title: Jahangir

texts:
Nūr i Dīn Muḥammad Salīm (Persian: ), known by his imperial name, Jahāngīr (Persian: ) (31 August 1569 – 28 October 1627), was the fourth Mughal Emperor, who ruled from 1605 until his death in 1627. His imperial name (in Persian) means 'conqueror of the world', 'world-conqueror' or 'world-seizer' (Jahan: world; gir: the root of the Persian verb gereftan: to seize, to grab).Jahangir was half Jat and half Muslim. The fictitious tale of his relationship with the Mughal courtesan, Anarkali, has been widely adapted into the literature, art and cinema of India. Early life

Born on 31 August 1569, Prince Salīm, later Jahāngīr,  was the third son born to Akbar and his favorite Queen, Mariam-uz-Zamani, daughter of Raja Bharmal of Amber in Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar's previous children had died in infancy and he had sought the blessing of holy men to produce a son. Salim was named for one such man, Shaikh Salim Chisti. Salim grew up fluent in Persian and premodern Hindi, with a "respectable" knowledge of Turkic, the Mughal ancestral language.Reign

Prince Salim succeeded to the throne on Thursday, 3 November 1605, eight days after his father's death. Salim ascended to the throne with the title of Nur-ud-din Muhammad Jahangir Badshah Ghazi, and thus began his 22-year reign at the age of 36. <mask>, soon after, had to fend off his own son, Prince Khusrau Mirza, when the latter attempted to claim the throne based on Akbar's will to become his next heir. Khusrau Mirza was defeated in 1606 and confined in the fort of Agra. Jahangir considered his third son, Prince Khurram (reign name Shah Jahan), his favourite. As punishment, Khusrau Mirza was handed over to his younger brother and was partially blinded and killed. In 1622, Jahangir sent his son, Prince Khurram, to fight against the combined forces of Ahmednagar, Bijapur and Golconda.After his victory, Khurram turned against his father and made a bid for power. Khurram murdered his blind older brother, Khusrau Mirza, in order to smooth his own path to the throne. As with the insurrection of his eldest son, Khusrau Mirza, Jahangir was able to defeat the challenge from within his family and retain power. Foreign relations

The East India Company persuaded King James to send Sir Thomas Roe as a royal envoy to the Agra court of Jahangir. Roe resided at Agra for three years, until 1619. At the Mughal court, Roe allegedly became a favourite of Jahangir and may have been his drinking partner; certainly he arrived with gifts of "many crates of red wine" and explained to him "What beer was? How made?".The immediate result of the mission was to obtain permission and protection for an East India Company factory at Surat. While no major trading privileges were conceded by Jahingir, "Roe's mission was the beginning of a Mughal-Company relationship that would develop into something approaching a partnership and see the EIC gradually drawn into the Mughal nexus". While Roe's detailed journals are a valuable source of information on Jahangir's reign, the Emperor did not return the favour, with no mention of Roe in his own voluminous diaries. In 1623, Emperor Jahangir sent his tahwildar, Khan Alam, to Safavid Persia, accompanied by 800 sepoys, scribes and scholars, along with ten howdahs well decorated in gold and silver, in order to negotiate peace with Abbas I of Persia after a brief conflict in the region around Kandahar. Khan Alam soon returned with valuable gifts and groups of Mir Shikar (Hunt Masters) from both Safavid Persia and the Khanates of Central Asia. In 1626, Jahangir began to contemplate an alliance between the Ottomans, Mughals and Uzbeks against the Safavids, who had defeated the Mughals at Kandahar. He even wrote a letter to the Ottoman Sultan, Murad IV.Jahangir's ambition did not materialise however, due to his death in 1627. Marriages
Salim was made a mansabdar of ten thousand (Das-Hazari), the highest military rank of the empire (after the emperor). He independently commanded a regiment in the Kabul campaign of 1581 when he was barely twelve. His Mansab was raised to Twelve Thousand, in 1585, at the time of his betrothal to his cousin Rajkumari Man Bai, daughter of Bhagwant Das of Amer. Bhagwant Das, was the son of Raja Bharmal and Salim's maternal uncle through Mariam-uz-Zamani. The marriage with Man Bai took place on 24 February 1585. Jahangir named her Shah Begum and she gave birth to Khusrau Mirza.Thereafter, Salim married, in quick succession, a number of accomplished girls from the aristocratic Mughal and Rajput families. One of his early favourite wives was a Rajput princess, Jagat Gosain Begum, daughter of Raja Udai Singh Rathore of Marwar. The marriage was solemnised on 11 January 1586 at the bride's residence. Jahangir named her Taj Bibi Bilqis Makani and she gave birth to Prince Khurram, the future Shah Jahan, who was Jahangir's successor to the throne. On 26 June 1586 he married a daughter of Raja Rai Singh, Maharaja of Bikaner. In July 1586, he married Malika Shikar Begum, daughter of Sultan Abu Said Khan Jagatai, Sultan of Kashghar. In 1586, he married Sahib-i-Jamal Begum, daughter of Khwaja Hassan of Herat, a cousin of Zain Khan Koka.In 1587, he married Malika Jahan Begum, daughter of Bhim Singh, Maharaja of Jaisalmer. He also married the daughter of Raja Darya Malbhas. In October 1590, he married Zohra Begum, daughter of Mirza Sanjar Hazara. He married Karamnasi Begum, daughter of Raja Kesho Das Rathore of Merta. On 11 January 1592, he married Kanwal Rani, daughter of Ali Sher Khan, by his wife, Gul Khatun. In October 1592, he married a daughter of Husain Chak of Kashmir. In January/March 1593, he married Nur un-nisa Begum, daughter of Ibrahim Husain Mirza, by his wife, Gulrukh Begum, daughter of Kamran Mirza.In September 1593, he married a daughter of Ali Khan Faruqi, Raja of Khandesh. He also married a daughter of Abdullah Khan Baluch. On 28 June 1596, he married Khas Mahal Begum, daughter of Zain Khan Koka, Subadar of Kabul and Lahore. In 1608, he married Saliha Banu Begum, daughter of Qasim Khan, a senior member of the Imperial Household. On 17 June 1608, he married Koka Kumari Begum, eldest daughter of Jagat Singh, Yuvraj of Amber. On 11 January 1610, he married the daughter of Ram Chand Bundela. At some point, he had also married a daughter of Mirza Muhammad Hakim, son of Emperor Humayun.Jahangir married the extremely beautiful and intelligent Mehr-un-Nisaa (better known by her subsequent title of Nur Jahan) on 25 May 1611. She was the widow of Sher Afgan. Mehr-un-Nisaa became his indisputable chief consort and favourite wife immediately after their marriage. She was witty, intelligent and beautiful, which was what attracted Jahangir to her. Before being awarded the title of Nur Jahan ('Light of the World'), she was called Nur Mahal ('Light of the Palace'). Her abilities are said to range from fashion designing to hunting. There is also a myth that she had once killed four tigers with six bullets.Nur Jahan

Mehr-Un-Nisa, or Nur Jahan, occupies an important place in the history of Jahangir. She was the widow of a rebel officer, Sher Afgan, whose actual name was Ali Quli Beg Ist'ajlu. He had earned the title "Sher Afgan" (Tiger tosser) from Emperor Akbar after throwing off a tiger that had leaped to attack Akbar on the top of an elephant in a royal hunt at Bengal and then stabbing the fallen tiger to death. Akbar was greatly affected by the bravery of the young Turkish bodyguard accompanying him and awarded him the captaincy of the Imperial Guard at Burdwan, Bengal. Sher Afgan had killed in rebellion (after having learned of Jahangir's orders to have him slain to possess his beautiful wife Mehr Un Nisaa as Jahangir yearned for her much earlier than her wedding to Sher Afgan), the governor of Bengal Qutubuddin Koka who was instructed secretly by Jahangir in his quest and who also was the emperor's foster brother and Sheikh Salim Chishti's grandson and consequently had been slain by the guards of the Governor. The widowed Mehr-Un-Nisaa was brought to Agra along with her nine-year-old daughter and placed in—or refused to be placed in—the Royal harem in 1607. Jahangir married her in 1611 and gave her the title of Nur Jahan or "Light of the World".It was rumoured that Jahangir had a hand in the death of her first husband Sher Afghan, albeit there is no recorded evidence to prove that he was guilty of that crime; in fact most travellers' reports say that he met her after Sher Afgan's death. (See Ellison Banks Findly's scholarly biography for a full discussion.) The loss of Kandahar was due to Prince Khurram's refusal to obey her orders. When the Persians besieged Kandahar, Nur Jahan was at the helm of affairs. She ordered Prince Khurram to march for Kandahar, but he refused to do so. There is no doubt that his refusal was due to her behaviour towards him, as she was favouring her son-in-law, Shahryar, at the expense of Khurram. Khurram suspected that in his absence, Shahryar might be given promotion and that he might die on the battlefield.This fear forced Khurram to rebel against his father rather than fight against the Persians, and thereby Kandahar was lost to the Persians. Nur Jahan struck coins in her own name during the last years of Jahangir's reign when he was taken ill. Under Jahangir, the empire continued to be a war state attuned to conquest and expansion. Jahangir's most irksome foe was the Rana of Mewar, Amar Singh, who finally surrendered in 1613 to Khurram's forces. In the northeast, the Mughals clashed with the Ahoms of Assam, whose guerilla tactics gave the Mughals a hard time. In Northern India, Jahangir's forces under Khurram defeated their other principal adversary, the Raja of Kangra, in 1615; in the Deccan, his victories further consolidated the empire. But in 1620, Jahangir fell sick, and so ensued the familiar quest for power.Nur Jahan married her daughter to Shahryar, Jahangir's youngest son from his other queen, in the hope of having a living male heir to the throne when Jahangir died. Conquests
In the year 1594, Jahangir was dispatched by his father, the Emperor Akbar, alongside Abu'l-Hasan Asaf Khan, also known as Mirza Jafar Beg son of Mirza Ghiyas Beg Isfahani and brother of Nur Jahan, and Abu'l-Fazl ibn Mubarak, to defeat the renegade Vir Singh Deo of Bundela and capture the city of Orchha, which was considered the centre of the revolt. Jahangir arrived with a force of 12,000 after many ferocious encounters and finally subdued the Bundela and ordered Vir Singh Deo to surrender. After tremendous casualties and the start of negotiations between the two, Vir Singh Deo handed over 5000 Bundela infantry and 1000 cavalry, but he feared Mughal retaliation and remained a fugitive until his death. The victorious Jahangir, at 26 years of age, ordered the completion of the Jahangir Mahal a famous Mughal citadel in Orchha to commemorate and honour his victory. Jahangir then gathered his forces under the command of Ali Kuli Khan and fought Lakshmi Narayan of Koch Bihar. Lakshmi Narayan then accepted the Mughals as his suzerains and was given the title Nazir, later establishing a garrison at Atharokotha.In 1613, the Portuguese seized the Mughal ship Rahimi, which had set out from Surat on its way with a large cargo of 100,000 rupees and Pilgrims, who were on their way to Mecca and Medina in order to attend the annual Hajj. The Rahimi was owned by Mariam-uz-Zamani, mother of Jahangir and Akbar's favourite consort. She was bestowed the title of 'Mallika-e-Hindustan' (Queen of Hindustan) by Akbar and was subsequently referred as same during Jahangir's reign. The Rahimi was the largest Indian ship sailing in the Red Sea and was known to the Europeans as the "great pilgrimage ship". When the Portuguese officially refused to return the ship and the passengers, the outcry at the Mughal court was unusually severe. The outrage was compounded by the fact that the owner and the patron of the ship was none other than the revered mother of the current emperor. Jahangir himself was outraged and ordered the seizure of the Portuguese town Daman.He ordered the apprehension of all Portuguese within the Mughal Empire; he further confiscated churches that belonged to the Jesuits. This episode is considered to be an example of the struggle for wealth that would later ensue and lead to colonisation of the Indian sub-continent. Jahangir was responsible for ending a century long struggle with the state of Mewar. The campaign against the Rajputs was pushed so extensively that they were made to submit with great loss of life and property. Jahangir posted Islam Khan I to subdue Musa Khan, an Afghan rebel in Bengal, in 1608. Jahangir also  captured Kangra Fort in 1615, whose rulers came under mughal vassalship during the reign of Akbar. Consequently, a siege was laid and the fort was taken in 1620, which "resulted in the submission of the Raja of Chamba who was the greatest of all the rajas in the region."The district of Kistwar, in the state of Kashmir, was also conquered. Death

Jahangir was trying to restore his health by visiting Kashmir and Kabul. He went from Kabul to Kashmir but decided to return to Lahore because of a severe cold. On the journey from Kashmir to Lahore, Jahangir died near Bhimber in 1627. To embalm and preserve his body, the entrails were removed; these were buried inside Baghsar Fort near Bhimber in Kashmir. The body was then conveyed by palanquin to Lahore and was buried in Shahdara Bagh, a suburb of that city. The elegant mausoleum is today a popular tourist attraction site.Jahangir was succeeded by his third son, Prince Khurram, who took the regnal name Shah Jahan. Issue
Jahangir's sons were:
 Khusrau Mirza (16 August 1587 – 26 January 1622) — with Shah Begum, daughter of Raja Bhagwant Das of Amber. Parviz Mirza (31 October 1589 – 28 October 1626)  — with Sahib Jamal Begum, daughter of Khwaja Hasan. Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592  – 22 January 1666) — with Bilqis Makani Begum, daughter of Udai Singh Of Marwar. Jahandar Mirza (born ) — with a concubine. Shahryar Mirza (16 January 1605 – 23 January 1628) — with a concubine. Jahangir's daughters were:
 Sultan-un-nissa Begum (25 April 1586 – 5 September 1646) — with Shah Begum, daughter of Raja Bhagwant Das of Amber.Iffat Banu Begum (born 6 April 1589) — with Malika Shikar


title: Virginia E. Jenckes

type: original

texts:
<mask> (November 6, 1877 – January 9, 1975) served three terms as a U.S. Representative (March 4, 1933 – January 3, 1939) from Indiana's Sixth Congressional District. The Terre Haute, Indiana, native was the first woman from Indiana to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Alongside Kathryn O'Loughlin McCarthy, she was the second woman Representative from the Midwest and the first who was not succeeding a male relative. In 1937 she became the first American woman appointed as a U.S. delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Paris, France. The outspoken, independent-minded farmer from Vigo County was an advocate for women and became known for her support of flood control measures and repeal of Prohibition, as well as her opposition to communism. Jenckes's most significant accomplishment for her Indiana constituents was obtaining an $18 million appropriation for the Wabash River basin that eventually became law. While Jenckes broadly supported New Deal initiatives in general and voted with the majority of the Democrats in the U.S. Congress, she did not always follow the Democratic majority.During her later years, Jenckes became especially concerned about thwarting what she believed to be communist propaganda and its perceived threats, despite the public ridicule she received. After retiring from Congress in 1939, Jenckes served as an American Red Cross volunteer for more than twenty years. During the Hungarian uprising of 1956, she gained national attention for her efforts to assist five Catholic priests in their escape to the United States from Hungarian prisons. In 1969 Jenckes returned to Indiana, where she spent the final years of her life. Early life
<mask> Somes, the daughter of <mask> Somes, a pharmacist, and Mary Oliver Somes, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on November 6, 1877. She attended public schools in Terre Haute, including Wiley High School, where she enrolled at the age of eleven and became the youngest student in the school’s history. She left high school early to complete her formal education by taking two years of courses at Coates College for Women.In 1912, when Jencks was thirty-four, she married sixty-eight-year old Ray Greene <mask>, a Terre Haute farmer and grain dealer. Together, they managed a  farm along the Wabash River in western Indiana. After her husband's death in 1921, Jenckes inherited the farm along with his grain business and assumed sole responsibility for their management. Their only child, a daughter named <mask>, was born in 1913 and died of tuberculosis on September 18, 1936, at the age of twenty-two. Career

Early years
Jenckes, who had been involved in farming in Vigo County, Indiana, since her marriage in 1912, was well aware of the damage that frequent river flooding could do to farms. Jenckes later reported that her farm had flooded nine times in fourteen months during the 1920s. In 1926 Jenckes took a more active role in flood-control efforts after she and other local farmers organized the Wabash-Maumee Valley Improvement Association.Juncos served as the association's secretary until 1932. In 1928 Jenckes was one of two women from the Terre Haute area who traveled to the Democratic National Convention in Houston, Texas, to join others in successfully lobbying for the inclusion of one of her association's flood-control plans as a plank in the Democratic Party's national platform. Jenckes also attained national prominence in 1928 as secretary of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress. U.S. Congresswoman
In 1932 Jenckes became the first woman from Indiana to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. She was elected as a new Deal Democrat to represent Indiana's Sixth Congressional District in the Seventy-third Congress and was re-elected to the two succeeding Congresses. Jenckes served in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1933, to January 3, 1939. First term
Jenckes's first campaign for a seat in Congress began in 1932, the year after redistricting established Indiana's Sixth Congressional District, which included ten counties along the Wabash River in western Indiana.The district, a predominantly rural area of the state, extended north from Vigo County to Warren County. With her teenaged daughter as her chauffeur, the forty-four-year-old Jenckes campaigned extensively in the new district. It is estimated that she delivered more than two hundred speeches. During her campaign, Jenckes focused on repealing Prohibition, which she felt was contributing to the decline in grain prices, along with her previous record and efforts related to flood control. In order to win her first election, Jenckes had to defeat two incumbents. She beat the Democratic incumbent, Courtland C. Gillen of Greencastle, Indiana, in the party's primary in May 1932. In the general election she defeated Fred S. Purnell, an eight-term Republican congressman from Attica, Indiana, who had represented the northern counties in a district that was lost in the reorganization.Jenckes, who was one of four women in the United States who ran for a seat in Congress in 1932, easily won election in the Democrats' landslide election of 1932. Jenckes received 54 percent of the vote to Purnell's 46 percent and won in seven of the new congressional district's ten counties. Jenckes quickly distinguished herself in Congress, despite her failure to secure the assignment she wanted on the Agricultural Committee or the Rivers and Harbors Committee. Instead of membership in these more prominent committees, Jenckes was assigned to the Mines and Mining, Civil Service, and District of Columbia committees. Jenckes retained her membership in the Civil Service and District of Columbia committees throughout her congressional career, but left the Mines and Mining committee after the conclusion of the 74th Congress. An advocate of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies, including the Civilian Conservation Corps, banking regulations, economic supports for farmers, public housing, and Social security measures, Jenckes also favored the repeal of Prohibition and supported agricultural issues, especially flood control measures. During her first term in Congress, Jenckes took action on her campaign promise to repeal Prohibition by voting in support of the Cullen-Harrison Act, which allowed for the production, transportation, and sale of beer; it passed in March 1933.She also voted in favor of the Agricultural Adjustment Act and alternate legislation after the U.S. Supreme Court declared the Act was invalid. Through her work on the District of Columbia Committee, Jenckes sought to provide the city's voters "with a greater voice in their government," to reduce the workload of its firefighters, and to monitor its schools. In addition, Jenckes was as an advocate for U.S. veterans and American workers. She voted in favor of the Patman Greenback Bonus Bill, which extended a pay bonus to World War I veterans, and encouraged adoption of the Railroad Retirement Act. While Jenckes broadly supported New Deal initiatives, she did not always follow the Democratic majority and the Roosevelt administration's lead. In her first vote in Congress she expressed her independent mindedness when she voted against the Economy Act of 1933 because its cuts in government expenses would reduce veterans benefits, a move that Jenckes had promised her constituents she would not allow. Jenckes's most significant accomplishment for her constituents was to successfully obtain an $18 million appropriation for the Wabash River basin that eventually became law.Second term
Jenckes won re-election to Congress in a close race in 1934, when she once again defeated Purnell, this time by a margin of 383 votes out of a total of 135,000 that were cast. During her second term in office, Jenckes took a more active role in speaking on so-called women's issues. Two themes characterized the remainder of her congressional career: Jenckes's "self-identification as a champion of women’s interests" and presenting herself as someone who could offer a feminine perspective on legislative issues. Endorsed by the National Woman's Party during her 1934 re-election campaign, Jenckes advocated for political equality for women, although she was not a radical feminist by later-defined standards. Jenckes emphasized "traditional gender distinctions" and supported policies that would benefit women as well as consumer and business interests. As one example, Jenckes urged Congress to reduce taxes on cosmetics, although she acknowledged that drug industry members had persuaded her to support the cause. Jenckes argued that cosmetics were "necessities for many working women" and the taxes were discriminatory.Jenckes tended to favor programs that provided her constituency with economic supports and voted with the majority of the New Deal Democrats in general, even though she was ambivalent about some of these programs. For example, she voted in favor of the Social Security Act in 1935, but refused to accept Social Security benefits in her later years. Jenckes commented, "I think when you give dole to people you take away their self respect." Third term
In 1936 Jenckes won a third term in the U.S. House, largely due to Roosevelt's landslide victory, by defeating Noble J. Johnson, her Republican challenger, only a few weeks after her daughter's death from tuberculosis. Jenckes became more conservative in her later years. In 1938 she petitioned Congress to ban the Works Progress Administration from competing in construction projects because she felt the federal program "unfairly competed" with the building trades. Jenckes was also a fervent supporter of J<mask> Hoover and advocated congressional funding for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.Jenckes was vocal in her opposition to communism and especially active in efforts to eliminate what she believed to be subversive activities in America. Jenckes's American patriotism and strong interest in national symbols also led her to introduce legislation that required the American flag to be flown atop federal buildings. Jenckes publicly stated that she believed the lack of flagpoles flying American flags atop public buildings in Washington, D.C., was due to the efforts of communist propagandists and called on other Americans, especially women, to join her anticommunist crusade. These as well as other related comments subjected Jenckes to public ridicule and also helped to make her "a controversial figure" throughout her years in Congress. By the mid-1930s her intense patriotism and anticommunist views had overshadowed her advocacy of women's interests. In 1935 Jenckes supported an amendment to a Washington, D.C., appropriations bill that prohibited teaching, advocating, or mentioning communism in the city's public schools. The House repealed the amendment in 1937, but not before disagreements over the bill caused conflicts between Jenckes and other members of the District of Columbia Committee.Following re-election to her third and final term in Congress, Jenckes continued to create controversy about her anticommunist comments and ongoing distrust of Russia and Japan. In 1937, for example, she advocated for the removal of cherry trees in Washington, D.C., that Japan had given to the United States at an earlier time as a gift of friendship. Jenckes suggested that they be replaced with American cherry trees because she thought that Japan's trees represented "a symbol of traitorism and disloyalty" and a means to "open the way for their spies and propagandists." In 1937 Jenckes became the first American woman appointed as a U.S. delegate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Paris, France. The goal of the annual gathering, which she attended with three male U.S. senators, was to promote peace and cooperation in an effort to establish representative democracies. When Jenckes returned to the United States after the conference, she expressed her growing concern about Germany's expanding building programs and urged the U.S. government to demand repayment of loans made to European countries during World War I, a move that she thought would discourage rearmament. As an isolationist, Jenckes also supported a strong defense buildup, arguing that "a strong defense was the best way to keep the United States out of war."<mask>, a Democrat in a heavily Republican congressional district, was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1938 to the Seventy-sixth Congress. While her actions generally reflected her district's conservatism, Jenckes's work on behalf of her constituents did not to save her from defeat. Jenckes ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, but Noble J. Johnson, her Republican challenger, narrowly defeated her in the general election. <mask>, who suggested her loss was the result of ballot tampering, was among the seventy Democrats in the U.S. House who were defeated for re-election that year. Later years
After retiring from the U.S. Congress in 1939, Jenckes remained in Washington, D.C., where she was a volunteer for the American Red Cross for nearly two decades As a Red Cross volunteer, Jenckes worked in the first blood bank in the United States. She also retained her anticommunist views. In 1956, when Jenckes was seventy-nine, she gained national attention for her efforts to assist five Catholic priests in their escape to the United States from prisons in Budapest, Hungary, during the Hungarian uprising.Jenckes also served as a liaison between Hungarian freedom fighters and the American government. In 1969 Jenckes came home to Indiana. She lived in Indianapolis for two years before returning to Terre Haute  in 1971. Death and legacy
After fracturing her pelvis, Jenckes was moved from her home in Terre Haute, Indiana, to a local nursing facility, where she died on January 9, 1975, at that age of ninety-seven. She was interred in Terre Haute's Highland Lawn Cemetery. Jenckes, who represented "populism" and American "patriotism," was among the "more colorful" politicians in Congress during the New Deal-era. An outspoken congressional leader whose conservatism increased over time, she also remained a staunch anticommunist, despite the public ridicule she received.It has been said that Jenckes was "a Cold War warrior even before, officially, there was a Cold War." See also
 Women in the United States House of Representatives

Notes

References
 Bellamy, Suzanne S., "<mask> Ellis Jenckes," in

External links
 Virginia Ellis Jenckes Papers, Manuscript Division, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis

1877 births
1975 deaths
Members of the United States House of Representatives from Indiana
Indiana Democrats
Female members of the United States House of Representatives
Women in Indiana politics
Politicians from Terre Haute, Indiana
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives
American anti-communists

masks:
Virginia Ellis Jenckes
Virginia Ellis
James Ellis
Jenckes
Virginia
. Edgar
Jenckes
Jenckes
Virginia


title: Andrew Mellon

texts:
<mask> (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A.W., was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy <mask> family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he established a vast business empire before moving into politics. He served as United States Secretary of the Treasury from March 9, 1921, to February 12, 1932, presiding over the boom years of the 1920s and the Wall Street crash of 1929. A conservative Republican, <mask> favored policies that reduced taxation and the national debt in the aftermath of World War I.

<mask>'s father, <mask>, rose to prominence in Pittsburgh as a banker and attorney. <mask> began working at his father's bank, T. Mellon & Sons, in the early 1870s, eventually becoming the leading figure in the institution. He later renamed T. Mellon & Sons as Mellon National Bank and established another financial institution, the Union Trust Company. By the end of 1913, Mellon National Bank held more money in deposits than any other bank in Pittsburgh, and the second-largest bank in the region was controlled by Union Trust.In the course of his business career, <mask> owned or helped finance large companies including Alcoa, the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, Old Overholt whiskey, Standard Steel Car Company, Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Koppers, the Pittsburgh Coal Company, the Carborundum Company, Union Steel Company, the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company, Gulf Oil, and numerous others. He was also an influential donor to the Republican Party during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. In 1921, newly elected president Warren G. Harding chose <mask> as his Secretary of the Treasury. <mask> would remain in office until 1932, serving under Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, all three of whom were members of the Republican Party. <mask> sought to reform federal taxation in the aftermath of World War I. He argued cutting tax rates on top earners would generate more tax revenue for the government, but otherwise left in place a progressive income tax. Some of <mask>'s proposals were enacted by the Revenue Act of 1921 and the Revenue Act of 1924, but it was not until the passage of the Revenue Act of 1926 that the "<mask> plan" was fully realized.He also presided over a reduction in the national debt, which dropped substantially in the 1920s. <mask>'s influence in state and national politics reached its zenith during Coolidge's presidency. Journalist William Allen White noted that "so completely did <mask> dominate the White House in the days when the Coolidge administration was at its zenith that it would be fair to call the administration the reign of Coolidge and <mask>." <mask>'s national reputation collapsed following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Great Depression. <mask> participated in various efforts by the Hoover administration to revive the economy and maintain the international economic order, but he opposed direct government intervention in the economy. After Congress began impeachment proceedings against <mask>, President Hoover shifted <mask> to the position of United States ambassador to the United Kingdom. <mask> returned to private life after Hoover's defeat in the 1932 presidential election by Franklin D. Roosevelt.Beginning in 1933, the federal government launched a tax fraud investigation on <mask>, leading to a high-profile case that ended with <mask>'s estate paying significant sums to settle the matter. Shortly before his death, in 1937, <mask> helped establish the National Gallery of Art. His philanthropic efforts also played a major role in the later establishment of Carnegie Mellon University and the National Portrait Gallery. Early life and ancestry

<mask>'s paternal grandparents, both of whom were Ulster Scots, migrated to the United States from County Tyrone, Ireland, in 1818. With their son, <mask>, they settled in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. <mask> established a successful legal practice in Pittsburgh, and in 1843 he married Sarah Jane Negley, an heiress descended from some of the first settlers of Pittsburgh. Thomas became a wealthy landowner and real estate speculator, and he and his wife had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood.<mask>, the fourth son and sixth child of Thomas and Sarah, was born in 1855. Though he lacked strong convictions about slavery, <mask> became a prominent member of the local Republican Party, and in 1859 he won election to a position on the Pennsylvania court of common pleas. Because Thomas was suspicious of both private and public schools, he built a schoolhouse for his children and hired a teacher; <mask> attended this school beginning at age five. In 1869, after leaving his judicial position, <mask> established T. Mellon & Sons, a bank located in Pittsburgh. <mask> joined his father at the bank, quickly becoming a valued employee despite being in his early teens. <mask> also attended Western University (which was later renamed the University of Pittsburgh), but he never graduated. After leaving Western University, <mask> briefly worked at a lumber and coal business before joining T. Mellon & Sons as a full-time employee in 1873.That same year, the Panic of 1873 devastated the local and national economy, wiping out a portion of the <mask> fortune. With <mask> taking a leading role at T. Mellon & Sons, the bank quickly recovered, and by late 1874 the bank's deposits had reached the level they had been at before the onset of the Panic. Business career, 1873–1920

Business career, 1873–1898

<mask>'s role at T. Mellon & Sons continued to grow after 1873, and in 1876 he was given power of attorney to direct the operations of the bank. That same year, Thomas introduced his son to Henry Clay Frick, a customer of the bank who would become one of Mellons's closest friends. In 1882, Thomas turned over full ownership of the bank to his son, but Thomas continued to be involved in the bank's activities. Five years later, <mask>'s younger brother, Richard B<mask>, joined T. Mellon & Sons as a co-owner and vice president. During the 1880s, <mask> began to expand the bank's activities.Along with Frick, <mask> gained control of the Pittsburgh National Bank of Commerce, a national bank that was authorized to print banknotes. <mask> also acquired or helped found the Union Insurance Company, City Deposit Bank, the Fidelity Title and Trust Company, and the Union Trust Company. He branched out into industrial concerns, becoming a director of the Pittsburgh Petroleum Exchange and a co-founder of two natural gas companies that collectively controlled 35,000 acres of gas lands in the late 1880s. In 1890, <mask> transferred his properties to <mask>, who would manage the properties on behalf of himself, his parents, and his brothers. In late 1894, Thomas transferred all of his remaining assets to <mask>. Despite the large sums entrusted to <mask>, the businesses he ran were still fairly small in the 1890s; T. Mellon & Sons employed seven individuals in 1895. In 1889, <mask> agreed to loan $25,000 to the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, a fledgling operation seeking to become the first successful industrial producer of aluminum.<mask> became a director of the company in 1891, and he and Richard played a major role in the establishment of aluminum factories in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, and Niagara Falls, New York. The company would emerge as one of the most profitable ventures invested in by the <mask>s, and in 1907 it was renamed Alcoa. Moving into the petroleum industry, the <mask> family also established the Crescent Oil Company, the Crescent Pipeline Company, and the Bear Creek refinery. By 1894, the <mask> family's vertically integrated companies produced ten percent of the oil exported by the United States. Partly due to the difficult economic conditions caused by the onset of the Panic of 1893, in 1895 the <mask>s sold their oil interests to Standard Oil. At roughly the same time they were selling their oil concerns, <mask> and Richard invested in the Carborundum Company, a producer of silicon carbide. The brothers gained majority ownership of the Carborundum Company in 1898 and replaced the company's founder and president, Edward Goodrich Acheson, with a Carnegie protege, Frank W. Haskell.<mask> also invested in mining concerns, becoming vice president of the Trade Dollar Consolidated Mining Company. <mask> and Henry Clay Frick enjoyed a long-lasting business and social relationship, and Frick frequently hosted <mask>, attorney Philander C. Knox, inventor George Westinghouse, and others for poker games. Frick and <mask> both joined the Duquesne Club and, after Frick established the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, <mask> became one of that club's first members. The South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club built the South Fork Dam, which supported an artificial lake that the club used for boating and fishing. In 1889, the dam broke, causing the Johnstown Flood, which killed 2,000 people and destroyed 1,600 homes. In the aftermath of the flood, Knox led a legal defense that successfully argued that the club bore no legal responsibility for the flood. <mask> did not publicly comment on the flood, though he did donate $1,000 to a relief fund.Business career, 1898–1920

By the late 1890s, <mask> had amassed a substantial fortune, but his wealth paled in comparison to that of better-known business leaders such as John D. Rockefeller. In the late 1890s, the Union Trust Company emerged for the first time as one of Mellon's most important and profitable holdings after <mask> broadened the company's activities to include commercial banking. With an infusion of capital from Union Trust, <mask> underwrote the capitalization of National Glass and several other companies. He also became a co-owner of the McClintic-Marshall Construction Company and established Crucible Steel Company, the Pittsburgh Coal Company, and the Monongahela River Coal Company; the two coal companies collectively contributed 11 percent of the coal production of the United States. With Frick, <mask>, and William Donner, <mask> co-founded Union Steel Company, which specialized in the production of nails and barbed wire. Though Frick had fallen out with steel magnate and long-time business partner <mask>, <mask> received Carnegie's consent to venture into the steel industry. Responding to the growing emphasis on naval power in the aftermath of the Spanish–American War, Mellon and Frick also became major shareholders in the New York Shipbuilding Corporation.In 1902, <mask> reorganized T. Mellon & Sons as the Mellon National Bank, a federally chartered National Bank. <mask> Mellon, <mask>, and Frick drew up a new business arrangement in which the three of them jointly controlled the Union Trust Company, which in turn controlled Mellon National Bank. They also established Union Savings Bank, which accepted deposits by mail, and the Mellon banks flourished in the first years of the 20th century. While <mask>'s financial empire prospered, his investments in other areas, including Pittsburgh's streetcar network, the Union Steel Company (which was bought out by U.S. Steel), and the Carborundum Company, also paid off handsomely. Another successful Mellon investment, the Standard Steel Car Company, was created in partnership with three former U.S. Steel executives. As part of the Texas oil boom, the Mellons also helped J. M. Guffey establish the Guffey Company. The Mellons later removed Guffey as the head of his company, and in 1907 they reorganized the Guffey Company as Gulf Oil and installed William Larimer <mask>. (a son of <mask>'s older brother, James Ross <mask>) as the head of Gulf Oil.The success of <mask>'s financial empire and his varied investments made him, according to biographer David Cannadine, the "single most significant individual in the economic life and progress of western Pennsylvania" in the first decade of the 20th century. The Panic of 1907 devastated several companies based in Pittsburgh, ending a period of strong growth. Some of Mellon's investments experienced a sustained down period after 1907, but most experienced a quick recovery. <mask> also became an investor in George Westinghouse's Westinghouse Electric Corporation after he helped prevent the company from going into bankruptcy. By the end of 1913, Mellon National Bank held more money in deposits than any other bank in Pittsburgh, and the Farmer's Deposit National Bank, which held the second-largest amount of deposits, was controlled by Mellon's Union Trust Company. In 1914, Mellon became a co-owner of Koppers, which produced a more sophisticated coking oven than the one that had earlier been pioneered by Frick. He also served as a director of various other companies, including the Pennsylvania Railroad and the American Locomotive Company.<mask> was deeply involved in the financing of World War I, as the Union Trust Company and other Mellon institutions provided millions of dollars in loans to the United Kingdom and France, and <mask> himself invested in Liberty bonds. Old Overholt whiskey

In 1887, Frick, <mask>, and <mask> and <mask> removed their names from the distilling license but retained ownership in the company. It is believed that Mellon's connections in the Treasury Department are what allowed the company to secure a medicinal permit during Prohibition. This permit allowed Overholt to sell existing whiskey stocks to druggists for medicinal use. When Frick died in December 1919, he left his share to Mellon.In 1925, under pressure from prohibitionists, <mask> sold his share of the company to a New York grocer. Early involvement in politics

Like his father, <mask> consistently supported the Republican Party, and he frequently donated to state and local party leaders. Through state party boss Matthew Quay, <mask> influenced legislators to place high tariffs on aluminum products in the McKinley Tariff of 1890. During the early 20th century, <mask> was dismayed by the rise of progressivism and the antitrust actions pursued by the presidential administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. He especially opposed the Taft administration's investigations into Alcoa, which in 1912 signed a consent decree rather than going to trial. In the aftermath of World War I, he provided financial support to Henry Cabot Lodge and other Republicans in their successful campaign to prevent ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. <mask> attended the 1920 Republican National Convention as a nominal supporter of Pennsylvania Governor William Cameron Sproul (<mask> hoped Senator Philander Knox would win the nomination), but the

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title: Andrew Mellon

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 convention chose Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio as the party's presidential nominee.<mask> strongly approved of the party's conservative platform, and he served as a key fundraiser for Harding during the presidential campaign. Political career, 1921–1933

Harding administration

Following Harding's victory in the 1920 presidential election, Harding considered various candidates for Secretary of the Treasury, including Frank Lowden, John W. Weeks, Charles Dawes, and, at the urging of Senator Knox, <mask>. By 1920, <mask> was little-known outside of banking circles, but his potential appointment to the cabinet received strong support from bankers and Pennsylvania Republican leaders like Knox, Senator Boies Penrose, and Governor Sproul. <mask> was reluctant to enter public life due to concerns about privacy and a belief that his ownership of various businesses, including Old Overholt distillery, would be a political liability. But <mask> also wanted to retire from active participation in business, and he saw a cabinet position as a prestigious capstone to his career. <mask> agreed to accept appointment as Secretary of the Treasury in February 1921, and his nomination was quickly confirmed by the United States Senate. Though <mask>'s supporters believed that he was highly qualified to address the economic issues facing the country, critics of the Harding administration saw the <mask> appointment as a sign that Harding would "reseat the power of special privileged interests, the powers of avarice and greed, the powers that seek self-aggrandizement at the expense of the general public".Harding paired the nomination of <mask> with that of Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover, who was distrusted by many of the same Senate Republicans who favored <mask>'s candidacy. Before joining the cabinet, <mask> sold his banking stock to his brother, Richard, but he continued to hold his non-banking stock. Through Richard and other business associates, <mask> continued to be involved with the major decisions of the <mask> business empire during his time in public service, and he occasionally lobbied congressmen on behalf of his businesses. His fortune continued to grow, and at one point in the 1920s he paid more in federal income tax than any other individual save John Rockefeller and Henry Ford. As Treasury Secretary, <mask> focused on balancing the budget and paying off World War I debts in the midst of the Depression of 1920–21; he was largely unconcerned with international affairs and economic matters such as the unemployment rate. To <mask>'s chagrin, his department was charged with enforcing Prohibition; he did not believe in teetotaling himself and viewed the law as unenforceable. Aside from balancing the budget, <mask>'s top priority was an overhaul of the federal tax code.The income tax had become a major part of the federal government's revenue system with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1913, and federal taxation on income had increased during World War I to provide funding for the war effort. According to M. Susan Murnane, major reforms to the federal income tax in the aftermath of World War I were "inevitable", but the exact nature of the tax system in the 1920s was debated by conservatives and progressives within the Republican Party. Unlike the progressives in his party, <mask> rejected the redistributive nature of the taxation system that had been left in place by the Wilson administration. Owing in part to the high debts left over from the war, <mask> did not join with some conservatives in the party, who favored the virtual abolition of the income tax in favor of high tariff rates, excise taxes, a national sales tax, or some combination thereof. <mask> instead advocated for the retention of a progressive income tax that would serve as an important, but not primary, source of revenue for the federal government. His so-called "scientific taxation" was designed to maximize federal revenue while minimizing the impact on business and industry. The central tenet of <mask>'s tax plan was a reduction of the surtax, a progressive tax that affected only high-income earners.<mask> argued that such a reduction would minimize tax avoidance and would not affect federal revenue because it would lead to greater economic growth. He hoped that tax reform would encourage high earners to move their savings from tax-exempt state and municipal bonds to taxable, higher yield industrial stocks. Though much of the tax plan that he proposed had been developed by former Wilson administration officials Russell Cornell Leffingwell and Seymour Parker Gilbert, the press generally referred to it as the "Mellon Plan". The Revenue Act of 1918 had set a top marginal income tax rate of 73% and a corporate tax of approximately 10%. Due in part to the size of the U.S. public debt, which had grown from $1 billion before the war to $24 billion in 1921, the provisions of the Revenue Act of 1918 remained in place when Harding took office. In 1921, the Treasury Department and the House Ways and Means Committee jointly prepared a bill setting the top marginal rate at the level advocated by <mask>, but opposition in the Senate from progressives like Senator Robert M. La Follette limited the size of the tax cuts. In November 1921, Congress passed and Harding signed the Revenue Act of 1921, which raised personal tax exemptions and lowered the top marginal tax rate to 58%.Because it differed from his original proposals, <mask> was displeased by the bill. He also strongly disapproved of a "Bonus Bill" passed by Congress that would provide for additional compensation to veterans of World War I, partly because he feared it would interfere with his plans to reduce debt and taxes. With <mask>'s support, Harding vetoed the bill, and Congress failed to override the veto. Coolidge administration

As the economy recovered from recession and began to experience the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, <mask> emerged as one of the most renowned figures in the Harding administration. One admiring congressman referred to <mask> as the "greatest Secretary of the Treasury since Alexander Hamilton". Harding died after suffering a stroke in August 1923, and he was succeeded by Vice President Calvin Coolidge. <mask> enjoyed closer relations with President Coolidge than he had with President Harding, and Coolidge and <mask> shared similar views on most major issues, including the necessity for further tax cuts.William Allen White, a contemporary journalist, stated that "so completely did <mask> dominate the White House in the days when the Coolidge administration was at its zenith that it would be fair to call the administration the reign of Coolidge and <mask>." Coolidge, <mask>, business organizations, and administration allies conducted a publicity campaign designed to convince wavering congressmen to support <mask>'s tax plan. Their efforts were opposed by the coalition of Democrats and progressive Republicans that exercised effective control over the 68th Congress. In February 1924, the House Ways and Means Committee approved of a bill based on <mask>'s plan, but an alliance of progressive Republicans and Democrats engineered passage of an alternative tax bill written by Democrat John Nance Garner; Garner's plan also reduced income taxes but set the top marginal tax rate at 46% rather than <mask>'s preferred 33%. In June 1924, Coolidge signed the Revenue Act of 1924, which contained the income tax rates of Garner's bill and also increased the estate tax. Coolidge signed the bill but simultaneously called for further tax cuts. Congress also rejected <mask>'s proposed constitutional amendment that would have barred the issuance of tax-exempt securities and, over Coolidge's veto, authorized a bonus to World War I veterans.<mask> did, however, win one legislative victory, as he convinced Congress to create the Board of Tax Appeals to adjudicate disputes between taxpayers and the government. <mask> had originally planned to retire after one presidential term but decided to remain in the cabinet in the hope of presiding over the full enactment of his taxation proposals. In the 1924 presidential election, the Republicans campaigned on further tax cuts, while both the Democrats and third-party candidate Robert La Follette denounced <mask>'s tax proposals as "a device to relieve multi-millionaires at the expense of other taxpayers". Buoyed by the strong economy, and overcoming the scandals of the Harding years, Coolidge won re-election by a decisive margin. Coolidge saw his victory as a mandate to pursue his favored economic policies, including further tax cuts. When Congress reconvened after the 1924 elections, it immediately began working on another bill designed to lower tax rates on the highest earners. In February 1926, Coolidge signed the Revenue Act of 1926, which reduced the top marginal rate to 25%.<mask> was extremely pleased by the passage of the act, because, unlike the Revenue Act of 1921 and the Revenue Act of 1924, the Revenue Act of 1926 closely reflected <mask>'s proposals. In addition to cutting tax rates on top earners, the act also raised the personal exemption for federal income taxes, abolished the gift tax, reduced the estate tax rate, and repealed a provision that had required the public disclosure of federal income tax returns. Meanwhile, the booming economy fostered a $400 million budget surplus in 1926, and the country's national debt dropped from $24 billion in early 1921 to $19.6 billion at the end of fiscal year 1926. Government revenues increased considerably under <mask>'s plan, largely collected from higher-income earners. With his top priority of tax reform accomplished, <mask> increasingly turned over management of the Treasury Department to his deputy, Ogden L. Mills. After the 1926 elections, <mask> and Mills sought to cut the corporate tax and fully repeal the estate tax. The Revenue Act of 1928 did indeed cut the corporate tax, but the estate tax was left unchanged.<mask> also focused on the construction of new federal buildings, and his efforts led to the construction of several buildings in the Federal Triangle. In 1928, <mask> stated that "in no other nation, and at no other time in the history of the world, have so many people enjoyed such a high degree of prosperity or maintained a standard of living comparable to that which prevails throughout this country today." Responsibility for foreign relations lay with the State Department rather than the Treasury Department, and Benjamin Strong Jr. and other central bankers took the lead with regard to international monetary policy, but <mask> nonetheless exercised some influence in foreign affairs. He strongly opposed the cancellation of European debts from World War I but recognized that Britain and other countries would be unable to pay those debts without a renegotiation of terms. In 1923, <mask> and British Chancellor of the Exchequer Stanley Baldwin negotiated an agreement in which Britain promised to pay off the debts over a 62-year period. After the adoption of the Dawes Plan, <mask> reached debt settlements with several other European countries. After protracted negotiations, the United States and France agreed to the Mellon-Berenger Agreement, which reduced France's debt and set terms for repayment.Hoover administration

1928 election

Coolidge surprised many observers by announcing that he would not seek another term in August 1927. The decision left Hoover as the presumed front-runner for the 1928 presidential election, but many conservatives within the party opposed Hoover's candidacy. The conservative resistance to Hoover centered around <mask>, who controlled Pennsylvania's delegation at the 1928 Republican National Convention and was influential with Republicans throughout the country. Though they had maintained an amicable relationship in public, <mask> privately distrusted Hoover, resented Hoover's engagement in the affairs of other cabinet departments, and feared that a President Hoover would move away from <mask>'s tax policies. Several Republicans urged <mask> to run for president, but <mask> believed that he was too old to seek the presidency. <mask> attempted to convince Coolidge or Charles Evans Hughes to run, but neither heeded his appeals. In the months before the 1928 Republican Convention, <mask> maintained his neutrality in the presidential race, but with no compelling alternative Republican candidate willing to run, <mask> finally threw his support behind Hoover.With <mask>'s backing, Hoover won the Republican nomination on the first ballot of the convention, and he went on to defeat Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election. Defying widespread expectations that he would retire, <mask> chose to stay on as Secretary of the Treasury. Along with Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson and Secretary of Labor James J. Davis, <mask> is one of only three cabinet members to serve in the same post under three consecutive presidents. Great Depression

Secretary <mask> had helped persuade the Federal Reserve Board to lower interest rates in 1921 and 1924; lower interest rates contributed to a booming economy, but they also encouraged stock market speculation. In 1928, responding to increasing fears of the dangers of speculation and a booming stock market, the Federal Reserve Board began raising interest rates. <mask> favored another interest rate increase in 1929, and in August 1929 the Federal Reserve Board raised the discount rate to six percent. The higher rate failed to curb speculation, and the activity on the stock market continued to grow.In October 1929, the New York Stock Exchange suffered the worst crash in its history in what was called "Black Tuesday". As the vast majority of Americans did not own shares in the stock market, the crash did not immediately have disastrous effects on the U.S. economy as a whole. <mask> had little sympathy for the speculators who lost their money, and he was philosophically opposed to an interventionist economic policy designed to address the stock market crash. Nonetheless, <mask> immediately began calling for cuts to the discount rate, which would reach two percent in mid-1930, and successfully urged Congress to pass a bill providing for temporary, across-the-board tax cuts. <mask> supported the idea of asset liquidation to balance budgets, even if it meant shutting down entire industries. By mid-1930, many, including <mask>, believed that the economy had already experienced the worst effects of the stock market crash. He did not object to the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which raised tariff rates to one of the highest levels in U.S. history.Despite the optimism of Hoover and <mask>,

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title: Andrew Mellon

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 in late 1930 the economy went into a deep slump, as gross national product declined dramatically and numerous workers lost their jobs. While numerous banks failed, Democrats won control of Congress in the 1930 mid-term elections. As the economy declined, so did <mask>'s popularity, which was further damaged by his opposition to another bonus bill for veterans. In mid-1931, the country entered a deep depression and, at Hoover's request, <mask> negotiated a moratorium on German debt repayments. After <mask> returned to the United States in August 1931, he was confronted by another series of bank failures. Among the banks that failed was the Bank of Pittsburgh, the lone remaining major Pittsburgh bank not controlled by the <mask> family. Again following Hoover's lead, <mask> presided over the creation of the National Credit Association, a voluntary initiative among the larger banks that was designed to assist failing institutions.As the National Credit Association proved to be ineffective at stemming the tide of bank failures, Congress and the Hoover administration established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to provide federal loans to banks. With the unemployment rate approaching twenty percent, <mask> became one of the most "loathed leaders" in the United States, second only to Hoover himself. Facing this unprecedented economic catastrophe, <mask> urged Hoover to refrain from using the government to intervene in the depression. <mask> believed that economic recessions, such as those that had occurred in 1873 and 1907, were a necessary part of the business cycle because they purged the economy. In his memoirs, Hoover wrote that <mask> advised him to "liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate the farmers, liquidate real estate. Purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down.... enterprising people will pick up the wrecks from less competent people." Facing a large deficit, <mask> and Mills called for a return to the tax rates set by the Revenue Act of 1924 and also sought new taxes on automobiles, gasoline, and other items. Congress responded by passing the Revenue Act of 1932, which included many of the Treasury Department's proposals. In early 1932, Congressman Wright Patman of Texas initiated impeachment proceedings against <mask>, contending that <mask> had violated numerous federal laws designed to prevent conflicts of interest. Though <mask> had defeated similar investigations in the past, his falling popularity left him unable to effectively counter Patman's charges. Hoover removed <mask> from Washington by offering him the position of ambassador to the United Kingdom. <mask> accepted the post, and Mills replaced his former boss as Secretary of the Treasury.<mask> arrived in Britain in April 1932, receiving a friendly reception from a country he had often visited over the previous thirty years. From his post, he watched the collapse of the international economic order, including the debt accords that he had helped negotiate. He also convinced the British to allow Gulf Oil to operate in Kuwait, a British protectorate in the oil-rich region of the Persian Gulf. Defying <mask>'s expectations, Hoover was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 presidential election. <mask> left office when Hoover's term ended in March 1933, returning to private life after twelve years of government service. Pennsylvania politics, 1921–1933

Knox and Penrose both died in 1921, leaving a power vacuum in Pennsylvania Republican politics. Along with his nephew, William Larimer <mask>, <mask> became an influential player in Pennsylvania politics, and their support helped ensure the elections of Senator David A. Reed and Senator George W. Pepper in 1922.<mask> was unable to assert the same level of control that Boies Penrose had had over state politics, and his leadership of the state party was challenged by William Scott Vare of Philadelphia and progressive leader Gifford Pinchot, who won the 1922 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election. Nonetheless, <mask> would continue to exert an important influence on Pennsylvania politics throughout the 1920s, especially in senatorial elections and in Allegheny County. <mask>'s influence over state politics waned in the early 1930s, as the progressive allies of Governor Pinchot took control of the state Republican Party. Later life

Numerous financial institutions failed in the months prior to Roosevelt's inauguration, but Mellon National Bank, the Union Trust Company, and another Mellon banking operation, Mellbank Corporation, were all able to avoid closure. <mask> strongly opposed Roosevelt's New Deal policies, especially the 1933 Banking Act, which required separation between commercial and investment banking. <mask> believed that the various New Deal policies, including Social Security and unemployment insurance, undermined the free market system that had produced one of the largest economies in the world. Aside from banking reform, other New Deal policies, including regulations on utilities and coal mines and laws designed to promote labor unions, also affected Mellon's business empire.Additionally, the Revenue Act of 1934 and the Revenue Act of 1935 rescinded many of <mask>'s tax policies and contained other provisions that were designed to increase taxation on top earners and corporations. Even after leaving office, <mask> continued to be vilified by many in the public, and in 1933 Harvey O'Connor published a popular and unfavorable biography, <mask>'s Millions. Democrats won effective control of Allegheny County in the 1933 elections, and the following year Democrat Joseph F. Guffey won Pennsylvania's Senate election and George Howard Earle III won the state's gubernatorial election. <mask> endured numerous attacks during these campaigns, and his unpopularity in Pittsburgh led him to spend most of his final years in Washington rather than his home town. In the 1930s, the Roosevelt administration conducted several high-profile tax evasion prosecutions against individuals such as Thomas W. Lamont and Jimmy Walker. In response to accusations levied by Republican Congressman Louis Thomas McFadden of Pennsylvania in early 1933, Attorney General Homer Cummings began an inquiry into Mellon's tax history. Between February 1935 and May 1936, the Board of Tax Appeals heard a widely covered case in which the federal government accused <mask> of tax fraud.During the proceedings, <mask> divulged numerous details of his business career that had previously been unknown to the public. <mask> was diagnosed with cancer in November 1936. His health declined in 1937, and he died on August 26, 1937. Newspapers across the country took note of his death. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. stated that <mask> had lived through "an epoch in the economic history of the nation, and his passing takes one of the most important industrial and financial figures of our time". <mask> was buried at Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, Upperville, Virginia. Months after <mask>'s death, the Board of Tax Appeals handed down a ruling exonerating <mask> of all tax fraud charges.Family

In the early 1880s, <mask> had a serious relationship with Fannie Larimer Jones, but he broke off the relationship after learning that she was suffering from tuberculosis. After this experience, <mask> refrained from courting women for several years. In 1898, while traveling with Frick and Frick's wife to Europe, <mask> met Nora McMullen, a nineteen-year-old Englishwoman of Ulster Scots ancestry. <mask> visited McMullen's home of Hertford Castle in 1898 and 1899, and, after a period of courtship, Nora married <mask> in 1900. Nora gave birth to a daughter, Ailsa, in 1901. Nora disliked living in Pittsburgh, and she was unhappy in her marriage. By the end of 1903, she had begun an affair with Alfred George Curphey, who would also later be involved with the wife of George Vivian, 4th Baron Vivian.<mask> and Nora eventually reconciled, and in 1907 she gave birth to a son, Paul. The reconciliation proved short-lived, as Nora took up with Curphey again in 1908 and requested a divorce the following year. To avoid a public scandal, <mask> reluctantly agreed to a separation in 1909. Seeking to hold divorce proceedings privately before a judge rather than publicly before a jury, in 1911 <mask> convinced the Pennsylvania legislature to amend a law that had required a jury trial in divorce proceedings. In response, Nora attacked <mask> in the press, and the divorce proceedings were widely covered by the media. In 1912, <mask> and Nora finally agreed on a divorce settlement, largely on <mask>'s terms. <mask> did not remarry.Nora lived in Pittsburgh for several years before eventually settling in the Hudson Valley, and the two children alternated living with either parent. In 1923, Nora married Harvey Arthur Lee, a British-born antiques dealer 14 years her junior. Two years after the Lees' divorce in 1928, Nora Lee resumed the surname <mask>, at the request of her son, Paul. In the 1920s, while <mask> served as Secretary of the Treasury, Ailsa was courted by several influential men, including Otto Christian Archibald von Bismarck, Robert Horne, and Gelasio Caetani. In 1926, in the "greatest society event that the nation's capital had witnessed" since before World War I, Ailsa married David K. E. Bruce, son of Democratic Senator William Cabell Bruce of Maryland. After attending Yale University and the University of Cambridge, Paul briefly worked at Mellon National Bank. He later settled in Virginia, becoming a well-known philanthropist.<mask>'s nephew, Richard King <mask>, succeeded <mask> as the head of the <mask> financial empire. Philanthropy and art collection

Emulating his father, <mask> eschewed philanthropy for much of his life, but in the early 1900s, he began donating to local organizations such as the YMCA. <mask> committed to his first large-scale act of philanthropy in 1913, when he and his brother, Richard, established the Mellon Institute of Industrial Research as a department of the University of Pittsburgh. In 1965, the institute merged with the Carnegie Institute of Technology to form Carnegie Mellon University. <mask> also served as an alumni president and trustee of the University of Pittsburgh, and made several major donations to the school, including the land on which the Cathedral of Learning and Heinz Chapel were constructed. In total it is estimated that <mask> donated over $43 million to the University of Pittsburgh. Encouraged by Frick, and guided by Charles Carstairs.<mask> began collecting art in the mid-to-late 1890s. Over the ensuing decades, his art collection continued to grow as he purchased pieces from Knoedler and Joseph Duveen, and during the 1920s his collection was generally considered to be one of the finest art collections in Washington. In the early 1930s, he purchased, according to Cannadine, just under half of the "greatest paintings" from the Soviet Union's Hermitage Museum in the Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings. Twenty-one paintings, of the highest quality, were later given to the National Gallery of Art. <mask> decided to use his fortune and art collection to establish a national art museum in Washington modeled after the National Gallery in London. In 1936, <mask> presented President Roosevelt with an offer to establish a national art museum to which <mask> would donate his art collection as well as an endowment, while the federal government would pay for the institution's upkeep. He conditioned the offer on the establishment of a board of trustees, a majority of whom would be chosen by <mask>.Despite the ongoing tax case against <mask>, the Roosevelt administration accepted the offer, and Congress passed legislation authorizing the construction of the National Gallery of Art on <mask>'s terms. The National Gallery of Art opened in 1941 and continues to operate. <mask>'s friend and former employee, David E. Finley Jr., would later preside over the establishment of the National Portrait Gallery, which also hosts several paintings donated by <mask>. <mask> was initiated to the Scottish Rite Freemasonry, till he raised the 33rd and highest degree. Legacy

Memorials
The <mask> W. <mask> Memorial Fountain in Washington was created by Sidney Waugh and was dedicated in May 1952 by Harry S. Truman. Washington, D.C., also hosts the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium and the Andrew Mellon Building. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the product of the merger of the Avalon Foundation and the Old Dominion Foundation (set up separately by his children), is named in his honor, as is the 378-foot US Coast Guard Cutter <mask> (WHEC-717).In popular culture
The cartoon figure in black top hat and tails with white mustache on the board game Monopoly is modeled after <mask>. <mask><mask> appears in the HBO drama series Boardwalk Empire, in the fifth, eighth and twelfth episodes of the third season, in his capacity as Secretary of the Treasury. His character is played by Carnegie Mellon alumnus James Cromwell. In the alternate history/time travel story "A Slip in Time" by S. M. Stirling, featuring a history in which the First World War was avoided and the Austro-Hungarian Empire survived, <mask> was the President of the United States in 1926. <mask> is the subject of three unflattering chapters in Matt Stoller's 2019 book, Goliath: The 100 Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy, which recounts efforts by populists in Washington (namely, Congressman Wright Patman; Roosevelt administration lawyer Robert H. Jackson;  and Ferdinand Pecora, attorney for the Senate Banking Committee) to expose <mask>'s crimes and abuse of power for personal gain. See also
 List of wealthiest historical figures
 List of richest Americans in history

References

Works cited

Further reading

External links

 The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
<mask> W. <mask> and the National Gallery
 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article on history of the Mellons and Mellon Financial

1855 births
1937 deaths
20th-century American politicians
Ambassadors of the United States to the United Kingdom
American art collectors
American bankers
American Episcopalians
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American philanthropists
Coolidge administration cabinet members
Great Depression in the United States
Harding administration cabinet members
Hoover administration cabinet members
<mask> family
National Gallery of Art
Pennsylvania Republicans
Politicians from Pittsburgh
United States Secretaries of the Treasury
University of Pittsburgh alumni
Gilded Age
Burials in Virginia
Old Right (United States)
Museum founders
People acquitted of crimes
20th-century American

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title: Robert de Lenoncourt

texts:
<mask> (1485? – 4 February 1561) was a French bishop, Cardinal, and diplomat. He was the son of <mask>, Seigneur <mask>, Councillor and Chamberlain of the King, and <mask>. He had a brother, Henry, Sire de Lenoncourt and Baron of Vignory, a sister named Jacquette, who married Jean d'Aguerre, son of the Governor of Mouzon (January 1509), and a sister named Nicole, who married Érard du Châtelet. <mask>'s paternal uncle, also called <mask>, was Archbishop of Reims. Biography
From 1515 to 1536 <mask> was Prior of the monastery of S. Portianus (Pourçain) in the diocese of Clermont. In 1523 he was named Abbot of the Abbey of S. Rémi in Reims.In 1537 he restored the tomb of Saint Rémi. In 1530 he was named Abbot of the royal abbey of Tournus, making his formal entry on 4 June 1531. He was also a Protonotary Apostolic and Almoner to the King and Queen of Navarre, Henry II and Marguerite of Angoulême, the sister of King Francis I of France. Lenoncourt was Treasurer of the Church of Reims, and held a license in utroque iure (both Civil Law and Canon Law). <mask> was apparently Vicar-General of the diocese of Reims, during the episcopacy of Cardinal <mask> Guise-Lorraine (1532-1538). Chalons
<mask> was appointed Bishop of Châlons by Francis I of France in 1535, an appointment confirmed by Pope Paul III (Farnese) on 10 May 1535. He resigned the diocese in 1550, in favor of his nephew Philippe, though he continued to be Administrator of the Diocese of Châlons until Philippe's consecration; as part of the arrangement he retained the use of the house of the Bishops of Châlons in Paris.As Bishop of Châlons he was present among the Peers of France in the Lit de Justice of 15 January 1536 [1537], against the Emperor Charles V. <mask> <mask> was sent as Ambassador to the Emperor by Francis I, in the matter of the Duchy of Guelders which was a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, but which was in alliance with the French, thanks to a secret treaty of October 1534. The Duke of Guelders (1538-1543), William, Duke of Jülich-Cleves-Berg, married King Francis' niece, Jeanne d'Albret, in 1541. <mask> was created a Cardinal Priest in the Consistory of 20 December 1538 by Pope Paul III. He was admitted to Consistory and given his red hat on 19 March 1540, and on 7 October 1540 he was assigned the titulus of Santa Anastasia. On 10 October 1547 he was translated to the titulus of Sant'Apollinare, and on 11 December 1555 to Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. In 1538, <mask> <mask> was named Prior of the Prieuré de la Charité-sur-Loire, which he held until his death. The priory was burned during the Third War of Religion, and the inhabitants scattered.After some disorder, Cardinal <mask> was succeeded by his nephew Philippe in 1564. <mask> <mask> was granted the Abbey of Saint-Martin de Laon in 1545 and held it until 1548, when he was succeeded by Cardinal <mask> Lorraine. Metz
Cardinal <mask> was granted the diocese of Metz on 22 April 1551 by Pope Julius III, in succession to Cardinal <mask> Guise-Lorraine, which he held until December 1555. He was the first bishop of Metz in sixty-seven years to personally take up his charge. With the Treaty of Chambord in 1552, Metz became a part of France and remained so until 1871. King Henri II himself spent three days in Metz, receiving the fealty of his subjects, and then left the <mask> Guise, <mask> Guise-Lorraine, as his Lieutenant-General. In January 1552 Cardinal <mask> convoked a meeting of the Estates-General of Metz, but his actions appeared to the citizens to be an effort to concentrate all the power in the city in his own hands.Their strong reaction compelled the Cardinal to withdraw the Estates to the town of Vic, just east of Nancy. On 10 April he helped to introduce a French army into Metz. He was instrumental in overthrowing the republic which had existed under Charles V in favor of the French, manipulating the elections for the Council by naming candidates and choosing the Maître-Échevin (President) himself. Cardinal <mask> resumed the coinage of money in Metz, in his own name, in 1553. He then sent a memorandum to the King, in which he requested military assistance. The King sent <mask> Vieilleville to garrison Metz and Vic, and the Marshal quickly took the entire territory under his control. Cardinal <mask> lost everything for which he had been working, and went so far as to seek the aid of the Emperor in trying to eject the French garrison from Metz.In 1556 the citizens of Metz petitioned the King of France for relief from their bishop, but <mask>, who had been in Rome for the second Conclave of 1555, had already been transferred to Embrun. It was perhaps the easiest way to solve the political and military problems created by an overzealous supporter of French interests and his own advantage. Embrun, Auxerre
<mask> was named Archbishop of Embrun by King Henri II of France, the appointment being approved by Pope Paul IV (Carafa) in Consistory on 23 March 1556. He held the post until the King appointed him to the diocese of Auxerre. Cardinal <mask> was approved by Pope Paul IV as bishop of Auxerre on 4 October 1556. Possession of the See was carried out by a procurator on 30 October 1556, and he never visited his diocese personally. One of his vicars was his nephew <mask> <mask>.His spiritual functions were carried out by Fr. Philippe Munier, Titular Bishop of Philadelphia In 1557 the Cardinal appointed his nephew, <mask> <mask>, Abbot of Essômes, to represent him at a meeting of the Estates of Burgundy. He was succeeded by his nephew Philippe, who made his solemn entry into Auxerre on 8 December 1560, the splendid details of which were recorded and witnessed by a notary. Philippe was accompanied by his brother Jean, Baron de Vignory. On the nomination of the King, <mask> <mask> became Prince and Archbishop of Arles in 1560. His spiritual functions as Archbishop were carried out by his Suffragan and Perpetual Vicar, <mask> Bisqueriis, Titular Bishop of Nicopolis. He was succeeded by Antoine d'Albon (1561-1562), and then by Cardinal Ippolito d'Este in 1564.On 3 July 1560, the Archbishop, bishop, Provost, Canons and other clergy of the diocese of Arles were accused by the citizens of Arles in the Parliament of Provence of failing, despite more than sufficient revenues assigned for the purpose, to provide preachers for the churches in the diocese on Sundays, Feast Days, Advent and Lent and other major occasions. While the new Archbishop had only received his bulls in February, he and his clergy were put on notice that the people were unhappy with the quality of service being provided. Cardinal <mask> <mask> participated in the Conclave of 5 September–25 December 1559 which resulted in the election of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo <mask>' Medici, who took the throne name of Pope Pius IV. The French candidates, chosen by King Henri and Queen Catherine, were Cardinal Ippolito d'Este, Cardinal <mask> Tournon, and Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga of Mantua, none of whom was actually papabile. On 13 March 1560 he was also created suburbicarian Bishop of Sabina. Death
Cardinal <mask> <mask> died in France at his Priory of La Charité-sur-Loire on 4 February 1561. His body was desecrated by the Huguenots, burned and the ashes scattered in the Loire.Notes

Bibliography

Michon, Cédric, "Cardinals at the Court of Francis I,"

1561 deaths
16th-century French cardinals
Cardinal-bishops of Sabina
Bishops of Auxerre
Bishops of Châlons-sur-Marne
Bishops of Embrun
Bishops of Metz
Archbishops of Arles
Year of birth unknown
16th-century peers of France

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title: Anthony van Dyck

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Sir <mask> (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of <mask>, a wealthy Antwerp silk merchant, <mask> painted from an early age. He was successful as an independent painter in his late teens, and became a master in the Antwerp guild in 1618. By this time he was working in the studio of the leading northern painter of the day, Peter Paul Rubens, who became a major influence on his work. <mask> worked in London for some months in 1621, then returned to Flanders for a brief time, before travelling to Italy, where he stayed until 1627, mostly in Genoa. In the late 1620s he completed his greatly admired Iconography series of portrait etchings, mostly of other artists. He spent five years in Flanders after his return from Italy, and from 1630 was court painter for the archduchess Isabella, Habsburg Governor of Flanders.In 1632 he returned to London to be the main court painter, at the request of Charles I of England. With the exception of Holbein, <mask> and his contemporary Diego Velázquez were the first painters of pre-eminent talent to work mainly as court portraitists, revolutionising the genre. He is best known for his portraits of the aristocracy, most notably Charles I, and his family and associates. <mask> became the dominant influence on English portrait-painting for the next 150 years. He also painted mythological and biblical subjects, including altarpieces, displayed outstanding facility as a draughtsman, and was an important innovator in watercolour and etching. His superb brushwork, apparently rather quickly painted, can usually be distinguished from the large areas painted by his many assistants. His portrait style changed considerably between the different countries he worked in, culminating in the relaxed elegance of his last English period.His influence extends into the modern period. The Van Dyke beard is named after him. During his lifetime, Charles I granted him a knighthood, and he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, an indication of his standing at the time of his death. Life and work

Education
Antoon <mask> (his Flemish name) was born to prosperous parents in Antwerp. His father was Frans <mask>, a silk merchant, and his mother was Maria Cupers, daughter of Dirk Cupers and Catharina Conincx. He was baptised on 23 March 1599 (as Anthonio). His talent was evident very early, and he was studying painting with Hendrick <mask> by 1609, and became an independent painter around 1615, setting up a workshop with his even younger friend Jan Brueghel the Younger.By the age of fifteen he was already a highly accomplished artist, as his Self-portrait, 1613–14, shows. He was admitted to the Antwerp painters' Guild of Saint Luke as a free master by February 1618. Within a few years he was to be the chief assistant to the dominant master of Antwerp, and the whole of Northern Europe, Peter Paul Rubens, who made much use of sub-contracted artists as well as his own large workshop. His influence on the young artist was immense. Rubens referred to the nineteen-year-old <mask> as "the best of my pupils". The origins and exact nature of their relationship are unclear. It has been speculated that <mask> was a pupil of Rubens from about 1613, as even his early work shows little trace of <mask>'s style, but there is no clear evidence for this.At the same time the dominance of Rubens in the relatively small and declining city of Antwerp probably explains why, despite his periodic returns to the city, <mask> spent most of his career abroad. In 1620, in Rubens's contract for the major commission for the ceiling of the Carolus Borromeuskerk, the Jesuit church at Antwerp (lost to fire in 1718), <mask> is specified as one of the "discipelen" who was to execute the paintings to Rubens' designs. Unlike <mask>, Rubens worked for most of the courts of Europe, but avoided exclusive attachment to any of them. Italy

In 1620, at the instigation of George Villiers, Marquess of Buckingham, <mask> went to England for the first time where he worked for King James I of England, receiving £100. It was in London in the collection of the Earl of Arundel that he first saw the work of Titian, whose use of colour and subtle modeling of form would prove transformational, offering a new stylistic language that would enrich the compositional lessons learned from Rubens. He returned to Flanders after about four months, and then left in late 1621 for Italy, where he remained for six years. There he studied the Italian masters while starting a successful career as a portraitist.He was already presenting himself as a figure of consequence, annoying the rather bohemian Northern artist's colony in Rome, says <mask> Pietro Bellori, by appearing with "the pomp of Zeuxis ... his behaviour was that of a nobleman rather than an ordinary person, and he shone in rich garments. Since he was accustomed in the circle of Rubens to noblemen, and being naturally of elevated mind, and anxious to make himself distinguished, he therefore wore—as well as silks—a hat with feathers and brooches, gold chains across his chest, and was accompanied by servants." He was mostly based in Genoa, although he also travelled extensively to other cities, and stayed for some time in Palermo in Sicily, where he was quarantined during the 1624 plague, one of the worst in Sicily's history. There he produced an important series of paintings of the city's plague saint Saint Rosalia. His depictions of a young woman with flowing blonde hair wearing a Franciscan cowl and reaching down toward the city of Palermo in its peril, became the standard iconography of the saint from that time onward and was extremely influential for Italian Baroque painters, from Luca Giordano to Pietro Novelli. Versions include those in Madrid, Houston, London, New York and Palermo, as well as Saint Rosalia Interceding for the City of Palermo in Puerto Rico, and Coronation of Saint Rosalia in Vienna. <mask>'s series of St Rosalia paintings have been studied by Gauvin Alexander Bailey and Xavier F. Salomon, both of whom curated or co-curated exhibitions devoted to the theme of Italian art and the plague.In 2020, the New York Times published an article about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's painting of Saint Rosalia by <mask> in the context of the COVID-19 virus. For the Genoese aristocracy, then in a final flush of prosperity, he developed a full-length portrait style, drawing on Veronese and Titian as well as Rubens' style from his own period in Genoa, where extremely tall but graceful figures look down on the viewer with great hauteur. In 1627, he went back to Antwerp where he remained for five years, painting more affable portraits which still made his Flemish patrons look as stylish as possible. A life-size group portrait of twenty-four City Councillors of Brussels he painted for the council-chamber was destroyed in 1695. He was evidently very charming to his patrons, and, like Rubens, well able to mix in aristocratic and court circles, which added to his ability to obtain commissions. By 1630, he was described as the court painter of the Habsburg Governor of Flanders, the Archduchess Isabella. In this period he also produced many religious works, including large altarpieces, and began his printmaking.London

King Charles I was the most passionate collector of art among the Stuart kings, and saw painting as a way of promoting his elevated view of the monarchy. In 1628, he bought the fabulous collection that the Duke of Mantua was forced to sell, and he had been trying since his accession in 1625 to bring leading foreign painters to England. In 1626, he was able to persuade Orazio Gentileschi to settle in England, later to be joined by his daughter Artemisia and some of his sons. Rubens was an especial target, who eventually in 1630 came on a diplomatic mission, which included painting, and he later sent Charles more paintings from Antwerp. Rubens was very well-treated during his nine-month visit, during which he was knighted. Charles's court portraitist, Daniel Mytens, was a somewhat pedestrian Dutchman. Charles was very short, less than  tall, and presented challenges to a portrait artist.<mask> remained in touch with the English court and helped King Charles's agents in their search for pictures. He sent some of his own works, including a self portrait (1623) with Endymion Porter, one of Charles's agents, his  Rinaldo and Armida (1629), and a religious picture for the Queen. He had also painted Charles's sister, Queen Elizabeth of Bohemia, at The Hague in 1632. In April of that year, <mask> returned to London and was taken under the wing of the court immediately, being knighted in July and at the same time receiving a pension of £200 a year, in the grant of which he was described as principalle Paynter in ordinary to their majesties. He was well paid for his paintings in addition to this, at least in theory, as King Charles did not actually pay over his pension for five years, and reduced the price of many paintings. He was provided with a house on the River Thames at Blackfriars, then just outside the City of London, thus avoiding the monopoly of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers. A suite of rooms in Eltham Palace, no longer used by the royal family, was also put at his disposal as a country retreat.These residences were managed by his partner Margaret Lemon. His Blackfriars studio was frequently visited by the King and Queen (later a special causeway was built to ease their access), who hardly sat for another painter while <mask> lived. He was an immediate success in England, where he painted large numbers of portraits of the King and Queen Henrietta Maria, as well as their children. Many portraits were done in several versions, to be sent as diplomatic gifts or given to supporters of the increasingly embattled king. Altogether <mask> has been estimated to have painted forty portraits of King Charles himself, as well as about thirty of the Queen, nine of the Earl of Strafford, and multiple ones of other courtiers. He painted many of the court, and also himself and his mistress, Margaret Lemon. In England he developed a version of his style which combined a relaxed elegance and ease with an understated authority in his subjects which was to dominate English portrait-painting to the end of the 18th century.Many of these portraits have a lush landscape background. His portraits of Charles on horseback updated the grandeur of Titian's Emperor Charles V, but even more effective and original is his portrait of Charles dismounted in the Louvre: "Charles is given a totally natural look of instinctive sovereignty, in a deliberately informal setting where he strolls so negligently that he seems at first glance nature's gentleman rather than England's King". Although his portraits have created the classic idea of "Cavalier" style and dress, in fact a majority of his most important patrons in the nobility, such as Lord Wharton and the Earls of Bedford, Northumberland and Pembroke, took the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War that broke out soon after his death. The King in Council by letters patent granted <mask>ck denizenship in 1638, and he married Mary Ruthven, with whom he had one daughter. Mary was the daughter of Patrick Ruthven, who, although the title was forfeited, styled himself Lord Ruthven. She was a Lady-in-waiting to the Queen in 1639–40; this may have been instigated by the King in an attempt to keep him in England. He had spent most of 1634 in Antwerp, returning the following year, and in 1640–41, as the Civil War loomed, spent several months in Flanders and France.In 1640 he accompanied prince John Casimir of Poland after he was freed from French imprisonment. A letter dated 13 August 1641, from Lady Roxburghe in England to a correspondent in The Hague, reported that <mask> was recuperating from a long illness. In November, <mask>'s condition worsened,

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