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Macartney Embassy

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137-567: The Macartney Embassy ( Chinese : 馬加爾尼使團 ), also called the Macartney Mission , was the first British diplomatic mission to China, which took place in 1793. It is named for its leader, George Macartney , Great Britain's first envoy to China. The goals of the mission included the opening of new ports for British trade in China, the establishment of a permanent embassy in Beijing , the cession of

274-553: A marquess ); and the (alleged) murderer John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan . The oldest earldoms in Scotland (with the exception of the Earldom of Dunbar and March ) originated from the office of mormaer , such as the Mormaer of Fife , of Strathearn , etc.; subsequent earldoms developed by analogy. The principal distinction between earldom and mormaer is that earldoms were granted as fiefs of

411-407: A "boor" and a "laughingstock" if he did not perform the ritual when the time came. Officials also told Macartney in private that the kowtow was just a "mere exterior and unmeaning ceremony" and he should perform it. Nevertheless, Macartney submitted to Zhengrui a written proposal that would satisfy his requirement of equal status: whatever ceremony he performed, a Chinese official of equal rank would do

548-557: A Chinese court official, Heshen , was embezzling state funds and frustrated the mission. Foreign maritime trade in China was regulated through the Canton System , which emerged gradually through a series of imperial edicts in the 17th and 18th centuries. This system channeled formal trade through the Cohong , a guild of thirteen trading companies (known in Cantonese as "hong") selected by

685-682: A French brig which they christened the Clarence , to replace the Jackall . The Jackall itself, however, rejoined the squadron at Jakarta, after having turned back for repairs after the storm that had struck the ships at the start of their voyage. The full squadron sailed on to Macau , where they arrived on 19 June 1793. There, George Staunton disembarked to meet with officials of the East India Company. The two Chinese Catholic priests who had been offered free passage to Macau departed there, along with one of

822-569: A brig, the Jackall . A storm soon hit the squadron, forcing it to stop temporarily at Torbay . After making repairs, the Lion and Hindostan resumed their voyage without the Jackall , which had gone missing in the storm. Fortunately, the gifts to be presented to the emperor were stored on the Lion and the Hindostan . Thomas Staunton spent the voyage studying Chinese with the mission's interpreters. The squadron stopped at Madeira in early October, and at

959-503: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

1096-605: A direct line of communication between the two governments, cutting out the Cantonese merchants who had served as middlemen. Finally, he was to gather intelligence on the Chinese government and society, about which little was known in Europe at the time. The instructions from Dundas also stipulated that Macartney should establish trade relations with other nations of the East. To that effect, Macartney

1233-423: A few exceptions, the default rank of the peerage to which a former prime minister was elevated. The last prime minister to accept an earldom was Harold Macmillan , who became earl of Stockton in 1984. A British earl is entitled to a coronet bearing eight strawberry leaves (four visible) and eight silver balls (or pearls ) around the rim (five visible). The actual coronet is rarely, if ever, worn except at

1370-540: A letter to Macartney from Sir Erasmus Gower, who reported that the ships of the embassy had reached Zhoushan as ordered. Macartney replied with instructions for Gower to continue on to Guangzhou, but Zhengrui secretly forwarded the letter to the emperor at Rehe instead of dispatching it to Zhoushan. Several men aboard the Lion had died of disease in August, and the squadron stopped in Zhoushan to recuperate. Having received word that

1507-464: A military escort. Artists William Alexander and Thomas Hickey would produce drawings and paintings of the mission's events. A group of scientists also accompanied the embassy, led by James Dinwiddie . It was difficult for Macartney to find anyone in Britain who could speak Chinese because it was illegal for Chinese people to teach foreigners. Chinese who taught foreigners their language risked death, as

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1644-493: A minister of public works, and his vice minister Yiling'a. The gifts brought by the embassy were stored amongst other tribute items in the throne room at the Old Summer Palace, which Macartney was the first Briton to visit. Barrow and Dinwiddie were responsible for assembling and arranging the gifts. The most important item, the planetarium, was so complex that it took 18 days to assemble. On 24 August, legate Zhengrui brought

1781-464: A missed opportunity by both sides to explore and understand each other's cultures, customs, diplomatic styles, and ambitions, it also prefigured increasing British pressure on China to accommodate its expanding trading and imperial network. The mutual lack of knowledge and understanding on both sides would continue to plague the Qing dynasty as it encountered increasing foreign pressure and internal unrest during

1918-442: A palanquin, from their residence at 3 AM in the darkness, arriving at the imperial encampment at 4 AM. Macartney was accompanied by servants, musicians, and other representatives. The ceremony was to be held in the imperial tent, a large yellow yurt which contained the emperor's throne at the center of a raised platform. Several thousand attendees were present, including other foreign visitors (from Burma and from Muslim tribes in near

2055-546: A rebellion deposed Tostig and recognised Morcar , the brother of Earl Edwin of Mercia, as Northumbria's new earl. The king accepted this, and Tostig was expelled from England. In 1066, according to the Domesday Book , the Godwin family estates were valued at £7,000, Earl Leofric of Mercia at £2,400, and Earl Siward of Northumbria at £350. In comparison, the king's lands were valued at £5,000. This concentration of land and wealth in

2192-532: A region, the more influence an earl had. The most powerful were the earls of Chester, who by the middle of the 13th century were described as earls palatine . Their power derived from owning most of the land in Cheshire. As a result, the shire court and the earl's honour court were identical, and the sheriff answered to the earl. The earl of Oxford possessed less than an acre of land in Oxfordshire (most of his land

2329-472: A sense of their own status. According to Qianlong, "treated too favorably, a Barbarian becomes arrogant". Instead of the viceroy, Zhengrui would act as the mission's liaison. The mission continued up the Hai River on small boats pulled by men along the shore using ropes and harnesses. It landed at Tongzhou on 16 August. The embassy reached Beijing on 21 August. It was escorted to a residence north of Beijing, near

2466-592: A small island for British use along China's coast, and the relaxation of trade restrictions on British merchants in Guangzhou (Canton). Macartney's delegation met with the Qianlong Emperor , who rejected all of the mission's requests. Although the mission failed to achieve its official objectives, it was later noted for the extensive cultural, political, and geographical observations its participants recorded in China and brought back to Europe. It came to light in 1796 that

2603-601: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of

2740-496: A title (unless he has one in his own right). The eldest son of an earl, though not himself a peer , is entitled to use a courtesy title , usually the highest of his father's lesser titles (if any). For instance, prior to his father's elevation to the Dukedom of Edinburgh, the eldest son of the Earl of Wessex was styled as James, Viscount Severn . The eldest son of the eldest son of an earl

2877-596: A training ground for new earls. Nevertheless, the earldoms of Wessex and Mercia were becoming hereditary. For four generations, Mercia was passed from father to son: Leofwine , Leofric , Ælfgar , and Edwin . To reward Godwin for his support, Edward made his eldest son, Sweyn , an earl in 1043. Harold , Godwin's second oldest son, was made the earl of East Anglia. In 1045, an earldom was created for Godwin's nephew, Beorn Estrithson . After Sweyn left England in disgrace in 1047, some of his estates were taken over by Harold and Beorn. Ralf of Mantes , Edward's Norman nephew,

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3014-445: A tributary mission to select its own port of arrival. The British officials pointed out, however, that the ships carried many large, precious items that might be damaged if taken overland. Moreover, as the governor noted in his report to the emperor, the embassy had journeyed a great distance, and would be greatly delayed if sent back to Guangzhou from Tianjin. The Qianlong Emperor agreed to the request, and instructed his officials to lead

3151-850: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

3288-541: Is cognate with the Scandinavian form jarl . After the Norman Conquest , it became the equivalent of the continental count . In Scotland, it assimilated the concept of mormaer . Since the 1960s, earldoms have typically been created only for members of the royal family . The last non-royal earldom, Earl of Stockton , was created in 1984 for Harold Macmillan , prime minister from 1957 to 1963. Alternative names for

3425-421: Is entitled to use one of his grandfather's lesser titles, normally the second-highest of the lesser titles. Younger sons are styled The Honourable [ Forename ] [ Surname ], and daughters, The Lady [ Forename ] [ Surname ] ( Lady Diana Spencer being a well-known example). There is no difference between the courtesy titles given to the children of earls and the children of countesses in their own right, provided

3562-494: Is now regarded as the most corrupt official in Chinese history. The Jiaqing Emperor realised this in 1796 after the abdication of Qianlong and forced him to commit suicide. As an official, Heshen acquired silver worth an estimated US$ 270 billion. Heshen's insistence that the British pay for tea in silver would frustrate trade for the next half century. As was typical of imperial edicts, the letter contained commentary in vermilion ink by

3699-409: Is written. A banquet was then held to conclude the day's events. The British were seated on the emperor's left, in the most prestigious position. Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce. Despite this dismissal, Qianlong had noted

3836-483: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

3973-490: The Canary Islands later that same month. On 1 November, they arrived at Cape Verde . After waiting five days for the Jackall , they continued on their journey. The crew of Lion and Hindostan believed that the ship was wrecked, but it actually survived and would reunite with the other ships later. Macartney bought another ship to replace the Jackall . The trade winds off the coast of Africa forced them to sail west all

4110-575: The Caspian Sea ), viceroy Liang Kentang and the emperor's son, the future Jiaqing Emperor . The emperor arrived at 7, presiding as khan over the proceedings. Macartney entered the tent along with George and Thomas Staunton, and their Chinese interpreter. The others waited outside. Macartney stepped up to the platform first, kneeling once, exchanging gifts with Qianlong and presenting King George III's letter. King George's letter had been translated into Chinese by European missionaries in China. They had made

4247-580: The Kensiu language . Earl Earl ( / ɜːr l , ɜːr əl / ) is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom . In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the peerage , ranking below a marquess and above a viscount . A feminine form of earl never developed; instead, countess is used. The title originates in the Old English word eorl , meaning "a man of noble birth or rank". The word

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4384-523: The Lion and Hindostan to return to Zhoushan at Macartney's request. He also informed Macartney that the meeting with the emperor was to take place at the Chengde Mountain Resort in Rehe (Jehol), rather than in the capital (Beijing) as the British delegation had expected. The embassy continued to Tianjin, where it arrived on 11 August. Macartney and Staunton attended a banquet with viceroy Liang and

4521-505: The Manchu legate Zhengrui, who stipulated that all gifts were to be brought to Rehe and laid at the emperor's feet in accordance with protocol. However, Macartney convinced the viceroy to permit some of the gifts to be left in Beijing to avoid damaging them on the journey to Rehe. The imperial court had advised Liang not to accompany Macartney to the capital, so as to avoid giving the British too high

4658-480: The North Sea Empire , extended beyond England, forcing him to delegate power to earls. Earls were governors or viceroys , ruling in the king's name, keeping the peace, dispensing justice, and raising armies. Like the earlier ealdormen, they received the third penny from their jurisdictions. Earls ranked above thegns in precedence and were the chief counselors in the witan (king's council). The office of earl

4795-510: The Old Norse word jarl . Proto-Norse eril , or the later Old Norse jarl , came to signify the rank of a leader. The Norman -derived equivalent count (from Latin comes ) was not introduced following the Norman Conquest of England though countess was and is used for the female title. Geoffrey Hughes writes, "It is a likely speculation that the Norman French title 'Count'

4932-571: The Old Summer Palace . The British were not permitted to leave the premises for the duration of their stay. Wanting to be closer to China's political centre, Macartney received permission from Zhengrui to move to a different residence in Beijing, which had been intended to house the embassy after the meeting with the emperor. In Beijing, responsibility for the embassy on the Chinese side would be shared between Zhengrui and two other officials: Jin Jian (金簡),

5069-462: The Peerage of Ireland . Notable among those who agreed to this policy of " surrender and regrant " were Ulick na gCeann Burke, 1st Earl of Clanricarde , Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Thomond , Donald McCarthy, 1st Earl of Clancare , Rory O'Donnell, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell , Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim and Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone . The earls of Tyrone and Tyrconnell later rebelled against

5206-592: The Pontificio Collegio Urbano de Propaganda Fide , which trained Chinese boys brought home by missionaries in Christianity. The two wanted to return home to China, to whom Staunton offered free passage to Macau. The 100-member delegation also included scholars and valets. Among those who had called for a mission to China was Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet , President of the Royal Society . Banks had been

5343-538: The Portuguese , whose Jesuit missionaries retained permanent positions at the imperial court. Macartney was instructed to negotiate a relaxation of the Canton System, such that British traders could operate in more ports and markets, and to obtain a small island on the Chinese coast from which British merchants could operate under British jurisdiction. He was also to establish a permanent embassy in Beijing so as to create

5480-495: The Qing dynasty at its zenith, was wary of the transformations of Chinese society that might result from unrestricted foreign access. Chinese subjects were not permitted to teach the Chinese language to foreigners, and European traders were forbidden to bring women into China. By the late 18th century, British traders felt confined by the Canton System and, in an attempt to gain greater trade rights, they lobbied for an embassy to go before

5617-608: The Royal Artillery made a survey of the Great Wall's fortifications with his men, thereby contributing to the intelligence-gathering aspect of the mission, though at the expense of arousing suspicion among their Chinese hosts. Some of the men, meanwhile, took bricks from the Wall as souvenirs. Past the Great Wall, the terrain became more mountainous and difficult for the men's horses to traverse, slowing their progress. The entourage arrived at

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5754-622: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

5891-699: The botanist on board HMS Endeavour for the first voyage of Captain James Cook , as well as the driving force behind the 1787 expedition of HMS Bounty to Tahiti . Banks, who had been growing tea plants privately since 1780, had ambitions to gather valuable plants from all over the world to be studied at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and the newly established Calcutta Botanical Garden in Bengal . Above all, he wanted to grow tea in Bengal or Assam , and address

6028-444: The coronation of a new monarch, but in heraldry an earl may bear his coronet of rank on his coat of arms above the shield. An earl has the title Earl of [X] when the title originates from a placename, or Earl [X] when the title comes from a surname. In either case, he is referred to as Lord [X] , and his wife as Lady [X] . A countess who holds an earldom in her own right also uses Lady [X] , but her husband does not have

6165-735: The earl of Gloucester . After the Conquest, new earldoms tended to be named for the city and castle in which they were based. Some titles became attached to the family name rather than location. For example, the holder of the earldom of Surrey was more commonly called "Earl Warenne". The same was true of the earldom of Buckingham , whose holder was called "Earl Gifford". These earls may have preferred to be known by family names that were older and more prestigious than their newer territorial designations. The number of earls rose from seven in 1135 to twenty in 1141 as King Stephen ( r.  1135–1154 ) created twelve new earls to reward supporters during

6302-469: The "immense debt of silver" caused by the tea trade. At this time, botanists were not yet aware that a variety of the tea plant ( camellia sinensis var. assamica ) was already growing natively in Assam, a fact that Robert Bruce was to discover in 1823. Banks advised the embassy to gather as many plants as possible in their travels, especially tea plants. He also insisted that gardeners and artists be present on

6439-415: The 13th century earls had a social rank just below the king and princes, but were not necessarily more powerful or wealthier than other noblemen. The only way to become an earl was to inherit the title or to marry into one—and the king reserved a right to prevent the transfer of the title. By the 14th century, creating an earl included a special public ceremony where the king personally tied a sword belt around

6576-596: The 1990s of a fuller range of archival documents concerning the visit, these claims have been challenged. One historian characterized the emperor and his court as "clearly clever and competent political operators", and concluded that they acted within the formal Qing claims to universal rule; they reacted prudently to reports of British expansion in India by placating the British with unspecified promises in order to avoid military conflicts and loss of trade. Qianlong also said that he could have revoked Britain's existing privileges due to

6713-468: The 19th century. Although the Macartney Embassy returned to London without obtaining any concession from China, the mission could be termed a success in that it brought back detailed observations of a great empire. The painter William Alexander accompanied the embassy, and published numerous engravings based on his watercolours. Sir George Staunton was charged with producing the official account of

6850-586: The Anarchy , the civil war fought with his cousin Empress Matilda for the English throne. In 1138, Stephen created eight new earldoms: In 1140, Roumare was given the earldom of Lincoln in exchange for Cambridge, and William d'Aubigny received the earldom of Sussex (commonly known as Arundel) . The same year, Geoffrey de Mandeville was made earl of Essex , and his is the oldest surviving charter of creation. Around

6987-566: The British ships and transferred upstream to Dagu by junks . From there, they were unloaded again onto smaller boats to Tongzhou , the endpoint of the Grand Canal . Macartney and his group continued separately to Dagu on the smallest British ships, the Jackall , the Clarence , and the Endeavour . On 6 August, Macartney and Staunton met with Liang Kentang (梁肯堂), Viceroy of Zhili , who had traveled from Baoding to see them. Liang agreed to permit

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7124-521: The British ships were beset with illness, Qianlong instructed the viceroy of Zhejiang to ensure the British were quarantined at Zhoushan. The court reprimanded Zhengrui regarding his forwarding of Macartney's letter. An imperial edict written by Heshen , a member of the Grand Council and a favourite of the emperor, stipulated that Zhengrui was not to make reports alone without the signatures of Jin Jian and Yiling'a, nor make decisions unilaterally. Heshen

7261-449: The British visitors, and the governor did so. However, Chinese officials had not anticipated that the British intended to sail the high seas rather than hopping from port to port in shallow waters along the coast, as was typical of Chinese vessels. They expressed surprise at the size and speed of the British ships. Anticipating that these vessels with their deep hulls would not be able to proceed upstream past Tianjin, they hired boats to carry

7398-491: The Chinese side on the details of the ceremonies and rituals to be performed at the meeting between Macartney and the emperor of China. Dundas had instructed Macartney to accept "all ceremonials of the Court which may not commit the honour of your Sovereign or lessen your own dignity", and not to let any "trifling punctilio" get in the way of the mission. The ritual of the kowtow , which requires an individual to kneel with both knees on

7535-512: The Conqueror ( r.  1066–1087 ) reduced the size of earldoms; those created after 1071 had responsibility for one shire. Like Norman counts, earls became military governors assigned to vulnerable border or coastal areas. To protect the Welsh Marches , the king made Roger de Montgomery the earl of Shrewsbury and Hugh d'Avranches the earl of Chester (see Marcher Lord ) . Likewise,

7672-456: The Emperor. Macartney became more hostile and negative towards China in his later writings, saying China's power was an illusion and that Qing China would decline and eventually collapse. Macartney predicted that China might collapse within his lifetime. The Macartney Embassy is historically significant for many reasons, most of them visible only in retrospect. While to a modern sensibility it marked

7809-661: The King, while mormaers were virtually independent. The earl is thought to have been introduced by the anglophile king David I . While the power attached to the office of earl was swept away in England by the Norman Conquest, in Scotland earldoms retained substantial powers, such as regality throughout the Middle Ages. It is important to distinguish between the land controlled directly by

7946-547: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

8083-521: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

8220-770: The aftermath of the Jacobite rising , the Heritable Jurisdictions Act brought the powers of the remaining ancient earldoms under the control of the sheriffs; earl is now simply a noble rank. Some of the most significant Earls ( Welsh : ieirll , singular iarll ) in Welsh history were those from the West of England. As Wales remained independent of any Norman jurisdiction, the more powerful Earls in England were encouraged to invade and establish effective " buffer states " to be run as autonomous lordships . These Marcher Lords included

8357-459: The authority to choose his companions. Macartney chose George Staunton as his right-hand man, whom he entrusted to continue the mission should Macartney himself prove unable to do so. Staunton brought along his son, Thomas , who served the mission as a page. John Barrow (later Sir John Barrow, 1st Baronet) served as the embassy's comptroller. Joining the mission were two doctors ( Hugh Gillan and William Scott), two secretaries, three attachés, and

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8494-400: The centuries wore on, the term earl came to be disassociated from the office, and later kings started granting the title of earl without it, and gradually without even an associated comitatus . By the 16th century there started to be earls of towns, of villages, and even of isolated houses; it had simply become a label for marking status, rather than an office of intrinsic power. In 1746, in

8631-407: The compromises and concessions they had made. The failure of the primary objectives was not due to Macartney's refusal to kowtow in the presence of the Emperor, as is sometimes believed. It was also not a result of the Chinese reliance on tradition in dictating foreign policy, but rather a result of competing world views which were uncomprehending and to some extent incompatible. After the conclusion of

8768-597: The crown and were forced to flee Ireland in 1607; their departure, along with about ninety followers, is famed in Irish history as the Flight of the Earls , seen as the ultimate demise of native Irish monarchy. Ireland became part of the United Kingdom in 1801, and the last Irish earldom was created in 1824. The Republic of Ireland does not recognise titles of nobility. Notable later Irish earls include Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan ; Postmaster General Richard Trench, 2nd Earl of Clancarty ; Prime Minister William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (later made

8905-618: The ealdorman to be the chief officer in a shire . He commanded the local fyrd and presided over the shire court alongside the bishop . As compensation, he received the third penny : one-third of the shire court's profits and the boroughs ' revenues. Initially, the ealdorman governed a single shire. Starting with Edward the Elder ( r.  899–924 ), it became customary for one ealdorman to administer three or four shires together as an ealdormanry. During Cnut 's reign (1016–1035), ealdorman changed to earl (related to Old English eorl and Scandinavian jarl ). Cnut's realm,

9042-401: The earl, in a landlord-like sense, and the region over which he could exercise his office. Scottish use of Latin terms provincia and comitatus makes the difference clear. Initially these terms were synonymous, as in England, but by the 12th century they were seen as distinct concepts, with comitatus referring to the land under direct control of the earl, and provincia referring to

9179-402: The earls of Chester , Gloucester , Hereford , Pembroke and Shrewsbury (see also English Earls of March ). The first Earldoms created within Wales were the Lordship of Glamorgan (a comital title) and the Earldom of Pembroke . Tir Iarll (English: Earl's land ) is an area of Glamorgan , which has traditionally had a particular resonance in Welsh culture . An earldom became, with

9316-450: The effort. Dundas and Macartney prioritised national interests over those of the company, which feared the loss of its monopoly position, and the possibility that the embassy would strain diplomatic relations instead of improving them. By sending a direct representative of the British crown, British politician and later Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville reasoned that the mission would be given greater attention than if it had been sent "only in

9453-443: The embassy to him with the utmost civility. The emperor's response was brought back to Guangzhou by General Fuk'anggan , Viceroy of Liangguang , who had recently returned after fighting in the Sino-Nepalese War . The embassy departed Macao on 23 June. It stopped in Zhoushan, where Staunton went ashore to meet with the military governor of Dinghai . The emperor had sent instructions to every port in China to provide pilots to guide

9590-422: The embassy's arrival in Chengde), was that Macartney could perform a single prostration in lieu of the nine typically called for. However, Staunton submitted Macartney's proposal to Heshen the day after their arrival, reiterating the British stance on the issue. With no agreement in sight and the ceremony only days away, Qianlong grew increasingly impatient, and considered scrapping the meeting altogether. Finally, it

9727-454: The embassy, Qianlong sent a letter to King George III, explaining in greater depth the reasons for his refusal to grant the several requests presented to the Chinese emperor by Macartney. The requests had included a call for the relaxation of the restrictions on trade between Britain and China, the acquisition by Britain of "a small unfortified island near Chusan for the residence of British traders, storage of goods, and outfitting of ships"; and

9864-442: The emperor and request changes to the current arrangements. The need for an embassy was partly due to the growing trade imbalance between China and Great Britain, driven largely by the British demand for tea , as well as other Chinese products like porcelain and silk . The East India Company , whose trade monopoly in the East encompassed the tea trade, was obliged by the Qing government to pay for Chinese tea with silver. To address

10001-416: The emperor's edicts by leaving the room when such messages were received. For Macartney, one sticking point was the relative status of the two sovereigns, George III and Qianlong. Macartney believed that Britain was now the most powerful nation on Earth. However, as a diplomat, he had decided that whatever ceremony he participated in must present the two monarchs as equals, and thus he would only show Qianlong

10138-446: The emperor's own hand. Calling Zhengrui "contemptible and ridiculous", Qianlong ordered him to send Macartney's letter to the viceroy of Zhejiang so the British vessels could leave Zhoushan. All members of the embassy except Barrow and Dinwiddie were moved to their new quarters in central Beijing on 26 August, as Macartney had requested. Having left behind the planetarium and other gifts at the Old Summer Palace, about seventy members of

10275-442: The establishment of a permanent British embassy in Beijing. However, Qianlong's letter's continuing reference to all Europeans as "barbarians", his assumption of all nations of the earth as being subordinate to China, and his final words commanding King George III to "...Tremblingly obey and show no negligence!" used the standard imperial sign off as if the king were a Chinese subject. Historians both in China and abroad long presented

10412-468: The estate had to be divided between five co-heirs (the two daughters of his eldest sister and his three surviving sisters). Before the land could be divided, King Alexander II of Scotland claimed the earldom of Huntingdon. While the king's council dismissed this claim, the Scottish king was granted the lands attached to Huntingdon but not the title. This reduced the land available to John's co-heirs and created

10549-458: The expedition after their return. This multi-volume work was taken chiefly from the papers of Lord Macartney and from the papers of Sir Erasmus Gower , who was Commander of the expedition. Sir Joseph Banks was responsible for selecting and arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record. The Macartney Embassy comprised about a hundred people, including: Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are

10686-452: The expedition to make observations and illustrations of local flora. Accordingly, David Stronach and John Haxton served as the embassy's botanical gardeners. Henry Dundas laid out his goals for the mission in Macartney's official instructions. More British subjects had been trading in China than any other Europeans. Despite this, the British had no direct contact with the emperor, in contrast to

10823-417: The failure of the mission to achieve its goals as a symbol of China's refusal to change and inability to modernize. They explain the refusal first on the fact that interaction with foreign kingdoms was limited to neighbouring tributary states . Furthermore, the worldviews on the two sides were incompatible, China holding entrenched beliefs that China was the " central kingdom ". However, after the publication in

10960-455: The ground and bow so as to touch their forehead to the ground, presented a particular dilemma. The kowtow was required not only when meeting the emperor, but also when receiving imperial edicts from his messengers. While Portuguese and Dutch merchants in Canton (now Guangzhou) had acquiesced to the ritual, British subjects, who regarded the act as slavish and humiliating, generally avoided kowtowing to

11097-502: The hands of the earls, and one family in particular, weakened the Crown's authority. The situation was reversed when Harold Godwinson became king, and he was able to restore the Crown's authority. The Norman Conquest of 1066 introduced a new Anglo-Norman aristocracy that gradually replaced the old Anglo-Saxon elite. In Normandy , a duchy in the Kingdom of France , the equivalent of an earl

11234-645: The imperial government. In 1725, the Yongzheng Emperor gave the Cohong legal responsibility over commerce in Guangzhou. By the 18th century, Guangzhou, known as Canton to British merchants at the time, had become the most active port in the China trade, thanks partly to its convenient access to the Pearl River Delta . In 1757, the Qianlong Emperor confined all foreign maritime trade to Guangzhou. Qianlong, who ruled

11371-474: The inland route partially because of precious items on the boat, but he also wanted to use the mission to explore the Yellow Sea for future missions. Representatives of the East India Company met with the military governor of Guangdong ahead of Macartney's arrival, in order to request permission for the embassy to land at Tianjin instead of Guangzhou. The governor at first refused, as it was considered improper for

11508-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

11645-406: The king's behavior, but he would not. He said he felt sympathy for England because it is remote and ignorant of the great Chinese civilization. This angered the king and the public in England. Critics in England said the problem with the embassy was that it "acknowledged the inferiority of its country [England]". Macartney himself became ridiculed, with caricatures showing him debasing himself before

11782-702: The king's half-brother Odo of Bayeux was made earl of Kent to guard the English Channel . After the Revolt of the Earls in 1075, only four earldoms remained, all held by Anglo-Normans: Kent, Shrewsbury, Chester, and Northumbria. This number was reduced to three after 1082 when Odo of Bayeux was arrested and deprived of Kent. At the death of William Rufus in 1100, there were five earldoms: Chester, Shrewsbury, Surrey (or Warrenne), Warwick , and Huntingdon – Northampton . In 1122, Henry I made his illegitimate son Robert

11919-496: The king's interests in the region, thus being more like a coroner . As such, a parallel system of justice arose, between that provided by magnates (represented by the earls), and that by the king (represented by sheriffs), in a similar way to England having both Courts Baron and Magistrates , respectively. Inevitably, this led to a degree of forum shopping , with the king's offering – the Sheriff – gradually winning. As in England, as

12056-570: The king's name. However, they were developing more autonomy and becoming a threat to royal power. Three great aristocratic families had emerged: the Godwins of Wessex, Leofric of Mercia , and Siward of Northumbria . In theory, earls could be removed by the king. Edward deliberately broke the hereditary succession to Northumbria when Earl Siward died in 1055. He ignored the claims of Siward's son, Waltheof , and appointed Tostig Godwinson as earl. The earldom of East Anglia appears to have been used as

12193-568: The lands attached to the Chester earldom through a series of land exchanges with the co-heirs. In 1227, Henry III ( r.  1216–1272 ) granted his justiciar and chief minister , Hubert de Burgh , the earldom of Kent. The terms of inheritance were unprecedented: the earldom was to pass to Hubert's son by his third wife Margaret of Scotland , thereby passing over his eldest son by his first wife. It may have been thought that Margaret's royal blood made her children more worthy of inheritance. By

12330-457: The letter more respectful towards the Emperor by removing references to Christianity and turning the letter into Honorific form (so the word "emperor" is written larger). He was followed by George Staunton, and finally Thomas Staunton. As Thomas had studied the Chinese language, the emperor beckoned him to speak a few words (Thomas said in his diary that he thanked the emperor for the gifts). The British were followed by other envoys, about whom little

12467-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

12604-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

12741-975: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

12878-421: The military superiority implied by several gifts: six brass cannon, a flintlock with an advanced firing mechanism and a model of HMS Royal Sovereign. The gifts that might really have shifted Chinese perceptions were steel and steam: locomotives and steel rails would dramatically increase the productivity of Britain in a few years time. The flexibility of steel swords was noted by courtiers, but the model steam engine

13015-617: The mission and its cargo to the capital. The East Indiaman Endeavour was sent to pilot the ships of the embassy to Tianjin, and joined the squadron when it reached the Yellow Sea . The mission arrived at the mouth of the Hai River (known as the Pei Ho in European sources of the time) on 25 July, and dropped anchor, finding the muddy water impassable for the larger vessels. The gifts were unloaded from

13152-485: The mission, among them forty soldiers, departed Beijing on 2 September, heading north towards Jehol, where the Qianlong Emperor awaited. The mission proceeded alongside a road reserved for the emperor alone, stopping each night at one of the lodges prepared for the emperor's use along the way. Guard posts punctuated the route at roughly five mile intervals, and Macartney observed a large number of troops working to repair

13289-505: The name of a trading company". One of the goals of the embassy was to demonstrate the utility of British science and technology, in hopes of encouraging Chinese purchases of British goods. In keeping with these objectives, the mission was to bring with it a number of gifts including clocks, telescopes, weapons, textiles, and other products of technology. Macartney intended the display of technical prowess to reflect Britain's "national character", one of ingenuity, exploration, and curiosity about

13426-709: The natural world. Nevertheless, Dundas reminded him that the mission was not "a delegation of the Royal Society ". The delegation departed Portsmouth aboard three ships on 26 September 1792. The warship HMS Lion , commanded by Captain Sir Erasmus Gower , led the mission. The Hindostan , belonging to the East India Company (and later purchased by the Royal Navy as HMS Hindostan ), was commanded by Captain William Mackintosh. These two vessels were accompanied by

13563-483: The office rather than the officeholder. Stephen Baxter argued that given the evidence, it must be "assumed that the 'comital manors' in each shire could be transferred by the king from one earl to another with relative ease". However, not all scholars agree with the existence of such "comital" property. During the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), the earls were still royal officers governing their earldoms in

13700-665: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

13837-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

13974-577: The outskirts of Chengde on 8 September. It was the practice of the Manchu emperors of the Qing dynasty to lead a ritual hunting expedition north of the Great Wall each autumn. During the reign of Qianlong's grandfather Kangxi, an imperial city was built near the hunting grounds at Chengde to house the emperor and his entourage while he was away from Beijing. It was at Chengde that Qing emperors often greeted foreign dignitaries, particularly Inner Asians who represented vassal states. Here too, Macartney's embassy

14111-434: The possibility of an earl who was virtually landless. Earl Ranulf had been the greatest landholder in England, but after two partitions in five years, the land granted to each co-heir was small. William de Forz , husband of the senior co-heir, argued that as a county palatine the earldom of Chester should not be partitioned, but this argument was rejected by the king's court. Ultimately, the king himself gained possession of all

14248-539: The power of earls. He confiscated or demolished illegal castles. He reduced the number of earldoms by allowing them to die with their holders and did not create new ones. During his reign, "the title became a mark of rank, rather than a substantive office: the real power lay with the king's sheriffs and justices." The real power possessed by any individual earl in this period depended on the amount of land and wealth he possessed that could be translated into patronage and influence. The more land and resources concentrated in

14385-825: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

14522-521: The province; hence, the comitatus might now only be a small region of the provincia . Thus, unlike England, the term county , which ultimately evolved from the Latin comitatus , was not historically used for Scotland's main political subdivisions. Sheriffs were introduced at a similar time to earls, but unlike England, where sheriffs were officers who implemented the decisions of the shire court, in Scotland they were specifically charged with upholding

14659-491: The rank equivalent to "earl" or "count" in the nobility structure are used in other countries, such as the hakushaku (伯爵) of the post-restoration Japanese Imperial era . In the 7th century, the common Old English terms for nobility was eorl or eorlcund man . However, this was later replaced by the term thegn . In the 11th century, under Danish influence, the Old English title ealdorman became earl , from

14796-543: The road in preparation for the emperor's return to Beijing later in the year. The group crossed the Great Wall of China at Gubeikou , where they were greeted by ceremonial gunfire and several companies of troops from the Eight Banners of the Qing military. William Alexander, who stayed behind in Beijing, expressed regret at being unable to see the Wall for himself. Under Macartney's orders, Lieutenant Henry William Parish of

14933-461: The same before a portrait of George III. He believed it demeaning that Britain would have to go through the same rituals (and be seen as equal to) Chinese vassal states like Korea. Zhengrui objected to this proposal, on the grounds that this notion of reciprocal equality was incompatible with the Chinese view of the emperor as the Son of Heaven , who had no equal. According to such a view, the British embassy

15070-522: The same level of respect he would show his own king (he saw the Kowtow as too excessive). Throughout his meetings with Chinese officials, Macartney was repeatedly urged to perform the kowtow during his audience with the emperor. In one message to legate Zhengrui and viceroy Liang Kentang during Macartney's stay in Tianjin, Heshen had instructed the two men to inform Britain's representative that he would be regarded as

15207-517: The same time, Hugh Bigod was made earl of Norfolk . In February 1141, Stephen was captured at the Battle of Lincoln , and Empress Matilda elected "Lady of the English" in April. At this time, she created three earldoms for her own supporters. Her illegitimate brother Reginald de Dunstanville was made earl of Cornwall . Baldwin de Redvers was made earl of Devon , and William de Mohun , lord of Dunster ,

15344-443: The shire also limited the autonomy of the earls. They could not raise taxation, mint coins, issue charters , or hold their own courts (the shire courts that earls presided over were held in the king's name). F. W. Maitland wrote, "with the estates of the earls, we find it impossible to distinguish between private property and official property". He noted the existence of " manors of the shire" and "comital vills " that belonged to

15481-435: The tenure of earldorman Ælfhere), which he had held since 1007. Cnut gave Godwin the earldom of Wessex in 1018. Eventually Godwin was also granted the earldom of Kent . Thorkell vanished from the records after 1023, and Godwin became the leading earl. Earldoms were not permanent territorial divisions; kings could transfer shires from one earldom to another. The fact that there was no local government administration beyond

15618-451: The trade deficit, efforts were made to find British products that could be sold to the Chinese. At the time of Macartney's mission to China, the East India Company was beginning to grow opium in India to sell in China. The company made a concerted effort starting in the 1780s to finance the tea trade with opium. Macartney, who had served in India as Governor of Madras (present-day Chennai ),

15755-627: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

15892-970: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

16029-473: The two priests from Naples, leaving only one Chinese interpreter with the mission. For the next leg of the trip, Macartney and Dundas had intended to avoid Guangzhou altogether. Instead of proceeding overland from there, the plan was for the embassy to continue by sea to Tianjin , the closest major port to Beijing. Such a route had never been charted by European sailors as all trade had been through Guangzhou. Macartney wanted to continue to Tianjin instead of taking

16166-509: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

16303-460: The voyage, however, and died just before his ship, HMS Vestal , reached China. After the failure of the Cathcart Embassy, Macartney proposed that another attempt be made under his friend Sir George Staunton . Dundas, who had become Home Secretary, suggested in 1791 that Macartney himself take up the mission instead. Macartney accepted on the condition that he would be made an earl , and given

16440-458: The waist of the new earl, emphasizing the fact that the earl's rights came from him. Earls still held influence and, as "companions of the king", generally acted in support of the king's power. They showed their own power prominently in 1327 when they deposed King Edward II . They would later do the same with other kings of whom they disapproved. In 1337 Edward III declared that he intended to create six new earldoms . The first Irish earldom

16577-632: The way to Rio de Janeiro , where they arrived at the end of November. Macartney suffered an attack of gout which lasted a month. As young Thomas Staunton studied the Chinese language, Macartney learned everything he could about China from the books he had placed in the Lion' s library. The expedition departed Rio de Janeiro on 17 December and sailed east once more, rounding the Cape of Good Hope on 7 January 1793. They passed Java in February, and reached Jakarta (then known as Batavia) on 6 March. There, they bought

16714-571: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

16851-496: Was a count . The definition and powers of French counts varied widely. Some counts were nearly independent rulers who gave only nominal loyalty to the King of France . In Normandy, counts were junior members of the Norman dynasty with responsibility for guarding border regions. In 1066, there were three Norman counts: Richard of Évreux , Robert of Eu , and Robert of Mortain . William

16988-588: Was abandoned in England in favour of the Germanic 'Earl' [...] precisely because of the uncomfortable phonetic proximity to cunt ". In the other languages of Great Britain and Ireland, the term is translated as: Welsh iarll , Irish and Scottish Gaelic iarla , Scots erle , eirle or earle , Cornish yurl, yarl, yerl . The office of earl evolved from the ealdorman, an office within Anglo-Saxon government . The English king appointed

17125-402: Was agreed that Macartney would genuflect before the emperor as he would before his own sovereign, touching one knee to the ground, although without the usual hand kissing , as it was not customary for anyone to kiss the emperor's hand. He would do this in addition to the single prostration. The meeting with the Qianlong Emperor took place on 14 September. The British set off, with Macartney in

17262-562: Was ambivalent about selling the drug to the Chinese, preferring to substitute "rice or any better production in its place". An official embassy would provide an opportunity to introduce new British products to the Chinese market, which the East India Company had been criticised for failing to do. In 1787, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and East India Company official Henry Dundas dispatched Colonel Charles Cathcart to serve as Britain's first ambassador to China. Cathcart became ill during

17399-431: Was created the earl of Winchester in 1207. This was the first new hereditary earldom created since the reign of Stephen. An earldom could be dramatically impacted upon by multiple partitions. In 1232, Ranulf de Blondeville, 6th Earl of Chester died childless. His lands were divided between his four sisters with the title going to the eldest's son, John of Scotland, Earl of Huntingdon . John died in 1237, and once again

17536-448: Was given letters of credence to the Emperor of Japan , to be executed after completing his mission to China. The instructions stated that it may be useful for him to visit Japan to establish trade relations, particularly to enable a trade in tea . Despite the misgivings of the East India Company about the potential downsides of the mission, the company was compelled by the government to fund

17673-569: Was in Essex), and therefore possessed no power in the county. An earldom along with its land was inherited generally according to primogeniture . If the only heirs were female, then the land would be partitioned equally between co-heirs with the eldest co-heir receiving the title. In 1204, Robert de Beaumont, 4th Earl of Leicester , died without children. His heirs were his sisters, Amice and Margaret. Amice's son, Simon de Montfort , succeeded as earl of Leicester, and Margaret's husband, Saer de Quincy ,

17810-533: Was made earl of Hereford , a territory formerly part of Sweyn's earldom. In 1053, Harold succeeded his father, and Ælfgar, son of Earl Leofric, became earl of East Anglia. A major reshuffle occurred after both Leofric and Ralf died in 1057. Ælfgar succeeded his father in Mercia, and Gyrth Godwinson took East Anglia. An earldom was created for Leofwine Godwinson out of the south-eastern shires belonging to Harold. In exchange, Harold received Ralf's earldom. In 1065,

17947-572: Was made earl of Somerset . Aubrey de Vere was made earl of Oxford in 1142. Sometime around 1143, Matilda's constable Patrick of Salisbury was made earl of Salisbury . During the Anarchy, earls took advantage of the power vacuum to assume Crown rights. Robert of Gloucester, Patrick of Salisbury, Robert of Leicester , and Henry of Northumbria all minted their own coinage. Earls and barons had also built adulterine castles (castles built without royal permission). It fell to Stephen's successor Henry II ( r.  1154–1189 ) to again curtail

18084-494: Was not hereditary. While sons of earls could expect to inherit their father's office, this was not automatic. Only the king could make someone an earl. Initially, Cnut kept Wessex for himself and divided the rest of England into three earldoms. He gave the earldom of East Anglia to Thorkell the Tall and the earldom of Northumbria to Eric . Eadric Streona retained the earldom of Mercia (having been unified with western Mercia in

18221-426: Was not unpacked. Instead it was given to Dinwiddie to show off in India. China would not acquire advanced steel production until several decades into Mao Zedong 's premiership in the People's Republic of China period. Although ultimately unsuccessful in its primary objectives, the circumstances surrounding the mission provided ample opportunity for both British and Chinese parties to feel totally satisfied about

18358-459: Was regarded officially as a tribute mission like any other. Despite Macartney and Staunton's insistence that the items the embassy brought were "gifts", Chinese officials saw them as "tribute" items. Macartney himself was to be seen as only a "conveyor of tribute", not a "legate of the sovereign" as he had earlier referred to himself which annoyed the emperor. Qianlong's compromise on the issue, stated in an edict dated 8   September (the day of

18495-579: Was the Earl of Ulster , granted to the Norman knight Hugh de Lacy in 1205 by John , King of England and Lord of Ireland . Other early earldoms were Earl of Carrick (1315), Earl of Kildare (1316), Earl of Desmond (1329) and Earl of Waterford (1446, extant). After the Tudor reconquest of Ireland (1530s–1603), native Irish kings and clan chiefs were encouraged to submit to the English king (now also King of Ireland ) and were, in return, granted noble titles in

18632-646: Was the case with the teacher of James Flint , a merchant who broke protocol by complaining directly to Qianlong about corrupt officials in Canton. Macartney did not want to rely on native interpreters, as was the custom in Canton. The mission brought along four Chinese Catholic priests as interpreters. Two were from the Collegium Sinicum in Naples , where George Staunton had recruited them: Paolo Cho ( 周保羅 ) and Jacobus Li ( 李雅各 ; 李自標 ; Li Zibiao ). They were familiar with Latin, but not English. The other two were priests at

18769-489: Was to meet Qianlong on the occasion of the emperor's birthday. Qianlong called off the hunt to return to Chengde for the ceremonies, as he had done previously in 1754 and 1780 for the visits of Amursana and the Sixth Panchen Lama , respectively (the latter on the occasion of Qianlong's 70th birthday). Even before Macartney's departure from Britain, he and Dundas had anticipated that there might be some disagreement with

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