Word Finder - overtures

definition

An opening; a recess or chamber.

definition

Disclosure; discovery; revelation.

definition

(often in plural) An approach or proposal made to initiate communication, establish a relationship etc.

definition

A motion placed before a legislative body, such as the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

definition

A musical introduction to a piece of music.

Overtures had been made to him, as early as 1807, to enter the Russian service, but Napoleon, hearing of his intention to leave the French army, compelled him to remain in the service with the rank of general of brigade.

The state rejected decisively the overtures made by Virginia in 1866, looking towards a reunion of the commonwealths.

Bocchus again made overtures to the Romans, and after an interview with Sulla, who was Marius's quaestor at that time, sent ambassadors to Rome.

Overtures were unquestionably made by Thebes for an alliance with Aegina c. but they came to nothing.

After the second of these insurrections, Bethlen attempted a rapprochement with the court of Vienna on the basis of an alliance against the Turks and his own marriage with one of the Austrian archduchesses; but Ferdinand had no confidence in him and rejected his overtures.

The overtures were favourably received, the council at Brussels was forcibly dissolved, and a congress met at Ghent on the 10th of October to consider what measures must be taken for the pacification of the country.

Murat, left in command of the Grand Army at of ?VapoVilna, abandoned his charge and in the next year made Icons overtures to the allies who coalesced against Napoleon.

At the last meeting of the Lambeth Conference (1907) some overtures, on certain conditions, were made for (a) joint consecration of bishops, (b) joint ordination of ministers, (c) interchange of pulpits.

The French court would not accept his overtures, and it was only in the summer of 1401 that a truce was patched up by the restoration of Richard's child-queen, Isabella of Valois.

Shane O'Neill (C. 1530-1567) was a chieftain whose support was worth gaining by the English even during his father's lifetime; but rejecting overtures from the earl of Sussex, the lord deputy, Shane refused to help the English against the Scottish settlers on the coast of Antrim, allying himself instead with the MacDonnells, the most powerful of these immigrants.

Isolated by the departure of the papal nuncio from Ireland in February 1649, he made overtures for alliance to Ormonde, and afterwards with success to Monck, who had superseded Monro in command of the parliamentarians in the north.

Witowt, however, convinced himself that the German knights were far more dangerous than his Lithuanian rival; he accepted pacific overtures from Jagiello and became his ally.

The Fructidorian Directors contemptuously rejected the overtures for peace which Pitt had recently made through the medium of Lord Malmesbury at Lille; and they further illustrated their desire for war and plunder by initiating a forward policy in central Italy and Switzerland which opened up a new cycle of war.

Opinions were divided in the emperor's circle between a Russian and an Austrian princess; but the marked coolness with which overtures for the hand of the tsar's sister were received at St Petersburg, and the skill with which Count Metternich, the Austrian chancellor, let it be known that a union with the archduchess, Marie Louise, would be welcomed at Schonbrunn, helped to decide the matter.

After the disastrous defeat of Leipzig (r 7th-19th Dctober 1813), when French domination in Germany and Italy -vanished like an exhalation, the allies gave Napoleon another opportunity to come to terms. The overtures known as the Frankfcrt terms were ostensibly an answer to the request for information which Napoleon made at the field of Leipzig.

His counsellor, Las Cases, strongly urged that step and made overtures to Captain Maitland of H.M.S.

He made more than one attempt to be reconciled with Alphonso, but, his overtures being rejected, he turned his arms against the enemies of the Beni Houd, extending their dominions at the expense of the Christian states VI.

Beaton was one of King James's most trusted advisers, and it was mainly due to his influence that the king drew closer the French alliance and refused Henry VIII.'s overtures to follow him in his religious policy.

In 1599 the first peace overtures were made, but came to nothing; and the confused fighting of this and the following year culminated in the capture of Kanizsa by the Turks (September 1600).

Elizabeth would not consent to any pacific overtures until the original object of the league had been accomplished.

The Boers, however, strongly resented the contention of the British that they could not shake off British nationality though beyond the bounds of any recognized British possession, nor were they prepared to see their only port garrisoned by British troops, and they rejected Napier's overtures.

Lord Palmerston was again prime minister, and having discovered that the advanced liberal party was not so easily "crushed" as he had apprehended, he made overtures of reconciliation, and invited Cobden and Milner Gibson to become members of his government.

At this juncture (October 1895) came overtures to the leading Uitlanders.

To the overtures of Ricasoli in 1861, Pius IX., at Antonelli's suggestion, replied with the famous "Non possumus," but subsequently (1867) accepted, too late, Ricasoli's proposal concerning ecclesiastical property.

He maintained excellent relations with Pope John XXII., who made overtures to him, indirectly, offering his support in case of his candidature for the imperial crown.

In May 1814 Saud died, and his son,Abdallah, attempted to negotiate, but Mehemet Ali refused all overtures, and in January 1815 advanced into Nejd, defeated the Wahhabi army and occupied Ras, then the chief town in Kasim.

They have a see at Bagdad, a monastery (Rabban Hormuz) at Elk06sh, and are called by those Syrian Christians who have resisted the papal overtures, Maghlabin (" the conquered").

He made overtures to his younger brother Murad, governor of Gujarat, representing that neither of their elder brothers was worthy of the kingdom, that he himself had no temporal ambition, and desired only to place a fit monarch on the throne, and then to devote himself to religious exercises and make the pilgrimage to Mecca.

This decision at first gave offence to the Bolivians, but friendly overtures from Peru led to its acceptance by both parties with the understanding that modifications would be made in locating the line wherever actual settlements had been made by either party on territory awarded to the other.

His great object was doubtless to gain supreme power and to keep it by any means, and by any betrayal that the circumstances demanded; and it is not without significance perhaps that on the very day of Oxford's dismissal he gave a dinner to the Whig leaders, and on the day preceding the queen's death ordered overtures to be made to the elector.5 On the accession of George I.

It is not, therefore, surprising that when Pausanias was recalled to Sparta on the charge of treasonable overtures to the Persians, the Ionian allies appealed to the Athenians on the grounds of kinship and urgent necessity, and that when Sparta sent out Dorcis to supersede Pausanias he found Aristides in unquestioned command of the allied fleet.

This new coalition naturally alarmed Sparta, which at once made overtures to Athens on the ground of their common danger from Thebes.

He showed no repugnance to a change of masters, and began to make overtures to the Medici.

After a year and a half in London, Franklin was persuaded by a friend named Denham, a Quaker merchant, to return with him to America and engage in mercantile business; he accordingly gave up printing, but a few days before sailing he received a tempting offer to remain and give lessons in swimming - his feats as a swimmer having given him considerable reputation - and he says that he might have consented " had the overtures been sooner made."

After bold and repeated overtures for an exchange of prisoners - an important matter, both because the American frigates had no place in which to - stow away their prisoners, and because of the maltreatment _ of American captives in such prisons as Dartmoor - exchanges began at the end of March 1779, although there were annoying delays, and immediately after November 1781 there was a long break in the agreement; and the Americans discharged from English prisons were constantly in need of money.

Ambassadors from the Allobroges being at the time in Rome, the bearers of a complaint against the oppressions of provincial governors, Lentulus made overtures to them, with the object of obtaining armed assistance.

He had a hand in the pacific overtures which Bonaparte, early in the year 1800, sent to the court of London; and, whatever may have been the motives of the First Consul in sending them, it is certain that Talleyrand regretted their failure.

Ewen refused his overtures, and Alexander sailed forth to compel him.

To this period belong five Masses, a dozen operas, over thirty clavier-sonatas, over forty quartets, over a hundred orchestral symphonies and overtures, a Stabat Mater, a set of interludes for the service of the Seven Words, an Oratorio Tobias written for the Tonkiinstler-Societe t of Vienna, and a vast number of concertos, divertimenti and smaller pieces, among which were no less than 175 for Prince Nicholas' favourite instrument, the baryton.

The compositions of Haydn include 104 symphonies, 16 overtures, 76 quartets, 68 trios, 54 sonatas, 31 concertos and a large number of divertimentos, cassations and other instrumental pieces; 24 operas and dramatic pieces, 16 Masses, a Stabat Mater, interludes for the " Seven Words," 3 oratorios, 2 Te Deums and many smaller pieces for the church, over 40 songs, over 50 canons and arrangements of Scottish and Welsh national melodies.

Peaceful overtures from Pretorius were declined, and some of his partisans in the Free State were accused %f treason (February 1857).

Before the coup d'etat of Brumaire he helped Napoleon in making overtures to Sieyes and Moreau, but otherwise did little.

He had not been on the throne for two months when he made pacific overtures to the wellnigh vanquished king of Prussia, whom he habitually alluded to as "the king my master."

He at once made peace with his cousin; restored him his patrimony; and, to secure Lithuania against the future vengeance of the Knights, Jagiello made overtures to Poland for the hand of Jadwiga, and received the Polish crown along with it, as already mentioned Before proceeding to describe the Jagiellonic period of Polish history, it is necessary to cast a rapid glance at the social and political condition of the country in the preceding Piast period.

On the loss of his recently made fleet and forts on ..he western coast, Hyder Ali now offered overtures for peace; on the rejection of these, bringing all his resources and strategy into play, he forced Colonel Smith to raise the siege of Bangalore, and brought his army within 5 m.

When the first serious overtures for her hand were made on behalf of Charles, prince of Wales, in the spring of 1624, she was little more than fourteen years of age.

In the London convention of February 1884, conceded by Lord Derby in response to the overtures of Boer delegates, the Transvaal boundaries were again defined, part of eastern Bechuanaland being included in Boer territory.

Passing Mahanaim ("camps"), where he saw the camps of God, Jacob sent to Esau with friendly overtures.

When her overtures were rejected, she embraced him and entreated the gods that she might be for ever united with him.

Many of the supporters of hilip now made overtures to Otto, and an attempt to set up Henry I.