frederick, Washington and Montgomery counties in Maryland; it is bounded on the south by Prince William and Fauquier counties, on the west by watershed of the Blue Ridge Mountain across which are Jefferson County, West Virginia and Clarke County, and on the east by Fairfax County. The Bull Run Mountains and Catoctin Mountain bisect the county. To the west of the range is the Loudoun Valley. Bisecting the Loudoun Valley from Hillsboro to the Potomac River is Short Hill Mountain.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Traditionally a rural county, Loudoun's population has grown dramatically since the 1980s. Having undergone heavy suburbanization since 1990, Loudoun has a full-fledged service economy. It is home to world headquarters for several Internet-related and high tech companies, including Verizon Business, Telos Corporation, Orbital Sciences Corporation, and Paxfire. Like Fairfax County's Dulles Corridor, Loudoun County has economically benefited from the existence of Washington Dulles International Airport, the majority of which is in the county along its border with Fairfax.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudoun County retains a strong rural economy. The equine industry has an estimated revenue of $78 million. It is home to the Morven Park International Equestrian Center which hosts national horse trials. In addition, a growing wine industry has produced several internationally recognized wines. Loudoun County now has 40 wineries and over 25 active farms. Loudoun has rich soil and was in the mid-19th century a top wheat-producing county in the fourth largest wheat-producing state.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom), a subsidiary of Verizon Communications, is headquartered in Ashburn, Loudoun County. It announced it would move its headquarters to Ashburn in 2003. AOL had its headquarters at 22000 AOL Way in Dulles in unincorporated Loudoun County. In 2007 AOL announced it would move its headquarters from Loudoun County to New York City; it would continue to operate its Virginia offices. Orbital Sciences Corporation has its headquarters in Dulles.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudoun County houses over 60 massive data centers, many of which corresponding to Amazon Web Services’s (AWS) us-east-1 region. These data centers are estimated to carry 70 percent of global web traffic.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Before its dissolution, Independence Air (originally Atlantic Coast Airlines) was headquartered in Dulles. At one time Atlantic Coast Airlines had its headquarters in Sterling. Before its dissolution, MAXjet Airways was headquartered on the grounds of Washington-Dulles International Airport.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: According to the county's comprehensive annual financial reports, the top employers in the county are:


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: From 1890 to 1940, the county had a decline in population as people moved to cities for more opportunities. The decline was likely highest among African Americans, who had worked in an agricultural economy that was becoming increasingly mechanized. During the first half of the 20th century, African Americans moved out of rural areas to cities in the Great Migration. As of the early 21st century, African Americans now have a much smaller population compared to their historical population in Loudoun County, with the Hispanic and Asian populations outnumbering them 2-1 and 3-1 respectively.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: "Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race."


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 312,311 people, 104,583 households, and 80,494 families residing in the county. The population density was 606 people per square mile (234/km). There were 109,442 housing units at an average density of 212 per square mile (82/km). The racial makeup of the county was:


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: According to the 2010 census, 10.5% of residents reported being of German ancestry, while 9.1% reported Irish, 7.7% English, 5.4% Italian and 5.2% American ancestry.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The most spoken languages other than English in Loudoun County as of 2018 were Spanish, spoken by 10.8% of the population, and Telugu, spoken by 2.8% of the population. Almost 25% of Loudoun County residents were born outside of the United States, with the largest groups being from India, El Salvador, and Korea.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: As of 2000 there were 59,900 households, out of which 43.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 64.30% were married couples living together, 7.80% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.80% were non-families. 18.40% of all households were made up of individuals, and 3.70% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.24.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In the county, the population was spread out, with 29.80% under the age of 18, 5.70% from 18 to 24, 38.90% from 25 to 44, 20.00% from 45 to 64, and 5.60% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.50 males.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In 2011, Census survey data concluded that Loudoun County had the highest median income in the country at $119,134.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: From 1980 to 2014, deaths from cancer in Loudoun County decreased by 46 percent, the largest such decrease of any county in the United States.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: From 2017 to 2018, Loudoun County saw an increase of 18.5% of households experiencing homelessness, a 21% increase for single adults, and a 36% increase for families. Homelessness for veterans in the county decreased by 16% from 2017 to 2018.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The National Transportation Safety Board operates the Ashburn Aviation Field Office in Ashburn, an unincorporated area of Loudoun County. The Federal Aviation Administration's Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center, the second-busiest facility of its kind in the nation, is located in Leesburg.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Emergency services are provided by the Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Department with the Office of Emergency Management. LCFR is a combination system that utilizes some 500 volunteers and over 600 career firefighters, EMT/paramedics, dispatchers, and support staff. LCFR is one of the largest fire and rescue systems in Virginia.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Law enforcement in Loudoun County is provided by the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office, which is Virginia's largest sheriff's office, as well as three town police departments: Leesburg Police, Purcellville Police, and Middleburg Police. The county's highways are also patrolled by Virginia State Police troopers. Dulles Airport and the Dulles Toll Road are patrolled by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police Department.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The Loudoun County Public Library System has eleven branches in the county. The library's Outreach Department of the Loudoun County Public Library is a resource for those who cannot easily access branch services. The public library system has won several awards, including 10th place for libraries serving a comparably sized population in 2006


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudon County is one of the counties in Virginia that elects to cover their employees in the Virginia Mortgage Assistance Program (VMAP). The program is designed to make housing more affordable for civil service workers in Virginia.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The Silver Line of the Washington Metro provides service at the Dulles Airport, Loudoun Gateway, and Ashburn stations.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The county is served by Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). LCPS serves over 70,000 students from Kindergarten through 12th grade and is Virginia's fifth largest school system. Loudoun County schools recently ranked 11th in the United States in terms of educational achievement versus funds spent. Loudoun County also sends students to its Loudoun Academy of Science, formerly housed within Dominion High School now within the Academies of Loudoun, and is eligible to send students to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a STEM magnet school in Alexandria, Virginia.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: Loudoun County is home to ten private schools: Loudoun Country Day School, a Pre-K–8 independent school in Leesburg; Notre Dame Academy, an independent non-denominational day high school in Middleburg; the Foxcroft School, a boarding school for girls located in Middleburg; Dominion Academy, a Non-denominational Christian school, K–8 in Leesburg; Loudoun Classical School, a Protestant classical 7th-12th grade school in Purcellville; Leesburg Christian School, a K–12 school in Leesburg; St. Theresa School, a K–8 Roman Catholic school in Ashburn; Village Montessori School at Bluemont, an accredited Pre-K through Elementary Montessori school in Bluemont; Christian Faith & Fellowship School, a PreK–12 non-denominational Christian school and Loudoun County's only private school accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International; and Loudoun School for Advanced Studies (formerly the Ideal Schools High School,) an independent non-denominational school in Ashburn.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: In terms of post-secondary education, Loudoun County is home to a variety of colleges and universities, including: Patrick Henry College, a private Christian college; Northern Virginia Community College in Sterling (branch campus); George Washington University (satellite campus); George Mason University (satellite campus); Marymount University (satellite campus); Shenandoah University (satellite campus); and Strayer University (satellite campus). Loudoun is also home to a satellite campus of the Virginia–Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine and the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: The population ranking of the following table is based on 2018 estimates by the United States Census Bureau.


title: Loudoun County, Virginia

text: James Monroe constructed and resided at Oak Hill near Aldie after his presidency. American Civil War Brigadier General Robert H. Chilton (Chief of Staff under Robert E. Lee) was a native of Loudoun County. World War II general George C. Marshall resided at Dodona Manor in Leesburg. Essayist and journalist Russell Baker grew up in Morrisonville, Virginia and his book "Growing Up" highlights his childhood in rural Virginia. Entertainer Arthur Godfrey lived near historic Waterford, Virginia. Loudoun County is also the birthplace of Julia Neale Jackson, mother of Stonewall Jackson, and Susan Catherine Koerner Wright, mother of the Wright Brothers.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Francis Joseph Underwood is a fictional character and the villainous main protagonist of the American adaptation of "House of Cards", portrayed by Kevin Spacey. He is depicted as a ruthless politician who rises from United States House of Representatives majority whip to president of the United States through treachery, deception and murder. He is based on Francis Urquhart, the protagonist of the British novel and television series "House of Cards", from which the American Netflix series is drawn. He is married to Claire Underwood (Robin Wright), who later made the decision to revert to her maiden name; Claire Hale. The protagonist has had a sexual relationship with Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) in season 1. He made his first appearance in the series' pilot episode, "Chapter 1".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood is from Gaffney, South Carolina. He graduated from The Sentinel (a fictionalized version of The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina) in 1980 and; subsequently, Harvard Law School in 1984. Some of Underwood's dialogue throughout the series is presented in a direct address to the audience, a narrative technique that breaks the fourth wall. The character speaks with a Southern accent. During season 1, he is the Democratic Majority Whip in the United States House of Representatives. In season 2, he is the newly appointed Vice President of the United States, before achieving his ambitious goal, and becoming President of the United States in the season finale.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood has been described as conniving, Machiavellian, sociopathic, and a symbol of political corruption. Throughout the series, he manipulates and destroys several people, including those he calls friends, for his own ends. Among other crimes, he personally commits murder twice, signs off on another murder committed by a subordinate, orders the deaths of two former employees, critically injures a member of his cabinet to prevent her testifying against him, and indirectly allows the murder of a civilian for political ends.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Spacey has received positive reviews for his portrayal of Frank Underwood, but the character itself has been criticized for its repetitive nature and one-dimensionality. Spacey was one of the first three actors playing leading roles in web-television series to be nominated for Primetime Emmy Awards at the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Spacey has also been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, winning one, and five Screen Actors Guild Awards, including two cast nominations and including two wins, for his performances.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: On November 3, 2017, following sexual assault claims made against Spacey, Netflix cut ties with the actor, putting the character's fate in question. In a teaser trailer for the sixth season of "House of Cards", it is shown that Underwood died in 2017 and is now buried next to his father in South Carolina. The series finale reveals that his right-hand man, Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), poisoned him in order to stop him from murdering his wife, Claire.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Francis J. Underwood was born on November 5, 1959, to Catherine and Calvin T. Underwood in Gaffney, South Carolina. He was raised as an only child, in impoverished circumstances, with the threat of bank foreclosure on the farm they lived on. He entered The Sentinel, a military school in Charleston, South Carolina, loosely based on The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, in the fall of 1976. He graduated in 1980 and, despite having made poor grades, gained admittance into Harvard Law School. He received his J.D. degree from there in 1984. While at the Sentinel, he had a homosexual relationship with his roommate, Tim Corbet (David Andrews), which lasted until his first year of law school. Underwood was raised Christian and publicly pays lip service to religious faith, but privately holds God and Christianity (considering it a source of weakness) in complete contempt.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood's great-great-great-grandfather, Corporal Augustus Elijah Underwood, was a Confederate soldier who served in the 12th South Carolina Infantry Regiment of Samuel McGowan's Brigade at the Battle of Spotsylvania. He served at the Bloody Angle on May 12, 1864, during the Civil War and was killed by a bludgeon to the back of the head from his own regiment during the middle of the night. Underwood is fascinated by his ancestry, even though he dismisses the Confederacy as "weak" and their cause of preserving slavery "asinine". When Underwood falls into a coma following an assassination attempt, Augustus appears in several of his hallucinations. His great-great grandfather was two when Augustus was killed.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: His father, Calvin T. Underwood, was a peach farmer in his home town of Gaffney who died at the age of 43 of a heart attack. The Underwoods lived in poverty, and nearly lost the farm when Frank was a child; to get a bank loan and avoid foreclosure, his father attended a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan, of which the bank manager was a member. Underwood speaks fondly of his father in public, but this is a political ploy; in his asides to the audience, Underwood describes his father as a weak man who accomplished nothing with his life. He even urinates on his father's grave in season 3. Despite disliking his father, however, Underwood was influenced by him. Calvin was an abusive alcoholic and caused his wife and son years of misery. Underwood has said that when he was 13, he walked in on his father putting a shotgun in his mouth. Calvin asked him to pull the trigger, which he refused to do. He has stated that his biggest regret is not killing his father when he had the chance.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood was elected at the age of 25 to the South Carolina State Senate as one of the youngest members in the state's legislative history after graduating from Harvard in 1984. He was re-elected to the state senate at 29 in 1988 for his second, and last, term as a State Senator.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1990 as a Democratic representative for the 5th Congressional District of South Carolina, being sworn in during January 1991. He won another 11 consecutive elections, winning his final term in 2012. He was elected Whip for the Democratic Party in 2005, serving as House Majority Whip between 2005 and 2013.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood is utterly ruthless and Machiavellian, and is willing to commit any crime, including murder, to further his goal of attaining power. Many critics have described him as a sociopath with psychopathic tendencies and as "pure evil".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Often, Underwood's thoughts throughout the series are presented in a direct address to the audience, a narrative technique known as breaking the fourth wall. Immediately prior to starring in "House of Cards", Spacey had starred in a production of William Shakespeare's "Richard III" as Richard III of England, a character that serves as a partial basis for both Urquhart and Underwood. His last name is derived from Oscar Underwood, who served as the first Democratic House Minority Whip from about 1900 to 1901. His few vices include smoking cigarettes and playing video games; when the Secret Service cuts off his online gaming service after he becomes Vice President, he takes up creating model figurines.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Spacey viewed portraying Underwood for a second season as a continuing learning process. "There is so much I don't know about Francis, so much that I'm learning... I've always thought that the profession closest to that of an actor is being a detective... We are given clues by writers... Then you lay them all out and try to make them come alive as a character who's complex and surprising, maybe even to yourself."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: According to "Time" television critic James Poniewozik, by the end of the first episode, it becomes clear that Underwood both literally and figuratively uses meat as his metaphor of choice. He may begin a day with a celebratory rack of ribs, because "I'm feelin' hungry today!", and he depicts his life with meat metaphors. For example, he describes the White House Chief of Staff with grudging admiration: "She's as tough as a two-dollar steak" and plans to destroy an enemy the way "you devour a whale. One bite at a time". He also endures a tedious weekly meeting with House leaders, as he tells the audience, by "[imagining] their lightly salted faces frying in a skillet." These metaphors also relate to the animal kingdom; for example, at one point he says: "Every kitten grows up to be a cat. They seem so harmless at first. [...] they draw blood. Sometimes from the hand that feeds them". Another example would be the time he breaks the fourth wall, and proceeds to say "From the lion's den to a pack of wolves".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Tim Goodman of "The Hollywood Reporter" notes that, in Season 2, with Underwood's new position as Vice President, "He's got more power now and that means he instills more fear in his enemies". At one point during the season, he states "The road to power is paved with hypocrisy and casualties. [...] I need to prove what the vice president is capable of." Underwood and Claire "continue their ruthless rise to power as threats mount on all fronts."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood's sexuality is ambiguous throughout much of the first two seasons; he has sexual liaisons with both men and women, but he is never explicitly identified by any sexual label. Before Season 2, various sources speculated about his homosexuality. It is revealed in "Chapter 8" he had an experience with homosexuality in college. Underwood and Claire are never depicted having sex in season 1. "Slate" journalist Hanna Rosin noted: if Frank and Claire Underwood were a real-life Washington couple and they were found each to be having an affair, he would be accused of being "secretly gay, turned on by women only when he can use them for a pure power play". Other sources make no definite stance on Underwood's sexuality, but hypothesize that he is not sexually attracted to Claire. In season 2, Underwood is involved in a threesome with Claire and Secret Service agent Edward Meechum (Nathan Darrow), while in season 3, there is a moment of sexual tension between Underwood and his biographer, Tom Yates (Paul Sparks), who later embarks in a physical and romantic emotional relationship with Claire. The same season, however, also features the only scene in the series in which Underwood and Claire have sex exclusively with each other. In season five, he has sex with Eric Rawlings (Malcolm Madera), his male personal trainer.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Stelter described Frank and Claire Underwood as a "scheming" couple. Michael Dobbs, the author of the trilogy of novels upon which the British miniseries is based, compares the compelling nature of their relationship favorably to the characters in the original miniseries, and likens them to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Underwood says, "I love that woman. I love her more than sharks love blood." While Underwood is Machiavellian, Claire, like Lady Macbeth, encourages her husband to do whatever is necessary to seize power. Hank Stuever of "The Washington Post" describes her as an ice-queen wife. She encourages his vices while noting her disapproval of his weakness, saying, "My husband doesn't apologize... even to me." Her overt encouragement gives a credibility to their symbiosis. Smith says "The Underwoods have proven themselves almost robotic in their pursuit of power." Upon viewing a four-episode preview of season 2, Goodman says the series "...sells husband and wife power-at-all-costs couple...as a little too oily and reptilian for anyone's good." Willimon notes that "What's extraordinary about Frank and Claire is there is deep love and mutual respect, but the way they achieve this is by operating on a completely different set of rules than the rest of us typically do." "Los Angeles Times" critic Mary McNamara makes the case that "House of Cards" is a love story on many levels, but most importantly between Underwood and Claire. It is a story about a man who will commit any crime imaginable while in pursuit of power and a political wife who gives him the encouragement to pursue that power.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood and Claire engage in a threesome with their Secret Service bodyguard Edward Meechum at one point in season 2, but have otherwise largely given up intramarital and extramarital sex in favor of their pursuit of power. "International Business Times" critic Ellen Killoran notes that this may relate back to Underwood's quotation of Oscar Wilde to Zoe Barnes in Season 1: "A great man once said, 'everything is about sex "except" sex. Sex is about "power".'" Avoiding sex may retain the balance of power in their relationship. His relationship with Claire is the epicenter of season 2.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood develops an intimate relationship with "Washington Herald" and "Slugline" reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), with Claire's knowledge. As the show begins, Barnes is desperate to rise from covering the Fairfax County Council beat to covering what's going on "behind the veil of power in the Capitol hallways." By the end of the first episode, Barnes is among the cadre of Underwood's accomplices. They begin a relationship, with Barnes promising to earn his trust and not "ask any questions" in return for his supplying her with sensitive political information. Toward the end of Season 1, she ends their personal relationship and begins investigating his connection to the apparent suicide of Congressman Peter Russo (Corey Stoll) (Underwood had in fact killed him by flooding his car with carbon monoxide while the Congressman was passed out drunk). Underwood ultimately kills Barnes in the season 2 premiere, by pushing her in front of an oncoming Washington Metro train after she begins to follow clues related to the murder.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood is fond of the head of his Secret Service detail, Edward Meechum (Nathan Darrow), and it is hinted several times that they harbor unacknowledged sexual feelings for each other. When Meechum stumbles upon Underwood watching pornography, Underwood and Claire joke about there being sexual chemistry between the two men. Shortly after Underwood becomes vice president, he, Claire and Meechum have a threesome.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Meechum remains Underwood's bodyguard once he becomes the president, and there does not appear to be any continuing sexual relationship. Meechum remains fiercely loyal, however; he warns Underwood's biographer Tom Yates (Paul Sparks) not to write anything that would damage Underwood's reputation. In season 4, Underwood traces Meechum's hand with a marker on one of the walls of the White House when he wants to replace a Confederate painting; Meechum suggests he put up something he likes instead.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: When Lucas Goodwin shoots Underwood during a campaign event, Meechum trades fire with the would-be assassin, and both die at the scene. Meechum's death is one of the tragedies Claire mentions in a press briefing for a gun control bill she is sponsoring, and Underwood has him buried in Arlington National Cemetery, a rare privilege for a Secret Service agent. When Underwood recovers and finds that Meechum's hand tracing has been painted over, he expresses grief and regret at the loss to Claire, who says that Meechum was one of the few people who truly understood them.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood is an Americanized version of the original BBC series lead character Francis Urquhart, a Machiavellian post-Margaret Thatcher Chief Whip of the Conservative Party. Urquhart employs deceit, cunning, murder, and blackmail to influence and pursue the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. According to series producer Beau Willimon, the change in last name stemmed from the "Dickensian" feeling and "more legitimately American" sounding resonance of the name 'Underwood'. Whereas Urquhart is an aristocrat by birth, Underwood is a self-made man, having been born into a poor Southern family with an alcoholic father. Urquhart was one of television's first antiheroes, whereas Underwood follows the more recent rash of antiheroes that includes Tony Soprano of "The Sopranos", Walter White of "Breaking Bad", and Dexter Morgan of "Dexter". However, unlike most other antiheroes, Underwood is not forced into immorality either by circumstance (White), birth (Soprano) or upbringing (Morgan). In his review of Season 2, "Slant Magazine"s Alan Jones writes that Underwood is evil by choice. Although the character is based on the BBC show's lead character, in interviews during the writing and filming of season 2, creator and showrunner Willimon said that he used Lyndon B. Johnson as a source of themes and issues addressed in "House of Cards". Unlike the right wing Urquhart, who leads the Conservative Party, Underwood is a member of the Democratic Party, but cares little for ideology in favor of "ruthless pragmatism" in furthering his own political influence and power.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Spacey summed up Underwood's relationship with the viewer—i.e. whenever he breaks the fourth wall—as being like that of a "best friend" and "the person [he trusts] more than anyone." Because of this, his asides to the viewer serves as an indication of Underwood's true feelings and intentions—typically when he is feigning politeness and courtesy to people whom he despises. In the season 2 premiere, after having gone the whole episode without doing so, Underwood addresses the viewer directly, saying, "Did you think I had forgotten you? Perhaps you hoped I had." In addition, in season 3, after an argument with Claire that ends with her storming out on him, a seething Underwood vents his anger by lashing out at the viewer; looking directly into the camera, he snaps "What're you lookin' at?!"


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: For the first four seasons, Underwood was the only character to break the fourth wall until the very end of the fourth season, during which Claire—though silent—addresses the camera directly with him. In the fifth season, Claire also addresses the camera directly, on one occasion explaining that she had always known the viewer was there, but didn't know if she could trust them. At the end, after usurping the Presidency from Underwood and deciding not to grant him a pardon, she looks into the camera again and states "My turn."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: At the start of the show, Underwood is a Democratic Majority Whip in the House of Representatives, where he has represented South Carolina's 5th congressional district since 1990.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood is passed over for an appointment as United States Secretary of State even though he had been promised the position after ensuring the election of Colorado Governor Garrett Walker (Michel Gill) as President. Walker's Chief of Staff Linda Vasquez (Sakina Jaffrey) gives him this news prior to the January 2013 United States presidential inauguration. With the aid of Claire, and his fiercely loyal Chief of Staff Doug Stamper (Michael Kelly), Underwood uses his position as House Whip to seek retribution. He quickly allies with "Washington Herald" reporter Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara), whom he uses to undermine his rivals via the press. The viciousness of Underwood's manipulations escalates over the course of the season. He befriends Pennsylvania Rep. Peter Russo (Corey Stoll), encouraging him to quit drinking and run for Governor of Pennsylvania; then his underlings create enough pressure in the race to push Russo into publicly falling off the wagon and ruining his career. Underwood finally murders him and makes it look like suicide. He persuades Vice President Jim Matthews (Dan Ziskie) to resign so he can run for the office he previously held, Governor of Pennsylvania, the race being wide open following Russo's death. In the season finale, "Chapter 13", Underwood is appointed Vice President to replace Matthews.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood assumes the position of Vice President of the United States. Over the course of the season, he "faces challenges from similarly ambitious businessmen, the Chinese government and Congress itself" as he continues to pursue his political aspirations. His plotline revolves around battles with billionaire Raymond Tusk (Gerald McRaney), involving Chinese money laundering. Over the course of the season his biggest challenges are the institutional power of the Office of the President and Tusk's power as a billionaire industrialist.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: He finds new rivals in Tusk, who seeks to maintain his position as Walker's right-hand adviser against Underwood's intrusion, and his former communications director, Remy Danton (Mahershala Ali), who is now a lobbyist working with Tusk.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: At the beginning of the season, Underwood is trying to erase all links to Russo's death. Thus, he kills Barnes by shoving her in front of an oncoming Washington Metro train, and frames her colleague and lover Lucas Goodwin (Sebastian Arcelus) for cyberterrorism. Another early task for newly promoted Underwood is finding his own replacement as House Majority Whip. He supports Jacqueline Sharp (Molly Parker), a military veteran and third-term Representative from California, although he refrains from offering public backing.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Toward the end of the season, Underwood orchestrates Walker's downfall. He secretly leaks the details of the money laundering, for which Walker is blamed. While publicly supporting Walker, Underwood works behind the scenes to have him impeached, with Sharp's help. In the season finale, "Chapter 26", Walker resigns, and Underwood succeeds him as President of the United States.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Season 3 begins with Underwood's presidency off to a rocky start: six months into his term, he is unpopular with the public, and Congress is blocking his attempts to move legislation forward. He plans to secure his legacy with an ambitious jobs bill, America Works, but the Democratic Congressional leadership refuses to support it; they also tell him that they will not support him if he seeks the presidential nomination in the next election. He nominates Claire for United States Ambassador to the United Nations, but her nomination is defeated after she makes a gaffe during a Senate nomination hearing.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood announces that he will not run for reelection, and advocates for America Works, which he intends to pay for by stripping entitlement programs. He fails to get the bill through Congress and uses that as a reason to renege on his promise to not run in 2016. Solicitor General Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) announces that she will seek the presidential nomination, and actually gives Underwood a battle. Underwood convinces Sharp to get married so she can announce her candidacy, for the sole reason of sapping women's votes from Dunbar, at which point she will withdraw and accept the nomination for VP. After the presidential debate, in which Underwood publicly humiliates Sharp in order to go after Dunbar, Sharp retaliates by backing Dunbar's campaign. Ultimately, however, Underwood wins the Iowa caucuses.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Meanwhile, the Underwoods' marriage is faltering. Underwood gives Claire the ambassador job in a recess appointment, but she is forced to resign in order to solve a diplomatic crisis. Claire begins to question whether she still loves her husband, and they get into an ugly fight in which he tells her that she is nothing without him. Season 3 ends with Claire leaving Underwood as he prepares for the New Hampshire primary.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Underwood trails Dunbar in the polls, eventually losing the New Hampshire primary. Realizing that he needs Claire to win, he persuades her to come back by promising to support her run for a congressional district in Texas. However, he sandbags her prospective candidacy by endorsing a political ally's daughter, in order to keep Claire focused on his campaign. On the day of the South Carolina primary, Claire retaliates by arranging for two compromising photos to be leaked: one of Underwood's father with a Klansman, and one of Underwood posing with a Confederate Civil War re-enactor. Underwood deduces that Claire was behind the leaks, and confronts her. Claire calmly admits what she did, and puts forth a proposition: that she run as his vice president. He angrily rejects the idea.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Lucas Goodwin is released from prison and, seeking revenge for Barnes' death, shoots Underwood at a campaign rally, hitting him in the liver. He also mortally wounds Meechum, who manages to kill him before succumbing to his injuries. Underwood is rushed to the hospital for immediate surgery, and falls into a coma. It is soon discovered that he needs a liver transplant. Stamper manages to bump him to the top of the transplant list, and he survives. Once he recovers, he agrees to let Claire run as his vice president.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Dunbar drops out of the race due to the discovery of a meeting she'd had with Goodwin a few days before the attempt on Underwood's life. Underwood begins planning to maneuver Claire into the VP spot and to use the NSA to illegally obtain voter information and spy on the Republican nominee, Will Conway (Joel Kinnaman). This happens while Underwood and Claire advocate for a controversial gun control bill for the sole purpose of creating an atmosphere divisive enough to weed out potential running mates. During the resulting open convention, Underwood intimidates the front-runner, Secretary of State Catherine Durant (Jayne Atkinson), into surrendering her delegates, and uses the public sympathy from Claire's mother's death to ensure that he and Claire are nominated.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: When American extremists loyal to the terrorist group Islamic Caliphate Organization (ICO) kidnap a suburban family, Underwood allows Conway to negotiate with them, making his opponent look like a hero—and then releases NSA data that proves Conway illegally influenced Congress. Soon afterward, however, Underwood is hit with two crises at once: ICO's leader orders his followers to kill one of the hostages, while journalist Tom Hammerschmidt (Boris McGiver) exposes Underwood's crimes in the "Washington Herald". Facing disgrace and possible impeachment, Underwood decides to declare war on ICO and allow the public to see the hostage die in order to distract from the scandal and create an atmosphere of widespread fear that he and Claire can exploit in the weeks before the election.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: In the days before the election, Underwood pushes Congress to formally declare war on ICO, and orders the CIA to kill one of the terrorists and make it look like he had died fleeing capture. Underwood still lags in the polls, however, and on election night it appears he is going to lose to Conway. With help from Stamper and campaign strategist LeAnn Harvey (Neve Campbell), Underwood has NSA contractor Aidan Macallan (Damian Young) stage a cyberattack on several election stations. He also uses the fear of a possible terrorist attack to pressure the governors of Tennessee and Ohio to halt voting. The tactics work; the two states refuse to declare a winner, and the election drags on unresolved for several weeks.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: The presidency is finally set to be decided by a contingent election in the House. Neither Underwood nor Conway receive enough votes, however, so Underwood appoints Claire Acting President until the House votes again. Underwood tries to convince Arizona Congressman Alex Romero (James Martinez) to vote in his favor, but when Underwood refuses to help him with his own agenda, Romero forms a committee to impeach him.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: The Underwoods blackmail Conway's influential campaign manager Mark Usher (Campbell Scott) into joining their side by threatening to release recordings of Conway berating a pilot and his running mate Ted Brockhart (Colm Feore) threatening to kill Frank. Once Usher begins working for them, they release the tapes anyway, which costs Conway the election. Underwood is now President-elect, but his past once again comes back to haunt him when Hammerschmidt writes a story linking him to Barnes' death.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: When Romero's committee intensifies its investigation, Underwood tries to divert public attention by ordering troops into Syria under the pretense of preventing a terrorist attack. This provokes Durant to testify against him; before she can take the stand, however, Underwood pushes her down a flight of stairs, incapacitating her. When Walker testifies about Underwood's role in the Chinese money laundering, Underwood takes the stand in his own defense and stuns the committee by resigning the presidency. When Claire demands an explanation, Underwood reveals that his resignation is part of a plan to ensure that they control the country for years to come: Claire from the White House, he from the private sector. To tie up loose ends, he has Macallan and Harvey killed, and persuades Stamper to "confess" to murdering Barnes.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: For Underwood's plan to work, however, Claire has to pardon him and Stamper, which would damage her credibility with the public. Claire promises him that she will grant the pardons, but makes no mention of them during her first address to the nation as president. Angered, Underwood calls her several times, but each time he gets her voicemail, causing him to worry that she has abandoned him. He breaks the fourth wall and says, "If she doesn't pardon me, I'll kill her."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: While Underwood does not physically appear in the sixth season of "House of Cards", he is mentioned several times, and his actions—occurring offscreen—have great significance. A teaser trailer for the sixth season, released in September 2018, portrays Claire visiting Underwood's grave. Another trailer, released weeks later, confirmed that Underwood is in fact dead. The first episode of the sixth season establishes that Underwood has died of an apparent heart attack; however, Claire suspects that he was murdered. The series finale reveals that Underwood had planned to kill Claire as revenge for abandoning him, and that Stamper poisoned him to stop him from being publicly exposed as a murderer, to "protect the legacy from the man".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: On December 24, 2018, the same day that Spacey was charged with indecent assault and battery, he posted an unofficial short film continuation of "House of Cards" titled "Let Me Be Frank" to his YouTube channel. In the video, Spacey addressed the audience as Underwood, obliquely referred to the sexual assault allegations, and hinted that his character may not be dead.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: On December 24, 2019, Spacey posted a follow-up short film to "Let Me Be Frank" titled "KTWK" to his YouTube channel, once again in-character as Frank Underwood. He wishes the world a "Merry Christmas", comments on it having been a "pretty good year", and says, "The next time someone does something you don't like, you can go on the attack. But you can also hold your fire and do the unexpected. You can ... kill them with kindness."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: "The New York Times" David Itzkoff called Underwood a "scheming politician" who does "some of the most evil and underhanded things imaginable". Brian Stelter of "The New York Times" said Underwood "…is on a quest for power that's just as suspenseful as anything on television." "New York Daily News" critic Don Kaplan says "…conniving Congressman Frank Underwood, is easily one of the most complex antiheroes on TV—except he's not on TV". David Wiegand of the "San Francisco Chronicle" describes the character as one who "all but salivates over the chance to use his considerable power to gain more power, especially if it involves pulling the rug out from under some colleagues and the wool over the eyes of others."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Andrew Davies, the producer of the original UK TV series, feels that Underwood lacks the "charm" of the original character, Francis Urquhart.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: "The Independent" praised Spacey's portrayal as a more "menacing" character, "hiding his rage behind Southern charm and old-fashioned courtesy," while "The New Republic" noted that "When Urquhart addressed the audience, it was partly in the spirit of conspiratorial fun. His asides sparked with wit. He wasn't just ruthlessly striving, he was amusing himself, mocking the ridiculousness of his milieu. There is no impishness about Spacey's Frank Underwood, just numb, machine-like ambition. Even his affection for his wife is a calculation."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Poniewozik praises Underwood's accent, saying "Spacey gives Underwood a silky Southern accent you could pour over crushed ice and sip with a sprig of mint on Derby Day." Nancy deWolf Smith of "The Wall Street Journal" describes the accent as a "mild but sometimes missing Carolina accent". "Time" listed Frank Underwood among the 11 most influential fictional characters in 2013.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: According to "The Kansas City Star" Smith, "Frank hasn't changed, and neither has his brand of Machiavellian political theater" and "Spacey has lost none of his smarmy magnetism as the cartoon-ish villain". According to "Variety" Brian Lowry, "Kevin Spacey's showy performance as an unscrupulous politician" is foremost among the show's strengths, but the show's weakness is the "failure to present its scheming protagonist with equally matched foes". Lowry feels that as conniving as Underwood is, it is unfathomable that "nobody else in a town built on power seems particularly adept at recognizing this or combating him". Goodman says "Spacey is nothing if not constantly magnetic". The delayed use of the fourth wall is perceived as clever. Alison Willmore of Indiewire says that "Unlike Walter White or Tony Soprano, Frank feels at peace with his ruthless pragmatism and what he does in pursuit of power, and reminds us of the fact in his asides to the camera...he may be a ruthless sociopath, but there's something to admire there". However, Willmore noted that Frank became lighter in season 2, noting that the season was "...delivered with more of a wink by Frank than before."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Poniewozik notes that "It also remains a delight to watch Spacey pump the humid breath of life into House of Cards' arid Capitol chill. If only his character weren't so dominant of his surroundings as well. One reason the series' movements can feel so mechanical is that, so far, no one seems nearly in Underwood's league: not the adversaries he battles directly, nor the sad sacks that he gulls without their even knowing it." Chuck Barney of the "San Jose Mercury News" notes that the preview episodes show that "Frank's "Survivor"-like back-stabbing is beginning to feel a bit repetitive." and that his lack of an adversarial foil has become an issue: "...things always seem to fall neatly into place for him. Even his showdowns with the president (Michel Gill) come off as one-sided..." Verne Gay of "Newsday" notes that "Frank Underwood has no remorse, no superannuated sense of Washington tradition or decorum, and certainly no second thoughts. He is TV's perfect monster of the moment—a compleat malefactor, with a pleasing honey-toned drawl."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Alessandra Stanley of "The New York Times" says "By positing a Johnsonesque power broker and master schemer who wields cabalistic influence behind the scenes, "House of Cards" assigns order and purpose to what, in real life, is too often just an endless, baffling tick-tack-toe stalemate." NPR's Eric Deggans says that Underwood "blends velvety charm and mesmerizing menace like no other character on television".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: "New York Observer" critic Drew Grant notes that although the series aired during the golden age of dramatic antiheroes, Underwood's villainy has become trite: ""House of Cards" is a good reminder, however, that there is a reason Iago wasn't the center of "Othello". Unrelenting, unexplained cruelty can be as pedantic as constant kindness."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Spacey's portrayal was not without detractors: "Hitfix" reviewer Alan Sepinwall accused him of "hamming it up" and "phoning it in on a not very good show to begin with".


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Reviews for season 3 of "House of Cards" were mostly positive. However, a few critics found the Underwood character was becoming repetitive: the critical consensus on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes held that, "Season three introduces intriguing new political and personal elements to Frank Underwood's character, even if it feels like more of the same for some." Ed Power of "The Daily Telegraph" wrote, "Everyone in House of Cards has an agenda—a secret twitching in the attic. The thrill, and the horror, may lie in the degree to which we catch reflections of real life in its dark, cool contours."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Some critics opined that the Underwood character is less interesting once he achieves his goal of becoming president and actually has to govern. "You could take the show seriously just as long as you didn't have to take it seriously, as long as it only took place in the dream world of imaginary fantasy politics," wrote Aaron Bady of "The New Republic", who compared Underwood unfavorably with Josiah Bartlet of "The West Wing". "But when a cartoon becomes president, it starts to look too fake to be real, but too real to be a cartoon. Frank plays the role of President Bartlett, a cartoon president doing things that would actually, in reality, be kind of great. But Bartlett was too good to be true, and the old Frank was too evil to be true. President Underwood is just too dull to be a fantasy, and so the props take center stage."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Critics continued to praise Spacey's performance, however. Don Kaplan of "The New York Daily News" wrote, "Underwood's bottomless appetite for dark dealing keeps Spacey so deliciously detestable you can't help but keep rooting for the bad guy to win."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: In season 4, Jacob Solworthy wrote in his review of the first six episodes of season four: "Until now, 'House of Cards' has centred on the character's outward expression of power -- not to mention his hunger for it -- but the writers have shrewdly stripped that back, instead focusing on the character's internal fears in a way not dissimilar from Tony's dream sequences in 'The Sopranos'," he later added, "You'll never root for Frank more than you do by the end of these six episodes."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: On the other hand, Daniel Fienberg from "The Hollywood Reporter" was critical of Spacey's performance, writing: " Spacey's performance, which at least had an appealingly theatrical extravagance when the series began, has grown less enjoyable. Having reached a pinnacle, there's no way to root for Frank's striving anymore, if you ever were, but House of Cards has yet to commit to urging us to root for Frank's downfall."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: There was also considerable mention of the evolution of Underwood's relationship with Claire. "[T]heir partnership has morphed into an entirely professional exercise, with a shared lust for power having supplanted more conventional matrimonial bonds," wrote Brian Lowry of "Variety". "The Atlantic"s Spencer Kornhaber remarked, however, that the utter ruthlessness displayed by Underwoods in the season finale may have represented a "jump the shark" moment for the series:


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: The Underwoods have murdered a politician and a journalist, and some innocents have also been collateral damage to their activities. Now, though, they've set out to maintain their power at the cost of mass casualties. Netflix hasn't said how many seasons are to come, but it's hard to imagine the show being watchable for all that much longer now that this rubicon of despicability has been crossed.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Some compared Underwood's story line in season 4 to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Brian Moyland of "The Guardian" wrote:


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: "House of Cards" has never felt like the real presidency: Frank Underwood is evil incarnate, bumping off junior Congressmen and pushing journalists in front of trains. But now that, in real life, we're in the throes of such a bizarre presidential race, his machinations are starting to look almost viable. There are several parallels between Underwood's re-election campaign and the 2016 campaigns of Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Spacey's performance as Frank Underwood in Season 5—along with the series itself—received mixed reviews. Emily VanDerWerff of Vox Media called Spacey's performance "hamstanding", and said, "It's as if "House of Cards" wants to make Frank go full authoritarian dictator, but lacks the wherewithal to actually push its reality toward some sort of alternate dystopia." "The Hollywood Reporter"s Daniel Flenberg called Spacey's Underwood "increasingly broad and hammy" in season 5, while "Time"s Daniel D'addario wrote that the character was too one-dimensional to elicit a good performance from Spacey: "Underwood isn't Nixonian or Clintonian (pick your villain); he's a flat character for whom recognition is its own reward. This may make the show a surprisingly good fit for our times. But onscreen as in life, the desire for fame alone is insufficient motivation to compel viewers to stay tuned."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Other critics praised him, however. "Spacey's honeysuckle drawl and flinty-eyed leer are as amusing as ever. He's almost always the broadest performer in any given room, but that's part of the show's design—a way of drawing us into the character's almost omnisciently evil mindset," wrote Vulture.com's Matt Zoller Seitz. "Entertainment Weekly"s Jeff Jensen wrote, "Spacey seems invigorated by the material, and perhaps, our moment. He's certainly buffed and honed Frank to a shine while grounding it, scuffing it, by playing to mortality and age. He's an All-Star Survivor, but a gray one."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: Critics noted that the character of Frank Underwood gained a new resonance when considered in the context of the Trump administration. "In a deliciously cynical flourish, the commander-in-chief's response to whisperings about his misdeeds is to conjure a bogeyman in the shape of terrorist group Ico, which he presents as a clear and imminent danger to America," Ed Power wrote for "The Telegraph". "This yields the returning series's first stone-cold Trump-ism as Underwood announces plans to shut America's borders to unwelcome outsiders. Real world events are further echoed as protestors gather outside the White House chanting 'not my President'."


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: At the 3rd Critics' Choice Television Awards, Spacey was nominated for Best Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Underwood.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: On July 18, 2013, Netflix earned the first Primetime Emmy Award nominations for original online only web television for the 65th Primetime Emmy Awards. Three of its web series, "Arrested Development", "Hemlock Grove", and "House of Cards", earned nominations. For the first time, three Primetime Emmy nominations for lead roles were from web television series: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series to Spacey for his portrayal of Frank Underwood, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series to Robin Wright for her portrayal of Claire Underwood, and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series to Jason Bateman for his portrayal of Michael Bluth in "Arrested Development". Spacey submitted "Chapter 1" for consideration to earn his nomination. Spacey also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series nominations.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: In season 2, Spacey won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Television Series Drama at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards and Screen Actors Guild Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at the 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as nominations for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: In season 3, Spacey was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 67th Primetime Emmy Awards, his third nomination for the role. He also was nominated for both Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 22nd Screen Actors Guild Awards.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: For his performance in season 4, Spacey earned a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Frank Underwood (House of Cards)

text: For his performance in season 5, Spacey received his fifth consecutive Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series nomination for the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike () is the highest and the most prominent mountain in England, at an elevation of above sea level. It is located in the Lake District National Park, in Cumbria, and is part of the Southern Fells and the Scafell massif.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The name "Scafell" is believed by some to derive from the Old Norse "skalli fjall", meaning either the fell with the shieling or the fell with the bald summit, and is first recorded in 1578 in the corrupted form "Skallfield". An alternative derivation is from the Old Norse "skagi", meaning a cape, headland, promontory or peninsula – so giving an etymology that aligns with Skaw in Shetland. It originally referred to Scafell, which neighbours Scafell Pike. What are now known as Scafell Pike, Ill Crag, and Broad Crag were collectively called either "the Pikes" (peaks) or "the Pikes of Scawfell" (see below regarding spelling); from many angles Scafell seems to be the highest peak, and the others were thus considered subsidiary to it. The name "Scawfell Pikes" was adopted "by common consent" according to Jonathan Otley, shortly before the publication of the 4th edition of his guidebook in 1830. Up to this point, England's highest mountain (its status as such was not known until the early 1800s) did not have a name of its own; it was labelled "Sca-Fell Higher Top" by the Ordnance Survey in their initial work in Cumbria in the first decade of the 19th century. The newly developed name reported by Otley first appeared on a published Ordnance Survey map in 1865.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Formerly the name was spelled "Scawfell", which better reflects local pronunciation. This spelling has declined due to the Ordnance Survey's use of "Scafell" on their 1865 map and thereafter.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike is one of a horseshoe of high fells, open to the south, surrounding the head of Eskdale, Cumbria. It stands on the western side of the cirque, with Scafell to the south and Great End to the north. This ridge forms the watershed between Eskdale and Wasdale, which lies to the west.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The narrowest definition of Scafell Pike begins at the col of Mickledore 831.6 m (2728 ft) in the south, takes in the wide, stony summit area and ends at the next depression, Broad Crag Col, c. 877.6 m (2,879 ft). A more inclusive view takes in two further tops: Broad Crag, 935.3 m (3,069 ft) and Ill Crag, 930.9 m (3,054 ft), the two being separated by Ill Crag Col, 882.3m. This is the position taken by most guidebooks. North of Ill Crag is the more definite depression of Calf Cove at 853.4 m (2,800 ft), before the ridge climbs again to Great End 909.5m.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike also has outliers on either side of the ridge. Lingmell 807 m (2648 ft), to the north west, is invariably regarded as a separate fell, while Pen, 760 m (2,500 ft), a shapely summit above the Esk, is normally taken as a satellite of the Pike. Middleboot Knotts is a further top lying on the Wasdale slopes of Broad Crag, which is listed as a Nuttall.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The rough summit plateau is fringed by crags on all sides with Pikes Crag and Dropping Crag above Wasdale and Rough Crag to the east. Below Rough Crag and Pen is a further tier, named Dow Crag and Central Pillar on Ordnance Survey maps, although known as Esk Buttress among climbers.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Broad Crag Col is the source of Little Narrowcove Beck in the east and of Piers Gill in the west. The latter works its way around Lingmell to Wast Water through a spectacular ravine, one of the most impressive in the Lake District. It is treacherous in winter, as when it freezes over it creates an icy patch, with lethal exposure should you slip. Broad Crag is a small top with its principal face on the west and the smaller Green Crag looking down on Little Narrowcove. From Broad Crag, the ridge turns briefly east across Ill Crag Col and onto the shapely pyramidal summit of Ill Crag. Ill Crag and its associated crags overlook Eskdale.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike has a claim to the highest standing water body in England in Broad Crag Tarn, which (confusingly) is on Scafell Pike proper, rather than on Broad Crag. It lies at about , a quarter of a mile (400 m) south of the summit. Foxes Tarn on Scafell is of comparable height.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike is a Marilyn summit which automatically makes it a HuMP and a TuMP. Scafell Pike is topologically unusual because the Marilyn qualification contour line (150 metres below the summit) passes around Scafell which is itself a HuMP.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike's Maquaco Line also encloses three other TuMP summits, Broad Crag, Ill Crag and Great End.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The summit was donated to the National Trust in 1919 by Lord Leconfield "in perpetual memory of the men of the Lake District who fell for God and King, for freedom peace and right in the Great War 1914–1918 ...". There is a better-known war memorial on Great Gable, commemorating the members of the Fell & Rock Climbing Club.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The actual height of Scafell Pike is a matter of definition or guesswork. The highest point is buried beneath a massive summit cairn over 3 metres high and it is not known how high the fabric of the mountain rises under the cairn. Traditionally the height was given as a very memorable 3210 feet or 978.4 metres. The metric height of 978 metres converts to 3209 feet.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike is one of three British peaks climbed as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge, and is the highest ground for over .


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike consists of igneous rock, including breccia, andesite and rhyolite, as well as geothermal tufa, dating from the Ordovician; it is geologically part of the Borrowdale Volcanics and along with the other peaks of the Scafells, forms part of an extinct volcano which was active around 400-450 million years ago.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The rugged summit of Scafell Pike was shaped by glacial erosion of the Last Glacial Maximum (~20,000 YA), during which the Lake District was overlain by ice sheets with thicknesses of several kilometers.


title: Scafell Pike

text: The summit plateau of Scafell Pike, and that of other neighbouring peaks, is covered with shattered rock debris which provides the highest-altitude example of a summit boulder field in England. The boulder field is thought to have been caused in part by weathering, such as frost action. Additional factors are also considered to be important; however, opinion varies as to what these may be. James Clifton Ward suggested that weathering with earthquakes as a secondary agent could be responsible, while John Edward Marr and Reginald Aldworth Daly believed that earthquakes were unnecessary and suggested that frost action with other unspecified agents was more likely. To the north of the summit are a number of high altitude gills which flow into Lingmell Beck. These are good examples in Cumbria for this type of gill and are also biologically important due to their species richness.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike is a popular destination for walkers. There is open access to Scafell and the surrounding fells, with many walking and rock climbing routes. Paths connect the summit with Lingmell Col to the northwest, Mickledore to the southwest, and Esk Hause to the northeast, and these in turn connect with numerous other paths, giving access to walkers from many directions including Wasdale Head to the west, Seathwaite to the north, Langdale to the east, and Eskdale to the southwest. The shortest route is from Wasdale Head, about 80 metres above sea level, where there is a climbers' hotel, the Wasdale Head Inn, made popular in the Victorian period by Owen Glynne Jones and others. According to the National Trust, as of 2014 there were over 100,000 people per year climbing Scafell Pike from Wasdale Head, many as part of the National Three Peaks Challenge.


title: Scafell Pike

text: Scafell Pike was used in 1826 as a station in the Principal Triangulation of Britain by the Ordnance Survey when they fixed the relative positions of Britain and Ireland. Angles between Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland and Scafell Pike were taken from Snowdon in Wales as were angles between Snowdon and Scafell Pike from Slieve Donard. Given the need for clear weather to achieve these very long-range observations (111 miles to Slieve Donard), the Ordnance surveyors spent much of the summer camped on the respective mountain tops. Scafell Pike was not used as a station in the earlier part of the Principal Triangulation of Britain, even though "Sca-Fell" formed one corner of a Principal Triangle. The Ordnance Survey's high precision theodolite was not taken to the summit until 1841.


title: Scafell Pike

text: As the highest ground in England, Scafell Pike has a very extensive view, ranging from the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland to Snowdonia in Wales. On a clear day, the following prominent mountain tops (Marilyns) can be seen the summit.


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: Jiraiya appears in two "Naruto" films, and as a playable character in most of the franchise's video games. Various pieces of merchandise based on him have been released. He has received positive critical reception. Reviewers have praised Jiraiya's introduction in the story and his relation with Naruto as his mentor. Out of all student-teacher relationships in "Naruto", Jiraiya and Naruto's are the ones Kishimoto liked the most. He served as a strong father-figure to Naruto.


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: Manga author Masashi Kishimoto first conceived Jiraiya's name based on Kabuki. He conceptualized him as a wizard with frog-like traits. He gave him an incisive and energetic speech pattern specific to old Kabuki plays. Kishimoto stated that Jiraiya "makes everything more colorful" since he is one of the few characters who enjoy talking. Regarding the bonds in the story, Kishimoto highlighted the importance of the character's death during his fight against Pain; this remark was made since, in his last moments, Jiraiya manages to discover the origin of Pain's multiple bodies and uses his last forces to send a message to Naruto Uzumaki in which he explains how Pain can be defeated. Kishimoto felt he had done a good job of establishing Jiraiya's last moments. He commented that out of all the master-pupil relationships he had created in the "Naruto" series, the bond between Naruto and Jiraiya is his favorite, stating that drawing their interactions was "worthwhile". Jiraiya was one of the characters that resonated the most with the author alongside Naruto, Sasuke Uchiha, and Haku.


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: At the 2015 New York Comic-Con, when asked which character besides Naruto is his favorite, Kishimoto chose Jiraiya. Due to the fans' preference, Kishimoto drew a sketch of Jiraiya in front of the audience at the event. He stated he felt nostalgic since this was the first time he had drawn Jiraiya or any other character in the series for a while. However, Kishimoto did not remember how to draw Jiraiya initially, and thus he used a person among the spectators who was cosplaying Jiraiya as a reference. After being asked which character's point of view he would choose to tell the story from instead of Naruto's if given the possibility, Kishimoto listed Jiraiya as one of his choices. He elaborated on this by stating Jiraiya was not very knowledgeable at a young age, feeling that this aspect would have created an interesting contrast with Jiraiya's "not so much arrogant, but overconfident, blusterous, and very, very skilled" adult self and that the story presenting Jiraiya's development would have been "fun to draw". Kishimoto further mentioned that jutsu was still in the process of developing during Jiraiya's childhood, and he felt this would have been an engaging subject to depict in the series. Jiraiya is played by Hōchū Ōtsuka in the series' original animated adaptation, while David Lodge voices him in the English dub.


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: David Lodge stated that Jiraiya is one of viewers' "favorite characters". When questioned if he is frequently asked to voice Jiraiya in new features since the character is a part of such a popular franchise, he answered affirmatively. Lodge stated that besides being known as the "Toad Sage" due to controlling frogs, Jiraiya is also known as the "Pervy Sage", considering this a "big deal" in Japan due to such content being classified as sensitive. He stated that in the United States, a lot of the things regarding the "Pervy Sage" part had to be restricted. Lodge said that Jiraiya was the best character he had ever played due to having "so many dimensions"; he elaborated by mentioning that while Jiraiya can be "crazy", he can also be a "very serious, philosophical, wise sage". He characterized this aspect of Jiraiya's personality as "fun". He said he had "such a good time" playing Jiraiya, stating he managed to "delve into a character that is more than one-dimensional" in the process of voicing him. Lodge also stated he has "a huge fanbase" for Jiraiya's character. He commented that Jiraiya is his favorite character, characterizing him as "such a grand scope character".


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: Jiraiya is a ninja from the village of Konohagakure trained by Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. He becomes known as the "Toad Sage" due to his training under the Great Toad Sage in the field of , enabling him to summon toads as allies during battles. The Great Toad Sage also informs Jiraiya of a prophecy that he will mentor a child who will either save the world or destroy it. As he grows older, Jiraiya and his two teammates, Orochimaru and Tsunade, are collectively referred to as the "Legendary Sannin" owing to their exemplary ninja abilities allowing them to survive a fight against Hanzo—Amegakure's dictator—during the Second Great Ninja War. Soon after, Jiraiya encounters a trio of Amegakure orphans consisting of Nagato, Yahiko, and Konan, training the three in ninjutsu to protect themselves before returning to the Land of Fire. At that time, Jiraiya considered Nagato to be the child from the Great Toad Sage's prophecy.


title: Jiraiya (Naruto)

text: For most of his adult life, though loyal to Konohagakure, Jiraiya periodically leaves his hometown to explore the world. Sometime later, Jiraiya becomes a mentor to Minato Namikaze, the future Fourth Hokage, who dies due to sealing the Nine-Tailed Fox inside his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki. Jiraiya makes only sporadic appearances, returning to Konohagakure after long absences to report on information he has learned throughout his travels. During his first appearance in the series' Part I, Jiraiya takes the time to train Naruto, teaching him his own signature abilities and trying to help him learn how to control Kurama. When his teacher, Hiruzen, who has resumed his duty as the Third Hokage since Minato's death, dies during an invasion by Orochimaru, Jiraiya is offered the position of Hokage. Despite this, Jiraiya thinks his inability to prevent Orochimaru from becoming a criminal makes him unworthy of the responsibility and instead offers to search for Tsunade so that she can take the position instead—a task he eventually succeeds at. After Naruto's flawed attempt to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha, Jiraiya decides to take the boy for two and a half years of training to make him strong enough to bring Sasuke back and to protect himself from the Akatsuki organization.