The corporation of St Albans, from the time they obtained their first charter from Edward VI in 1835, were a select body. For most of the period 1685 to 1835 they showed a decreasing concern for the government of the borough, though they jealously guarded their rights to govern. The chief administrators in the town were the borough magistrates and the trustees and commissioners of the statutory authorities. The most active of the borough's courts was granted by act of Parliament. A turnpike trust maintained the principal road through the borough. Early in the 19th century paving and lighting commissioners took over the duties of parish and borough officers and provided a minimum of health and cleanliness in the borough. The chief function of the corporation was political. Their ability to create freemen and the mayor and town clerk's activities at the poll enabled the corporation to play a decisive part in the return of members for the borough. At the beginning of the period, the borough was subjected to the influence of two of the most powerful figures of the age, the 1st Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Much of the political history of the borough is concerned with the struggles of the Marlboroughs and their heirs with the Grimston family, the largest landowners in the immediate neighbourhood of St Albans. The opponents of the corporation were to be found mainly in the vestry of the Abbey parish, the most populous of the three parishes within the borough's boundaries. An action that the vestry brought in the Court of Chancery in 1724 ended disastrously for the corporation, and the after effects of this law suit can be traced for almost a century in the corporation's affairs. But, on the whole, the town's inhabitants showed an amused toleration of the corporation and its workings. Dissenters, renowned for their probity, readily accepted their guineas after an election. There were troublesome individuals, but the corporation possessed the ability to transform the irritants that entered their shell into useful ornaments--thus ambitious attornies became town clerks. In theory, the act regulating municipal corporations is a logical point at which to conclude, for it marks the end of the old corporation founded upon chartered rights. In practice it is not so logical. The ease with which the members of the old corporation carried on their activities in the new council suggests that it was not charters or acts of Parliament but custom that provided the animus to the government of the borough.

<p> Historians of the Middle Ages have long reflected on the chronicles and archival sources of Western Europe, seeking to find the birth of the modern state. This thesis represents one such contribution to this historical problem, exploring the question of political centralization in the kingdom of France during the reigns of Capetian kings between 1151 and 1247. Focusing on the county of Anjou, this thesis contends that local aristocrats not only constructed their own political community but also used local customs to shape the contours of centralization in Anjou. Angevin sources suggest that state-building in France emerged less from conquest and occupation than as the result of cooperation between the political center and peripheral communities. The kings of France benefited from the loyalty of the Angevin political community, while local elites used royal concessions to define and defend their political and legal rights as Angevins.</p>

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One of the most significant features of the Third Pillar, which came into being as part of the Treaty of European Union, is the so-called 'implementation gap' between the expectations and aspirations of the member states in this area and the empirical reality. This regularly features in the standard literature on the Third Pillar, yet there has been little detailed research done to either measure or determine the root causes of such an occurrence. Rather than simply accept that such a 'gap' exists, this thesis attempts to measure the implementation gap in two distinct areas of internal security co-operation. These are two of the most under-researched areas within the Third Pillar, namely the development of the European Police Office (and related elements of police cooperation) and progress in the related area of a European counter-terrorist framework. A model of 'perfect implementation' has been devised utilising tests from three distinct schools of decision-making - foreign policy analysis, the implementation school (which has its own distinct subset of literature) and European decision-making. By applying tests in relation to the establishment of objectives, the question of leadership, the scale of the 'sacrifice' made and a detailed analysis of the legislative output of each area, the thesis measures how close the reality is to the ideal. In terms of the nature of objectives, an examination of the clarity and consistency of such aims will be determined at two levels. The overall 'metapolicy' of the Third Pillar - the creation of 'an area of freedom, security and justice'- is compared to the current enlargement process, in order to determine both the meaning of such a concept and to ascertain where the priorities of the member states actually lie. Certain terms used within the European Union and replicated within the literature, such as describing such areas as 'matters of common interest', will be analysed to determine their meaning and their applicability to the empirical reality. As a result, and complimenting the 'Good Governance' initiative of the European Commission, which aims to determine the appropriate level for each of the competencies of the EU, the legitimacy of the European level of decision-making will be examined in each area. In terms of determining the root causes of the 'implementation gap', the solution most commonly offered - both by practitioners and in the secondary literature - relates to the process of communitarisation, which has already begun for the areas such as immigration and asylum and judicial co-operation on civil matters. Yet, in the case of the two case studies examined in this thesis - European police cooperation and the European counter-terrorist framework - communitarisation is not forthcoming, with little mention made of the post-Amsterdam elements of the Third Pillar in the draft Treaty of Nice. As such, the control factor of the institutional framework of the European Union does not apply as directly in either case study. Both have shared the same institutional structure since the inception of the Third Pillar, a structure that is likely to remain untouched by the process of enlargement. Therefore, there is a need to look beyond the potential panacea of communitarisation for other potential explanations as to why greater progress has been made in one area as opposed to the other.

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M.A. / In the institutional framework which was created by the Treaty of Rome for the European Community, no provision was made for heads of government to play any role in the new supranational dispensation. Governments would have to fulfil their roles only in the Council of Ministers. Summit Meetings therefore developed outside the Treaty of Rome and with passage of time, gained greater power and influence. As a result there are some who erroneously argue that Summitry has no proper place in Community proceedings and is some sort of constitutional aberration. From the initial outset it was clear that the development of the Summit Meetings in the European Community would for various reasons be controversial. The Summit Meetings are, however, now organised on a much firmer base with the result that in this study they can be viewed with greater perspective and insight. The purpose of this study is therefore to research and draw conclusions on the following matters: Detailed research was carried out on all Community Summit Meetings held between 1960 and 1980 with the aim of establishing the various agendas and the decisions reached. The development of Summit Meetings can roughly be divided into three stages. During each particular period specific matters enjoyed priority and currently Summitry in the form of the European Council, deliberates over a large and divergent spectrum of issues. The three stages are: An "extra institutional period", covering the years 1961 to 1967. Summit Meetings were viewed as outside the Community institutions and not of any particular significance.

<p> The overall image that emerges from the literature on gender and the French Revolution is that of revolutionary women transgressing traditional gender boundaries by actively participating in the Revolution. This study will show that with few exceptions, most revolutionary women did not attempt to transgress their gender boundaries; instead, they attempted to redefine their sphere of action on the basis of a new ideology born during the Revolution: that of the larger family of the Republic. This study investigates the contradiction between the eighteenth-century idea of the <i>femme id&eacute;ale </i> and the reality of revolutionary women activism and argues that these women justified entering the public space as part of their duties as patriotic mothers. On the other hand, this study also shows how revolutionary men increasingly started to marginalize all revolutionary women as &ldquo;femme-hommes&rdquo; to ultimately exclude them from the public sphere in 1793. While many historians focused on the way women were sexualized and feminized during the Revolution, this paper argues that most revolutionary leaders considered women who attempted to play men&rsquo;s roles to be women who were becoming men and thus losing their maternal and motherly duties.</p>

Because the sheriffs of late twelfth-century England played such a crucial role in maintaining law and order and in collecting royal revenue, the way that the king managed this position, either directly or through his justiciars, provides insight into his administrative competence. In the case of Richard I of England (1189-1199), to whom historians generally ascribe negative attributes, royal appointments to shrievalties indicate that Richard concerned himself with this local office, chose capable and loyal men, and used the office wisely as a means of raising much needed money. Furthermore, the justiciars named by King Richard governed well while in power, skillfully safeguarding the kingdom and doing so in large measure through judicious shrieval appointments. / The majority of those used as sheriffs did not, contrary to commonly held views, originate in the curial class; and even though secular and ecclesiastical magnates served the king in this capacity, they made up only a small minority. Instead, the typical sheriff for Richard I was a man of local stature but who had limited contacts at the royal court. Nevertheless, it was those from the curial and magnate classifications who benefitted most from the distribution of royal patronage. Remarkably, possession of a shrievalty did not provide the advantage expected for someone with such frequent access to the sources of power. / The view of Richard I as an irresponsible and unconcerned monarch, therefore, must be altered, for he fits well into the type of administrative kingship modeled by the Angevin family as a whole. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-03, Section: A, page: 1059. / Major Professor: Ralph V. Turner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.

This dissertation is a study of the cultural contributions made by the scholars who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte to Egypt in 1798. The purpose of the expedition was strategic and colonial, so Bonaparte recruited some of France's leading artists, scientists and engineers to accompany the French Army and study Egypt systematically. / In order to facilitate their research, the scholars formed a learned body, the Institute of Egypt. The research conducted by members of the Institute lay the groundwork for the development of Egyptology as a professional field of academic study. The culmination of the savants' work was the multivolume, illustrated Description de l'Egypte, which covered topics including natural history, geography, contemporary Egyptian society and Egyptian antiquities. The Description offered European scholars their first comparatively accurate view of Egypt, especially ancient Egypt. / The work of the French in Egypt also reflected various trends in eighteenth century thought. The savants believed that they were bringing progress and enlightenment to contemporary Egypt in the form of scientific and technical development. Moreover, the Napoleonic scholars, like some of the philosophes, believed that man could rationally, scientifically, and objectively study a society and then distill the information into a single, encyclopedic work. As colonialists, they regarded Egypt as fertile territory for scientific study. Since Europeans knew relatively little about ancient or contemporary Egypt, the French believed that they could claim credit for the rediscovery of a great civilization, and the glory of ancient Egypt would be reflected on Napoleonic France. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-10, Section: A, page: 3644. / Major Professor: Donald D. Horward. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

In a letter of May 14, 1922, Sigmund Freud noted the profound similarities between himself and Viennese playwright, Arthur Schnitzler. Their kinship, according to Freud, rested upon shared determinism and skepticism: "what people call pessimism." Both men were graduates of the University of Vienna medical faculty, where they were exposed to two significant non-medical controversies. By examining and interpreting late works of Freud and Schnitzler, in the context of the issues debated earlier at the Medical School, this study assesses the validity of Freud's conclusion. Chapter One provides an intellectual history of the Second Viennese Medical School and the concepts discussed just prior to the matriculation of Freud and Schnitzler: Therapeutic skepticism and the materialist world-view. The first of these positions, which cast doubt on the ability of medicine to help, is correlated with Freud's suggestion of a shared determinism with Schnitzler. The second, due to its religious implications, is linked to Freud's contention of a shared skepticism. These two issues are employed in interpreting the later, parapsychological, works of Freud, as well as Beyond the Pleasure Principle, The Ego and the Id, and The Question of Lay-Analysis. The thesis is put forth that Freud was more a determinist than a skeptic, especially as he became convinced of the validity of his discovery. Chapter Three explores themes in Schnitzler's works along the same lines used in the discussion of Freud. Extensive use is made of early and late unpublished diaries of the author, as well as works roughly contemporaneous with those of Freud. Analysis leads to an assessment of Schnitzler different in emphasis from that of Freud. A conclusion offers a brief discussion of the two authors' notes concerning war, for these epitomized their philosophical differences. The thesis is advanced that the world-views of these men were shaped by their varying proximity to the medical school, its faculty, and the practice of medicine itself. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: A, page: 4489. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.