Word Finder - fortresses

definition

A fortified place; a large and permanent fortification, sometimes including a town; for example a fort, a castle; a stronghold; a place of defense or security.

definition

A position that, if obtained by the weaker side, will prevent penetration by the opposing side, generally achieving a draw.

His action in the matters just named, as also in the complex affair of the secularizations of clerical domains in Germany (February 1803), belongs properly to the history of those countries; but we may here note that, even before the signature of the peace of Amiens (27th of March 1802), he had effected changes in the constitution of the Batavian (Dutch) republic, which placed power in the hands of the French party and enabled him to keep French troops in the chief Dutch fortresses, despite the recently signed treaty of Luneville which guaranteed the independence of that republic. His treatment of the Italians was equally high-handed.

Meanwhile the Cretan campaign continued, and here also France lent her aid to the Venetians; this assistance could not, however, prevent the capture of Candia in 1669; on the 5th of September of that year Morosini, the Venetian commander, signed a treaty of peace with the Turks by which, after twenty-five years' warfare, they were placed in possession of the fortress of Candia, and with it of the effective rule over the whole island, Venice retaining only the fortresses of Suda, Grabusa and Spinalonga, and the islets along the coast.

The attempts of the Habsburgs to conquer Transylvania drew down upon them two fresh Turkish invasions, the first in 1552, when the sultan's generals captured Temesvar and fifty-four lesser forts or fortresses, and the second in 1566, memorable as Suleiman's last descent upon Hungary, and also for the heroic defence of Szigetvar by Miklos Zrinyi, one of the classical sieges of history.

He stormed fortresses with thirty thousand men.

Kamenski sent soldiers to Rustchuk, but I only employed these two things and took more fortresses than Kamenski and made them Turks eat horseflesh!

For himself Bethlen secured the title of prince of the Empire, the seven counties of the Upper Theiss, and the fortresses of Tokaj, Munkacs and Ecsed.

The chief first-class fortresses of Russia are Warsaw and Novogeorgievsk in Poland, and Brest-Litovsk and Kovno in Lithuania.

The second-class fortresses are Kronstadt and Sveaborg in the Gulf of Finland, Ivangorod in Poland, Libau on the Baltic Sea, Kerch on the Black Sea and Vladivostok on the Pacific. In the third class are Viborg in Finland, Ossovets and Ust Dvinsk (or Dunamunde) in Lithuania, Sevastopol and Ochakov on the Black Sea, and Kars and Batum in Caucasia.

In June Romanzov's victory at Kartal made him master of the principalities, and by November the fortresses of Izmail and Kilia, guarding the passage of the Danube, and those of Akkerman and Bender on the Dniester had fallen into the hands of the Russians.

During February and March 1808 the frontier fortresses of Pampeluna, St Sebastian, Barcelona and Figueras were treacherously occupied and Spain lay at the feet of Napoleon.

The regular army of his province and the fortresses were independent of him and commanded by royal officers; but he was allowed to have troops in his own service (in later times mostly Greek mercenaries).

In western Germany the Prussian forces, depleted to the utmost to furnish troops for the Bohemian campaign, were opposed to the armies of Hanover and Bavaria and the 8th Federal corps (the last consisting of Hessians, Wurttembergers, Badensers and Nassauers with an Austrian division drawn from the neutralized Federal fortresses), which were far superior in number.

My allies will block their roads and take the fortresses at the borders, among other actions.

He had raised him to princely rank, endowed him with property which made him the greatest territorial magnate in the kingdom, placed in his hands the sacred crown and half-a-dozen of the strongest fortresses, and won over to his cause the majority of the royal council.

Under the circumstances, we cannot wonder if the frontier fortresses fell to pieces, and the border troops, unpaid for years, took to brigandage.

The first blow fell in 1521, when Sultan Suleiman appeared before the southern fortresses of Sabac and Belgrade, both of which fell into his hands during the course of the year.

Federal fortresses set at liberty von Beyer's division for field service in the west.

Moreover the little fortresses of Josephstadt and Koniggratz both refused to capitulate, and the whole Prussian armies were thus compelled to move down the Elbe to Pardubitz before they could receive any definite new direction.

He gradually obtained full possession of Navarre and the Basque provinces, outside of the fortresses, which he had not the means to besiege.

Ivan intervened in 1558 and quickly captured Narva, Dorpat and a dozen smaller fortresses; then, in 1560, Livonia placed herself beneath the protection of Poland, and King Sigismund II.

One of these areas is defined by the three fortresses, La Fre, Laon and Reims, the other by the triangle, LangresDijonBesancon.

On the side of Belgium the danger of irruption through neutral territory, which has for many years been foreseen, is provided against by the fortresses of Lille, Valenciennes and Maubeuge, but (with a view to tempting the Germans to attack through Luxemburg, as is stated by German authorities) the frontier between Maubeuge and Verdun is left practically undefended.

Behind all this huge development of fixed defences lie the central fortresses of Paris and Lyons.

Of the coast defences the principal are Toulon, Antibes, Rochefort, Lorient, Brest, Olron, La Rochelle, BelleIsle, Cherbourg,St-Malo, Havre, Calais, Gravelines and Dunkirk A number of the older fortresses, dating for the most part from Louis XIV.s time, are still in existence, but are no longer of military importance.

The principal fortresses of the country were in the hands of Spanish garrisons, who refused obedience to the council.

Before his arrival the Dublin garrison had defeated Ormonde with a loss of 5000 men, and Cromwell's work was limited to the capture of detached fortresses.

Unlike any other buildings in Abyssinia, the castles and palaces of Gondar resemble, with some modifications, the medieval fortresses of Europe, the style of architecture being the result of the presence in the country of numbers of Portuguese.

Being built midway between the Sierra de Priego and Sierra Parapanda, and commanding the open valley between these ranges, it became one of the chief frontier fortresses of the Moors in the 15th century.

The endless tergiversations and depredations of the emperor speedily induced Matthias to declare war against him for the third time (1481), the Magyar king conquering all the fortresses in Frederick's hereditary domains.

The fortresses in the basin of the Po chiefly belong to the era of divided Italy and are now out of date; the chief coast fortresses are Vado, Genoa, Spezia, Monte Argentaro, Gacta, Straits of Messina, Taranto, Maddalena.

As the supremacy of Rome extended itself Roads, over Italy, the Roman road system grew step by step, each fresh conquest being marked by the pushing forward of roads through the heart of the newly-won territory, and the establishment of fortresses in connection with them.

Agreeably to feudal customs, these nobles, as they grew in power, retired from the town, and built themselves fortresses on points of vantage in the neighborhood.

The line of fortresses protecting Austria from Italy lies in some places well back from the political boundary, but just inside the linguistic frontier, so as to separate the German and Italian races occupying Austrian territory.

In the course of the summer he took the fortresses of Arad, Lippa and Vilagos; provided himself with guns and trained gunners; and one of his bands advanced to within five leagues of the capital.

Between `Ana and Hit there were anciently at least four island cities or fortresses, and at the present time three such towns, insignificant relics of former greatness, Haditha, Alus or el-`Uzz and Jibba still occupy the old sites.

The queen interposed to prevent the execution of those who had counselled the crucifixion of the rebels and permitted them to withdraw with her younger son Aristobulus to the fortresses outside Jerusalem.

Greece was at the same time summoned to remove its army and fleet from the island, while the Turkish troops were to be concentrated in the fortresses and eventually withdrawn.

In the meantime, however, Pomerania had been devastated by the Thirty Years' War and occupied by the Swedes, who had taken possession of its towns and fortresses.

In 1229 the Order began the conquest of Prussia, founding fortresses at each step to rivet its conquests (for instance, at Thorn, named after Toron in Palestine), much as the AngloNormans had done in their conquest of Wales.

Further, owing to the carelessness of the Prussian negotiator, Napoleon was able to require the exaction of impossibly large sums from that exhausted land, and therefore to keep his troops in her chief fortresses.

Napoleon, on the other hand, had utterly failed in his Spanish enterprise; and the tsar felt sure that his rival must soon withdraw French garrisons from the fortresses of the Oder to the frontier of Spain.

Napoleon on his side succeeded in adjourning the question of the partition of Turkey; but he awarded the Danubian provinces and Finland to his ally and agreed to withdraw the French garrisons from the Prussian' fortresses on the Oder.

Before he could pass the river with safety it was necessary to subdue certain fortresses, one of which was for several days vigorously defended by the governor, Yussuf Kothual, a Kharizmian.

He conquered in 1135 several fortresses in the east of the principality of Antioch, and in this year and the next pressed the count of Tripoli hard; while in 1137 he defeated Fulk at Barin, and forced the king to capitulate and surrender the town.

But the strength of the kingdom lay less perhaps in the army than in the magnificent fortresses which the nobility, and especially the two orders, had built; and the most visible relic of the crusades to-day is the towering ruins of a fortress like Krak (Kerak) des Chevaliers, the fortress of the Knights of St John in the principality of Tripoli.

These fortresses, garrisoned not by the king, as in Norman England, but by their possessors, would only strengthen the power of the feudatories, and help to dissipate the kingdom into a number of local units.

From this period until late in the 19th century it remained the most important of the line of fortresses along the Meuse.

While recognized by a temple of her own in Nippur and honoured by rulers at various times by having votive offerings made in her honour and fortresses dedicated in her name, she, as all other goddesses in Babylonia and Assyria with the single exception of Ishtar, is overshadowed by her male consort.

Murad thereupon returned to Europe with a large force, and sent Chendereli Zade Ali Pasha northwards; the fortresses of Shumla, Pravadi, Trnovo, Nicopolis and Silistria were taken by him; Sisman III., rebel king of Bulgaria, was punished and Bulgaria once more subjugated.

Russia, however, retained the fortresses of Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn, with the desert country between the Bug and the Dnieper, while Ochakov was left to the Turks.