World of faces

Famous people all over the world

Category Archive: Presidents and Rulers

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots


Mary Stuart was the queen of Scotland and France, a woman whose destiny has been capturing the gaze of the writers for almost five centuries. The life of Scottish Queen Mary Stuart was filled with events and emotions. She loved, intrigued, betrayed, wanted to be happy, had thirst for power … She was passionate and lively. And, of course, she dreamed of being happy – both as a woman and as a queen.
Two crowns for one girl
Mary Stuart’s father, King of Scotland, Jacob V, died only a few days after the birth of his daughter. He was not happy: shortly before that, the monarch had survived the death of two sons and a defeat in a battle with the British.
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Herbert Clark Hoover – thirty-first president of America

Herbert Clark Hoover - thirty-first president of America

Herbert Clark Hoover – thirty-first president of America


The future US President Herbert Clark Hoover was born on August 10, 1874 in West Branch. His parents were Quakers with German roots from provincial Iowa. The boy’s father sold agricultural machinery and worked as a blacksmith. He died when Herbert was only 6 years old. His mother died 4 years later. An orphaned boy moved to his uncle in Oregon. In 1891, young Hoover entered the newly opened Stanford University. He became a mining engineer, and nothing foreshadowed that this specialist would be engaged in politics.
In 1895, Herbert Hoover received a bachelor’s degree. His professional career was extremely exciting. First, a Stanford graduate got a job as a rock cleaner at the mining company Reward Gold Mine. Then British Bewick, Moreing and Company, specializing in gold, hired a 23-year-old Hoover and sent him to Australia. There Hoover gained invaluable experience not only as a geologist, but also as a manager.
Later the specialist received an unexpected offer from the Chinese government. The Chinese wanted to learn modern Western experience. The American was in China when the infamous Boxing Uprising began there. Peasants were against the domination of foreigners and they did not like the missionary activity of Christians. Once Tianjin, in which the Hoovers lived, came under fire. The rebel shells landed in a building across the street from the house of an American engineer. On that day, Herbert, risking his life, rushed into the ruined house and saved a Chinese girl.
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Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th president of America

Grover Cleveland - 22nd and 24th president of America

Grover Cleveland – 22nd and 24th president of America


Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and the 24th president of the United States elected in 1884 and again in 1892. He was the only president ever to be reelected after a defeat.
Stephen Grover Cleveland was born on March 18, 1837 in Caldwell, New Jersey. He was the son of a Presbyterian minister. After his father died in 1853, Cleveland supported his mother and sisters.
In 1859 he became a lawyer and soon joined the Democratic Party. Four years later he became the assistant district attorney for Erie County, New York. From 1870 to 1873 he served as county sheriff. In 1881 he was elected mayor of Buffalo and a year later Cleveland was elected governor of New York.
In 1884 the Democrats nominated Cleveland for the presidency.
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Chester Arthur – 21st president of America

Chester Arthur - 21st president of America

Chester Arthur – 21st president of America


Chester Arthur was the twenty-first president of the United States. Many people did not believe that Arthur would make a good president, but he worked hard to gain the public’s respect.
Chester Alan Arthur was born on October 5, 1829, in the village of Fairfield, Vermont. He was the eldest of seven children of a Scotch-Irish Baptist minister. When he was only 15 Chester entered Union College in Schenectady, New York and after graduating at age 18, he studied law while teaching.
In 1859 Arthur married Ellen Lewis Herndon. The couple had three children.
Arthur worked as a lawyer in New York City and became known for his antislavery principles. In his law career he defended the rights of African Americans.
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Anne of Brittany – Twice Queen of France

Anne of Brittany - Twice Queen of France

Anne of Brittany – Twice Queen of France


Anne of Brittany led the duchy of Brittany after her father, the duke, died in 1488. As the wife of two French kings, she played a significant role in the political and cultural life of France during the early years of the Renaissance. The French king Charles VIII took control of Brittany and married Anne in 1491. This led in time to the union of Brittany with France. Charles died in 1498, and the following year Anne married his successor, Louis XII. During Louis’s reign, Anne made great efforts to encourage the arts. She brought poets, painters, decorators, and translators to the court to enhance the image of the king. Anne’s daughter Claude became the wife of one French king, Francis I, and the mother of another, Henry II.
The Duke of Brittany Francis II had no sons. So, he had to raise his daughter Anne, who was born on January 25, 1477, as heir to the throne. As a result, she received an atypical education for a medieval girl. She studied foreign languages, rhetoric, logic. And the duke usually solved political problems in her presence.
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Charles de Gaulle – French general

Charles de Gaulle - French general

Charles de Gaulle – French general


In France, perhaps, like nowhere else in the world, people have always been able to appreciate the personality. Let’s remember, for example, the Hundred Years’ War. The French nobility was knocked out by English arrows at the Battle of Crecy and Poitiers, the king was in captivity, the country was ruined. And then the knight Bertrand du Guesclin appeared and saved France.
In the 15th century, France was rescued by the Maid of Orleans in knight armor – Joan of Arc. And in the 20th century, Charles de Gaulle turned out to be the savior of France, its brave knight, who allowed the country to preserve its pride and honor…
The father of the future politician, Henri de Gaulle, was a professor of philosophy and literature. His beloved son was born in 1890. Later, Charles de Gaulle wrote: “My father, an educated and thinking man, brought up in certain traditions, was full of faith in the high mission of France”.
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Jane Grey – Queen for nine days

Jane Grey - Queen for nine days

Jane Grey – Queen for nine days


Jane Grey stands alone among the monarchs of England. Her reign was too brief from 10 July until 19 July 1553. In folk tales, she is called the Queen for nine days, the first Protestant martyr, the victim of the English Counter-Reformation. In numerous works of the XIX century, Jane Grey is the ideal woman of the Victorian era.
Our heroine was born and lived during the heyday of the Reformation. This period is considered the brightest in the history of Foggy Albion. A quarrel of Henry VIII with the Pope was the beginning. The head of the Roman Catholic Church refused to legalize the divorce of the king with his first wife Catherine of Aragon. The monarch was offended, and in 1534 the parliament decided to free the English church from subjection to Rome. As a result of the Reformation, the state received free land and funds confiscated from the Church. This allowed to equip the fleet, which managed to defeat the Spanish Invincible Armada. England became the mistress of the seas. But it was a time of political instability.
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