Medici
Catherine de' Medici (Italian: Caterina de' Medici, 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian noblewoman who was Queen consort of France from 1547 until 1559, as the wife of King Henry II of France. In 1533, at the age of fourteen, Caterina married Henry, second son of King Francis I and Queen Claude of France. Under the gallicised version of her name, Catherine de Médicis, she was Queen consort of France as the wife of King Henry II of France from 1547 to 1559. Throughout his reign, Henry excluded Catherine from participating in state affairs and instead showered favours on his chief mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who wielded much influence over him. Henry's death thrust Catherine into the political arena as mother of the frail fifteen-year-old King Francis II. When he died in 1560, she became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son King Charles IX and was granted sweeping powers. After Charles died in 1574, Catherine played a key role in the reign of her third son, Henry III. He dispensed with her advice only in the last months of her life. Catherine's three sons reigned in an age of almost constant civil and religious war in France. The problems facing the monarchy were
statesman , diplomat
Lieutenant-Colonel Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen ( listen (help·info)) (29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German nobleman, Roman Catholic monarchist politician, General Staff officer, and diplomat, who served as Chancellor of Germany in 1932 and as Vice-Chancellor under Adolf Hitler in 1933–1934. A member of the Catholic Centre Party until 1932, he was one of the most influential members of the group of close advisers to President Paul von Hindenburg in the late Weimar Republic. It was largely Papen, believing that Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, who persuaded Hindenburg to put aside his scruples and approve Hitler as Chancellor in a cabinet not under Nazi Party domination. However, Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives, during which some of his confidants were killed by the Nazis. Born to a wealthy and noble Roman Catholic family in Werl, Province of Westphalia, son of Friedrich von Papen zu Köningen (1839 – 1906) and wife Anna Laura von Steffens (1852 – 1939), Papen was educated as an officer, including a period as a military attendant in the
well-educated poet
Born in the United States, Aberjhani was educated at several American colleges according to his posted CVs and served in the U.S. Air Force and Reserves for almost a decade. His writing career started with the Air Force as a photo-journalist and editor in Alaska and England. He later became a well-known spoken word artist and poet. His work appeared frequently in ESSENCE Magazine during the 1990s but he himself withdrew from public performances to become a caregiver, an experience the author has described in his book, The American Poet Who Went Home Again. His versatility as a writer is exceptional because he has published more than half a dozen books and won recognition in just about every category: journalism, poetry, creative nonfiction, fiction, history, etc. Depending on who you ask, he's most famous for either his first book, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry, or the Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, which won three major awards. Despite the publication of his books through traditional and modern independent means, Aberjhani continues to practice a free-style kind of journalism, publishing in online outlets like Examiner, Huffington Post, and New York Daily, but also continuing to publish stories in print media. As the National African-American Art Examiner, he published articles on a number of controversial and popular topics, including the high profile Troy Anthony Davis and Mark Allen McPhail case. His articles on the life and death of Michael Jackson were frequently distributed around the Internet and translated into different languages.
Florence
Florence (Italian: Firenze [fiˈrɛntse] ( listen), alternate obsolete form: Fiorenza; Latin: Florentia) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with c. 370,000 inhabitants (1,500,000 in the metropolitan area). The city lies on the River Arno; it is known for its history and its importance in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance, especially for its art and architecture and, more generally, for its cultural heritage. A centre of medieval European trade and finance and one of the wealthiest cities of the time, Florence is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance; it has been called the Athens of the Middle Ages. A turbulent political history included periods of rule by the powerful Medici family, religious and republican revolution. From 1865 to 1870 the city was also the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The historic centre of Florence attracts millions of tourists each year, and Euromonitor International ranked the city as the world's 72nd most visited in 2009, with 1.685 million visitors. It was declared a World Heritage Site UNESCO in 1982. Due to Florence's artistic and
Italy
Italy /ˈɪtəli/ (Italian: Italia [iˈtaːlja]), officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica italiana), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia–the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea–and many other smaller islands. The independent states of San Marino and the Vatican City are enclaves within Italy, whilst Campione d'Italia is an Italian exclave in Switzerland. The territory of Italy covers some 301,338 km (116,347 sq mi) and is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. With 60.6 million inhabitants, it is the fifth most populous country in Europe, and the 23rd most populous in the world. Rome, the capital of Italy, was for centuries the political and religious centre of Western civilisation as the capital of the Roman Empire and site of the Holy See. After the decline of the Roman Empire, Italy endured numerous invasions by foreign peoples, from Germanic tribes such as the Lombards and Ostrogoths, to the Byzantines and later, the Normans, among others. Centuries later, Italy became