Eye of Horus

The Eye of Horus, also known as left wedjat eye or udjat eye, specular to the Eye of Ra (right wedjat eye), is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in which Set tore out or destroyed one or both of Horus's eyes and the eye was subsequently healed or returned to Horus with the assistance of another deity, such as Thoth. Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased father Osiris, and its revitalizing power sustained Osiris in the afterlife. The Eye of Horus was thus equated with funerary offerings, as well as with all the offerings given to deities in temple ritual. It could also represent other concepts, such as the moon, whose waxing and waning was likened to the injury and restoration of the eye.

The Eye of Horus symbol, a stylized eye with distinctive markings, was believed to have protective magical power and appeared frequently in ancient Egyptian art. It was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) to the Roman period (30 BC – 641 AD). Pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins during the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC). Other contexts where the symbol appeared include on carved stone stelae and on the bows of boats. To some extent the symbol was adopted by the people of regions neighboring Egypt, such as Syria, Canaan, and especially Nubia.

The eye symbol was also rendered as a hieroglyph (). Egyptologists have long believed that hieroglyphs representing pieces of the symbol stand for fractions in ancient Egyptian mathematics, although this hypothesis has been challenged.

## Origins

The ancient Egyptian god Horus was a sky deity, and many Egyptian texts say that Horus's right eye was the sun and his left eye the moon. The solar eye and lunar eye were sometimes equated with the red and white crown of Egypt, respectively. Some texts treat the Eye of Horus seemingly interchangeably with the Eye of Ra, which in other contexts is an extension of the power of the sun god Ra and is often personified as a goddess. The Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson believes the two eyes of Horus gradually became distinguished as the lunar Eye of Horus and the solar Eye of Ra. Other Egyptologists, however, argue that no text clearly equates the eyes of Horus with the sun and moon until the New Kingdom (c. 1550–1070 BC); Rolf Krauss argues that the Eye of Horus originally represented Venus as the morning star and evening star and only later became equated with the moon.

Katja Goebs argues that the myths surrounding the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra are based around the same mytheme, or core element of a myth, and that "rather than postulating a single, original myth of one cosmic body, which was then merged with others, it might be more fruitful to think in terms of a (flexible) myth based on the structural relationship of an Object that is missing, or located far from its owner". In the myths surrounding the Eye of Ra, the goddess flees Ra and is brought back by another deity. In the case of the Eye of Horus, the eye is usually missing because of Horus's conflict with his arch-rival, the god Set, in their struggle for the kingship of Egypt after the death of Horus's father Osiris.

## Mythology

The Pyramid Texts, which date to the late Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC), are one of the earliest sources for Egyptian myth. They prominently feature the conflict between Horus and Set, and the Eye of Horus is mentioned in about a quarter of the utterances that make up the Pyramid Texts. In these texts, Set is said to have stolen the Eye of Horus, and sometimes to have trampled and eaten it. Horus nevertheless takes back the eye, usually by force. The texts often mention the theft of Horus's eye along with the loss of Set's testicles, an injury that is also healed. The conflict over the eye is mentioned and elaborated in many texts from later times. In most of these texts, the eye is restored by another deity, most commonly Thoth, who was said to have made peace between Horus and Set. In some versions, Thoth is said to have reassembled the eye after Set tore it to pieces. In the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom, Set is said to have taken the form of a black boar when striking Horus's eye. In "The Contendings of Horus and Set", a text from the late New Kingdom that relates the conflict as a short narrative, Set tears out both of Horus's eyes and buries them, and the next morning they grow into lotuses. Here it is the goddess Hathor who restores Horus's eyes, by anointing them with the milk of a gazelle. In Papyrus Jumilhac, a mythological text from early in the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BC), Horus's mother Isis waters the buried pair of eyes, causing them to grow into the first grape vines.

The restoration of the eye was often referred to as "filling" the eye. Hathor filled Horus's eye sockets with the gazelle's milk, while texts from temples of the Greco-Roman era said that Thoth, together with a group of fourteen other deities, filled the eye with specific plants and minerals. The process of filling the Eye of Horus was likened to the waxing of the moon, and the fifteen deities in the Greco-Roman texts represented the fifteen days from the new moon to the full moon.

The Egyptologist Herman te Velde suggests that the Eye of Horus is linked with another episode in the conflict between the two gods, in which Set subjects Horus to a sexual assault and, in retaliation, Isis and Horus cause Set to ingest Horus's semen. This episode is narrated most clearly in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", in which Horus's semen appears on Set's forehead as a golden disk, which Thoth places on his own head. Other references in Egyptian texts imply that in some versions of the myth it was Thoth himself who came forth from Set's head after Set was impregnated by Horus's semen, and a passage in the Pyramid Texts says the Eye of Horus came from Set's forehead. Te Velde argues that the disk that emerges from Set's head is the Eye of Horus. If so, the episodes of mutilation and sexual abuse would form a single story, in which Set assaults Horus and loses semen to him, Horus retaliates and impregnates Set, and Set comes into possession of Horus's eye when it appears on Set's head. Because Thoth is a moon deity in addition to his other functions, it would make sense, according to te Velde, for Thoth to emerge in the form of the eye and step in to make peace between the feuding deities.

Beginning in the New Kingdom, the Eye of Horus was known as the wḏꜣt (often rendered as wedjat or udjat), meaning the "whole", "completed", or "uninjured" eye. It is unclear whether the term wḏꜣt refers to the eye that was destroyed and restored, or to the one that Set left unharmed.

Upon becoming king after Set's defeat, Horus gives offerings to his deceased father, thus reviving and sustaining him in the afterlife. This act was the mythic prototype for the offerings to the dead that were a major part of ancient Egyptian funerary customs. It also influenced the conception of offering rites that were performed on behalf of deities in temples. Among the offerings Horus gives is his own eye, which Osiris consumes. The eye, as part of Osiris's son, is ultimately derived from Osiris himself. Therefore, the eye in this context represents the Egyptian conception of offerings. The gods were responsible for the existence of all the goods that they were offered, so offerings were part of the gods' own substance. In receiving offerings, deities were replenished by their own life force, as Osiris was when he consumed the Eye of Horus. In the Egyptian worldview, life was a force that originated with the gods and circulated through the world, so that by returning this force to the gods, offering rites maintained the flow of life. The offering of the eye to Osiris is another instance of the mytheme in which a deity in need receives an eye and is restored to well-being. The eye's restorative power meant the Egyptians considered it a symbol of protection against evil, in addition to its other meanings.

## In ritual

### Offerings and festivals

In the Osiris myth the offering of the Eye of Horus to Osiris was the prototype of all funerary offerings, and indeed of all offering rites, as the human giving an offering to a deity was likened to Horus and the deity receiving it was likened to Osiris. Moreover, the Egyptian word for "eye", jrt, resembled jrj, the word for "act", and through wordplay the Eye of Horus could thus be equated with any ritual act. For these reasons, the Eye of Horus symbolized all the sustenance given to the gods in the temple cult. The versions of the myth in which flowers or grapevines grow from the buried eyes reinforce the eye's relationship with ritual offerings, as the perfumes, food, and drink that were derived from these plants were commonly used in offering rites. The eye was often equated with maat, the Egyptian concept of cosmic order, which was dependent on the continuation of the temple cult and could likewise be equated with offerings of any kind.

The Egyptians observed several festivals in the course of each month that were based on the phases of the moon, such as the Blacked-out Moon Festival (the first of the month), the Monthly Festival (the second day), and the Half-Month Festival. During these festivals, living people gave offerings to the deceased. The festivals were frequently mentioned in funerary texts. Beginning in the time of the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055–1650 BC), funerary texts parallel the progression of these festivals, and hence the waxing of the moon, with the healing of the Eye of Horus.

### Healing texts

Ancient Egyptian medicine involved both practical treatments and rituals that invoked divine powers, and Egyptian medical papyri do not clearly distinguish the two. Healing rituals frequently equate patients with Horus, so the patient may be healed as Horus was in myth. For this reason, the Eye of Horus is frequently mentioned in such spells. The Hearst papyrus, for instance, equates the physician performing the ritual to "Thoth, the physician of the Eye of Horus" and equates the instrument with which the physician measures the medicine with "the measure with which Horus measured his eye". The Eye of Horus was particularly invoked as protection against eye disease. One text, Papyrus Leiden I 348, equates each part of a person's body with a deity in order to protect it. The left eye is equated with the Eye of Horus.

## Symbol

Horus was represented as a falcon, such as a lanner or peregrine falcon, or as a human with a falcon head. The Eye of Horus is a stylized human or falcon eye. The symbol often includes an eyebrow, a dark line extending behind the rear corner of the eye, a cheek marking below the center or forward corner of the eye, and a line extending below and toward the rear of the eye that ends in a curl or spiral. The cheek marking resembles that found on many falcons. The Egyptologist Richard H. Wilkinson suggests that the curling line is derived from the facial markings of the cheetah, which the Egyptians associated with the sky because the spots in its coat were likened to stars.

The stylized eye symbol was used interchangeably to represent the Eye of Ra. Egyptologists often simply refer to this symbol as the wedjat eye.

### Amulets

Amulets in the shape of the wedjat eye first appeared in the late Old Kingdom and continued to be produced up to Roman times. Ancient Egyptians were usually buried with amulets, and the Eye of Horus was one of the most consistently popular forms of amulet. It is one of the few types commonly found on Old Kingdom mummies, and it remained in widespread use over the next two thousand years, even as the number and variety of funerary amulets greatly increased. Up until the New Kingdom, funerary wedjat amulets tended to be placed on the chest, whereas during and after the New Kingdom they were commonly placed over the incision through which the body's internal organs had been removed during the mummification process.

Wedjat amulets were made from a wide variety of materials, including Egyptian faience, glass, gold, and semiprecious stones such as lapis lazuli. Their form also varied greatly. These amulets could represent right or left eyes, and the eye could be formed of openwork, incorporated into a plaque, or reduced to little more than an outline of the eye shape, with minimal decoration to indicate the position of the pupil and brow. In the New Kingdom, elaborate forms appeared: a uraeus, or rearing cobra, could appear at the front of the eye; the rear spiral could become a bird's tail feathers; and the cheek mark could be a bird's leg or a human arm. Cobras and felines often represented the Eye of Ra, so Eye of Horus amulets that incorporate uraei or feline body parts may represent the relationship between the two eyes, as may amulets that bear the wedjat eye on one side and the figure of a goddess on the other. The Third Intermediate Period (c. 1070–664 BC) saw still more complex designs, in which multiple small figures of animals or deities were inserted in the gaps between the parts of the eye, or in which the eyes were grouped into sets of four.

The eye symbol could also be incorporated into larger pieces of jewelry alongside other protective symbols, such as the ankh and djed signs and various emblems of deities. Beginning in the thirteenth century BC, glass beads bearing eye-like spots were strung on necklaces together with wedjat amulets, which may be the origin of the modern nazar, a type of bead meant to ward off the evil eye.

Sometimes temporary amulets were created for protective purposes in especially dangerous situations, such as illness or childbirth. Rubrics for ritual spells often instruct the practitioner to draw the wedjat eye on linen or papyrus to serve as a temporary amulet.

### Other uses

Wedjat eyes appeared in a wide variety of contexts in Egyptian art. Coffins of the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC) and Middle Kingdom often included a pair of wedjat eyes painted on the left side. Mummies at this time were often turned to face left, suggesting that the eyes were meant to allow the deceased to see outside the coffin, but the eyes were probably also meant to ward off danger. Similarly, eyes of Horus were often painted on the bows of boats, which may have been meant to both protect the vessel and allow it to see the way ahead. Wedjat eyes were sometimes portrayed with wings, hovering protectively over kings or deities. Stelae, or carved stone slabs, were often inscribed with wedjat eyes. In some periods of Egyptian history, only deities or kings could be portrayed directly beneath the winged sun symbol that often appeared in the lunettes of stelae, and Eyes of Horus were placed above figures of common people. The symbol could also be incorporated into tattoos, as demonstrated by the mummy of a woman from the late New Kingdom that was decorated with elaborate tattoos, including several wedjat eyes.

Some cultures neighboring Egypt adopted the wedjat symbol for use in their own art. Some Egyptian artistic motifs became widespread in art from Canaan and Syria during the Middle Bronze Age. Art of this era sometimes incorporated the wedjat, though it was much more rare than other Egyptian symbols such as the ankh. In contrast, the wedjat appeared frequently in art of the Kingdom of Kush in Nubia, in the first millennium BC and early first millennium AD, demonstrating Egypt's heavy influence upon Kush. Down to the present day, eyes are painted on the bows of ships in many Mediterranean countries, a custom that may descend from the use of the wedjat eye on boats.

### Hieroglyphic form

A hieroglyphic version of the wedjat symbol, labeled D10 in the list of hieroglyphic signs drawn up by the Egyptologist Alan Gardiner, was used in writing as a determinative or ideogram for the Eye of Horus.

The Egyptians sometimes used signs that represented pieces of the wedjat eye hieroglyph. In 1911, the Egyptologist Georg Möller noted that on New Kingdom "votive cubits", inscribed stone objects with a length of one cubit, these hieroglyphs were inscribed together with similarly shaped symbols in the hieratic writing system, a cursive writing system whose signs derived from hieroglyphs. The hieratic signs stood for fractions of a hekat, the basic Egyptian measure of volume. Möller hypothesized that the Horus-eye hieroglyphs were the original hieroglyphic forms of the hieratic fraction signs, and that the inner corner of the eye stood for 1/2, the pupil for 1/4, the eyebrow for 1/8, the outer corner for 1/16, the curling line for 1/32, and the cheek mark for 1/64. In 1923, T. Eric Peet pointed out that the hieroglyphs representing pieces of the eye are not found before the New Kingdom, and he suggested that the hieratic fraction signs had a separate origin but were reinterpreted during the New Kingdom to have a connection with the Eye of Horus. In the same decade, Möller's hypothesis was included in standard reference works on the Egyptian language, such as Ägyptische Grammatik by Adolf Erman and Egyptian Grammar by Alan Gardiner. Gardiner's treatment of the subject suggested that the parts of the eye were used to represent fractions because in myth the eye was torn apart by Set and later made whole. Egyptologists accepted Gardiner's interpretation for decades afterward.

Jim Ritter, a historian of science and mathematics, analyzed the shape of the hieratic signs through Egyptian history in 2002. He concluded that "the further back we go the further the hieratic signs diverge from their supposed Horus-eye counterparts", thus undermining Möller's hypothesis. He also reexamined the votive cubits and argued that they do not clearly equate the Eye of Horus signs with the hieratic fractions, so even Peet's weaker form of the hypothesis was unlikely to be correct. Nevertheless, the 2014 edition of James P. Allen's Middle Egyptian, an introductory book on the Egyptian language, still lists the pieces of the wedjat eye as representing fractions of a hekat.

The hieroglyph for the Eye of Horus is listed in the Egyptian Hieroglyphs block of the Unicode standard for encoding symbols in computing, as U+13080 (). The hieroglyphs for parts of the eye (, , , , , , ) are listed as U+13081 through U+13087.

Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health

Egyptian hieroglyphs: parts of the human body


History of York City F.C. (1922–1980)

York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in York, North Yorkshire, England. The history of York City F.C. from 1922 to 1980 covers the period from the club's foundation, through their progress in the Football League, to the end of the 1979–80 season.

Founded in 1922, York City was elected to play in the Midland League for 1922–23. After seven seasons in the Midland League, they were elected to play in the Football League for 1929–30, and were placed in the Third Division North. During the Second World War, York played in regional competitions, before the Football League restored its usual competitions in the 1946–47 season. After 14 seasons in the Football League, the club was required to apply for re-election for the first time because they finished the 1949–50 season at the bottom of the Third Division North. York had their best FA Cup season in the 1954–55 season, when they reached the semi-final; they were defeated by First Division team Newcastle United in a replay.

York played in the Third Division North until the 1958–59 season, when a league reorganisation placed them in the Fourth Division. The same season, they finished third and won their first promotion, but were relegated after one season. York won another promotion in the 1964–65 season, but were again relegated after one season. The club won a third promotion to the now-unified Third Division in the 1970–71 season, remaining there for the next two seasons on goal average. They were promoted to the Second Division for the first and only time in the 1973–74 season. By mid October 1974, York were in fifth place—their highest league placing—before finishing the 1974–75 season in 15th place. They faced two successive relegations in 1976 and 1977, and a 22nd-place finish in the 1977–78 Fourth Division forced the club to apply for re-election.

## 1922–1939: Foundation and establishment in Football League

As local football became more popular after the First World War, and with the success of the newly formed Yorkshire League, demand arose for a new club for the city of York, to succeed York City Football Club, which folded in 1917. At a meeting held at the Co-operative Hall in York on 6 May 1922, the decision was made to form the York City Association Football and Athletic Club Limited, with W. H. Shaw as chairman. Despite having neither a ground nor players, an application was made for election to the Football League; this was unsuccessful, but the club was admitted to the Midland League on 10 June. York's first match was away to Notts County reserves on 6 September, and despite a good performance the team lost 4–2. York had to play their first two home matches at Mille Crux, the ground of Rowntree & Co, because their Fulfordgate ground was not ready. Their first match at Fulfordgate came on 20 September, with a 4–1 victory against Mansfield Town. York finished the 1922–23 season in 19th place; they had been placed midtable in early March 1923 but failed to win any of their remaining 14 fixtures. In the same year, York reached the final of the North Riding Senior Cup, but lost 4–2 to Middlesbrough reserves at Ayresome Park on 10 March. The club's first season proved disappointing financially, with a loss of £718 reported, and as a consequence Shaw relinquished the chairmanship to Arthur Brown. York entered the FA Cup for the first time in the 1923–24 season and reached the first qualifying round, losing 3–1 to Mexborough Town in a second replay. They again ranked 19th in the table with an almost identical record to the previous season's.

For the 1924–25 season, the Midland League was reorganised because eight Football League clubs withdrew their reserve teams from the competition. York finished sixth in the Principal Competition that concluded in February 1925 and were runners-up to Denaby United in the North Subsidiary Competition. The club struggled financially in this period, and was only kept going by the enthusiasm and generosity of the directors. John Fisher, one of these benefactors, was elected chairman in 1925. The Midland League was restored to its previous size for 1925–26 and York finished in 16th place after a poor start to the season, from which they never recovered. York enjoyed their most successful Midland League season in 1926–27, when they finished in sixth place and scored 96 goals in 38 league matches. They surpassed the FA Cup's qualifying rounds for the first time this season, being beaten 2–1 by Second Division team Grimsby Town at Blundell Park in the second round. In 1927, the club made its first serious attempt for election to the Football League, but Barrow and Accrington Stanley were re-elected instead. Fisher resigned as chairman in August and Brown took the position for the second time. After ranking seventh in the Midland League in the 1927–28 season, York appointed their first official manager in July 1928, with Jock Collier named as player-manager. York finished ninth in the 1928–29 season, and Jimmy Cowie was the divisional top scorer with 49 goals. This was York's last season in the Midland League as the club won election to the Football League on 3 June 1929, taking the place of Ashington in the Third Division North.

York's first match in the Football League was against Wigan Borough at Springfield Park on 31 August 1929 and finished with a 2–0 victory for the visitors. Reg Stockill, the scorer of the first goal, became the youngest player to represent the club in a competitive match at the age of 15 years and 281 days. The 1929–30 season brought two meetings with First Division team Newcastle United in the FA Cup third round, and a sixth-place finish in York's debut Football League season. Collier resigned as manager in May 1930 and Billy Sherrington took over for the following three years, combining this with his role as club secretary. Sherrington's first season in charge saw York rank 12th in the league, and they again faced First Division opposition in the FA Cup third round, taking Sheffield United to a replay. Despite an improved league position of ninth in the 1931–32 season, York were eliminated from the FA Cup in the first round. This, combined with disappointing average home crowds, resulted in a deficit of £1,539 over the season. In August 1932, York moved to a new ground at Bootham Crescent, which was closer than Fulfordgate to the club's centre of support and the railway station. The ground was officially opened for a match with Stockport County on 31 August; it ended a 2–2 draw, and the first goalscorer at the ground was Tom Mitchell. York's worst performance in the Football League to date came in the 1932–33 season, with a 20th-place finish. The club only avoided having to seek re-election after winning the last match of the season.

Collier was re-appointed manager in May 1933, and York enjoyed a better season in 1933–34, finishing 12th in the Third Division North. The club finished in 15th place in the 1934–35 season, and Bootham Crescent staged its first match against First Division opposition when Derby County defeated York 1–0 in the FA Cup third round. In 1935–36, York ranked in 16th place, and by the end of the season the club's debt was £7,048. The annual report stated that "increased support must be forthcoming if the club was to retain its Football League status". The team reached the FA Cup fourth round for the first time in the 1936–37 season, being eliminated by Second Division team Swansea Town in a replay. Collier retired from football in March 1937 to go into business with his brother, and was replaced by Tom Mitchell. The team finished an inconsistent season in 12th place. The 1937–38 season saw York placed "firmly on the football map", as the team eliminated First Division teams West Bromwich Albion and Middlesbrough from the FA Cup, before meeting Huddersfield Town in the sixth round. This match saw York draw 0–0 at home before a crowd of 28,123, the club's record highest attendance. York lost the replay 2–1 at Leeds Road, a match that attracted 58,066 spectators. By the end of that season's FA Cup run, York were on the fringe of the promotion race, but faltered in the closing weeks and finished in 11th place. The club avoided having to apply for re-election with a win in the penultimate match of the 1938–39 season, ranking 20th in the table. W. H. Sessions was appointed chairman to succeed Brown in 1939.

## 1939–1959: Wartime football, FA Cup run and first promotion

At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, the Football League was suspended indefinitely, leaving the club with no revenue. The Football League organised regional competitions after the government gave the Football Association permission for football to proceed on a wartime footing. York decided to carry on playing and were placed in the North East League, where they ranked eighth in their section of 11 clubs. In the final weeks of the 1939–40 season, York competed in the Football League War Cup. The club was placed in the Football League North for the 1940–41 season, and finished 32nd in the 36-club league. They beat Sheffield Wednesday 7–0 in the War Cup, before being eliminated by Newcastle United in the second round. After completing 18 fixtures in the 1941–42 Football League North, York competed in the league-organised qualifying stage of the War Cup. They were eliminated after ranking 33rd of 54 clubs, failing to qualify for the knock-out stages by one place. York played in the Combined Counties Cup in the season's closing weeks, and beat Halifax Town 5–4 over two legs in the final.

After ranking 17th of 48 clubs in the Football League North in the 1942–43 season, York progressed through the War Cup qualifying stages, reaching the semi-final of a major cup competition for the first time. They were beaten 4–1 over two legs by Sheffield Wednesday. In the 1943–44 Football League North, the team finished 31st of 50 clubs, and after qualifying for the War Cup knock-out stages were eliminated 7–2 over two legs by Bradford Park Avenue in the second round. York experienced selection problems in the 1944–45 season, with many players leaving for war service. After ranking 42nd of 54 clubs in the Football League North, they then failed to qualify for the War Cup knock-out stages. They extended their programme by competing in the Tyne, Wear and Tees Cup. Although hostilities had finished by the start of the 1945–46 season, there was insufficient time for the Football League to restore its usual competitions. York finished midtable in the Third Division North (East) in the first half of the season, before reaching the second round of the Third Division North (East) Cup after qualifying through the group stages. The FA Cup resumed this season, and for the first and only time ties were played on a two-legged basis. York reached the fourth round, at which point they were beaten 11–1 on aggregate by Sheffield Wednesday. York made a profit in five of the seven seasons played during the war.

Peacetime football resumed in the 1946–47 season, with the same fixture list as the abandoned 1939–40 season. York endured a midseason run of 10 defeats from 11 matches, before their form improved, and 5 wins from the last 8 matches saw them finish in 15th place in the Third Division North. They were top of the table by mid September 1947, before a run of 2 wins from 13 matches saw them drop to 18th place. York finished the 1947–48 season in 13th place, and the club recorded a net profit of £4,914; a balance surplus of £1,843 was carried forward. In September 1948, York purchased their Bootham Crescent ground, which had been leased since 1932, for £4,075. They achieved their record average league attendance of 10,412 during the 1948–49 season at the peak of the post-war attendance boom. The team enjoyed a run of eight successive league wins at home spanning September 1948 to January 1949, but failed to win any of their last seven fixtures to finish 1948–49 in 14th place.

Mitchell resigned as manager in February 1950 and was replaced in April with Dick Duckworth, a former York player. York were forced to apply for re-election to retain their place in the Football League for the first time, after finishing bottom of the Third Division North in the 1949–50 season. They did not have to enter the ballot because the Football League was to be extended to 92 clubs for the 1950–51 season. Despite York's senior team's troubles, the reserve team scored over 100 goals to finish sixth in the Midland League, and won the North Riding Senior Cup for the first time after beating Middlesbrough 3–0 at Ayresome Park in the final. York's fortunes improved in 1950–51; they ranked 17th in the league and reached the FA Cup third round for the first time since 1946, when they were beaten 2–0 by First Division team Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park. York's best post-war season to date came in 1951–52, as they finished in 10th place and set a home record of 16 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats. York chased promotion in the 1952–53 season, and by late January 1953 were third in the table. They finished in fourth place with 53 points; both new club records in the Football League. During this season, Duckworth was reluctantly released from his contract in October 1952 to take charge at Stockport County. His successor, the former Grimsby Town manager Charlie Spencer, died in February. Sheffield United's assistant manager Jimmy McCormick was appointed in June, and by late December York were bottom of the table. A win in the last match of the 1953–54 season meant they finished in 22nd place, and avoided having to apply for re-election. Sessions resigned as chairman in November and was succeeded by Hugh Kitchin.

After a dispute with the directors over team selection, McCormick resigned in September 1954, after which team affairs were handled by trainer Tom Lockie and secretary Billy Sherrington. With an emphasis on close-passing attacking football, the team embarked on a 10-match unbeaten sequence. In the 1954–55 FA Cup, York became the first third-tier club to participate in an FA Cup semi-final replay. York beat Scarborough, Dorchester Town, Blackpool (winners of the competition 18 months earlier), Bishop Auckland, Tottenham Hotspur and Notts County in the previous rounds before playing Newcastle United in the semi-final. After drawing 1–1 at Hillsborough, York were defeated 2–0 in the replay at Roker Park, which ended an FA Cup campaign in which Arthur Bottom scored eight goals. The team were billed "The Happy Wanderers" after a popular song; Henry Rose of the Daily Express said, "There are no weak spots in this First Division side masquerading in Third Division shirts". By the end of the cup run, York were on the fringes of the Third Division North promotion race, but injuries and a congested fixture list led to them finishing fourth in the 1954–55 season. Bottom was the divisional top scorer that season, with 31 goals.

York were optimistic for the 1955–56 season, and were top of the table after 10 matches. A run of nine consecutive matches without a win saw York drop out of promotion contention, and they finished 11th. That season's FA Cup run included a 2–1 win over a Swansea Town team featuring eight Wales internationals at Vetch Field in the third round. They then played First Division team Sunderland, billed as the "Bank of England club" because of their high expenditure on transfers, York were beaten 2–1 at Roker Park in a replay. During this season, York filled the managerial position that had been vacant for the last 18 months; Arsenal player Don Roper rejected the job before Sam Bartram was appointed in March 1956. Bartram, a former Charlton Athletic player, was a popular choice, having been a favourite with the fans while playing for the club during the war. York invested heavily in the squad for the 1956–57 season, spending £12,000 on transfer fees—a sizeable amount at that time. The aim was promotion to the Second Division, but the team failed to make the intended impact and finished in seventh place. The 1957–58 season was the last of regionalised football; the top 12 clubs in the North and South sections would form the new Third Division, and the bottom clubs would become founder members of the Fourth Division. York went into the Easter period third from bottom, but after 7 wins and 3 draws in their last 10 matches they missed out on a top-12 position on goal average. York led the Fourth Division until early November 1958, and despite faltering midseason continued strongly to finish third in 1958–59 and gain promotion for the first time. They only missed out on the runner-up spot to Coventry City on goal average.

## 1959–1980: Promotions, relegations and spell in Second Division

By late February 1960, York were 12th in the Third Division. After one season, in which the team won only 2 of their last 14 matches, they were relegated from the Third Division in 21st place. Bartram was released from his contract in July and was replaced by Lockie. His team started the 1960–61 season well, and were fourth by mid November. York endured five successive defeats before a winning run in the New Year revived their promotion hopes. They finished the season in fifth place, having won only one of their last seven matches. Throughout the 1961–62 season, York were in or around the top four places, but missed out on promotion after losing 1–0 to Aldershot in the last match, finishing in sixth place. That season, York enjoyed their best run in the newly instituted League Cup. In this competition, they beat First Division team Leicester City, but were eliminated after a 2–1 defeat to divisional rivals Rochdale at Spotland Stadium in the fifth round. York made a poor start to the 1962–63 season and were second from bottom by late December 1962. Their form improved from March 1963 and they finished the season 14th. Club historian David Batters described the 1963–64 season as "one of the worst in the club's history". York spent most of the season in the bottom four before finishing 22nd, having to apply for re-election for the second time. This application was successful, as the club polled the maximum 48 votes. During this season, a match-fixing scandal exposed by the newspaper Sunday People accused York player Jack Fountain of fixing match results. His contract was terminated and he was found guilty of fixing two matches York lost.

York produced some of their best football in a decade in the 1964–65 season, winning 20 league matches at home—a club record—and ending the season in third place to gain promotion, one point behind champions Brighton & Hove Albion. The following season, they were in the bottom four by late December 1965. They finished the season in bottom place and were relegated back to the Fourth Division, having conceded a club-record 106 goals. After the season ended, York released Norman Wilkinson, who had scored a club-record 143 goals. York struggled throughout the 1966–67 season and finished 22nd after a club-record eight successive defeats. The club was forced into its third re-election bid, which was successful with 45 votes. Kitchin resigned the chairmanship in June 1967 and was succeeded by Derrick Blundy, who held the position for 16 months, after which Eric Magson took over. York started the 1967–68 season winning none of their first 13 matches. Their first win came in late October, by which time Lockie had become the first manager to be dismissed by the club. Former Sheffield United player Joe Shaw took charge in November, and York rose from bottom place to 14th by late March 1968. However, they won none of their last eight matches and finished 21st. Another application for re-election was made, which was successful with 46 votes. Shaw resigned for personal reasons a week into the 1968–69 season, and former Huddersfield Town manager Tom Johnston succeeded him in October. Poor away form led to York finishing 21st, and the club's application for re-election was successful with 45 votes. The team reached the FA Cup third round, and were beaten 2–0 at home by First Division team Stoke City.

York were fourth in the table 12 matches into the 1969–70 season. Their promotion challenge faded and they finished the season 13th. York reached the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time since 1958, and played two Second Division teams; after beating Cardiff City 3–1 at St Andrew's in a second replay, they lost 4–1 to Middlesbrough at Ayresome Park. Barry Jackson, who made a club-record 539 appearances for York, was released at the end of the season. York started 1970–71 strongly, and after faltering midseason they went unbeaten in 16 consecutive matches to enter the top four. Despite losing three of their last four fixtures, York remained in fourth place to earn a third promotion. They also reached the FA Cup fourth round for the second successive season; after drawing 3–3 at home to First Division team Southampton they were beaten 3–2 in the replay at the Dell. York started the 1971–72 season with 3 wins from 8 matches, but after failing to win in 11 consecutive matches they dropped into the bottom four. They finished 19th on goal average and avoided relegation. In the third round of the League Cup, York played First Division team Sheffield United, losing 3–1 at Bramall Lane. York failed to win any of their first 11 matches in the 1972–73 season, but results improved and they were 10th in the table by early March 1973. Another downturn in form followed before York beat Rotherham United in the last match of the season to finish 18th, avoiding relegation from the Third Division on goal average for the second successive year.

From mid November 1973, York remained within the top three in 1973–74, winning promotion to the Second Division for the first time, in the season "three up, three down" was introduced in the top three divisions. Promotion was secured after a 1–1 home draw against Oldham Athletic on 27 April 1974. This season, York held First Division team Manchester City to a 0–0 home draw in the League Cup fourth round, before being beaten 4–1 in the replay at Maine Road. In January, Bob Strachan became chairman and served on the FA Council, the first York official to do so. The team drew 1–1 at home with Aston Villa in their opening Second Division match on 17 August, with Barry Lyons the York goalscorer. After starting the 1974–75 season well, York were fifth in the table by mid October—the club's highest-ever placing in the Football League. York finished in 15th place, and the season's highlights included doubles over Norwich City—who won promotion—and Fulham—who were FA Cup finalists that season. York were exempt from the FA Cup until the third round, where they drew 1–1 with First Division team Arsenal at Highbury; in the replay, Arsenal won 3–1 after extra time at York. Johnston left to take over at Huddersfield Town in January 1975, and was succeeded in February by former Manchester United manager Wilf McGuinness. York started the 1975–76 season with 2 wins from 8 fixtures, but a run of 10 defeats from 11 matches saw them drop into the bottom two. Seven successive defeats in the New Year saw York drop to bottom place, although results improved in the season's closing weeks. They were relegated to the Third Division in 21st place, after a 2–2 home draw with Chelsea on 24 April 1976. They lost their League Cup second round match 1–0 at home to First Division team Liverpool.

York started 1976–77 poorly, and they were in the bottom two of the Third Division for most of the first half of the season. The midseason signings Chris Galvin and Gordon Staniforth marked an improvement in results, but after winning only 1 of their last 15 matches they finished in bottom place and were relegated for the second successive season. The 1977–78 season also started poorly; York lost 7 of their opening 12 matches, leaving them 17th in the table. McGuinness was dismissed in October 1977 and was succeeded the following month by Charlie Wright, a former Charlton Athletic player. York remained in the lower reaches of the table and finished the season in 22nd place, forcing the club to apply for re-election for the sixth time. This was successful, as the club polled the maximum number of votes. This season, attendances fell to an all-time low, and amid growing financial trouble, Michael Sinclair took over as chairman in April 1978 in a boardroom shuffle. Results improved in the 1978–79 season; York finished 10th in the Fourth Division and reached the FA Cup fourth round. They played reigning First Division champions and European Cup winners-elect Nottingham Forest, and were beaten 3–1 at the City Ground. In the 1979–80 season, York were consistently in the lower reaches of the table, before finishing 17th. With the club 18th in the table by mid March 1980, Wright was dismissed. Youth coach Barry Lyons succeeded him, initially as caretaker manager, before being appointed permanently in May.

History of an English football club

History of association football clubs in England


Henry Morgan

Sir Henry Morgan (Welsh: Harri Morgan; c. 1635 – 25 August 1688) was a Welsh privateer, plantation owner, and, later, Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. From his base in Port Royal, Jamaica, he raided settlements and shipping on the Spanish Main, becoming wealthy as he did so. With the prize money from the raids, he purchased three large sugar plantations on the island.

Much of Morgan's early life is unknown. He was born in an area of Monmouthshire that is now part of the city of Cardiff. It is not known how he made his way to the West Indies, or how he began his career as a privateer. He was probably a member of a group of raiders led by Sir Christopher Myngs in the early 1660s during the Anglo-Spanish War. Morgan became a close friend of Sir Thomas Modyford, the Governor of Jamaica. When diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of England and Spain worsened in 1667, Modyford gave Morgan a letter of marque, a licence to attack and seize Spanish vessels. Morgan subsequently conducted successful and highly lucrative raids on Puerto Principe (now Camagüey in modern Cuba) and Porto Bello (now Portobelo in modern Panama). In 1668, he sailed for Maracaibo and Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in modern-day Venezuela; he raided both cities and stripped them of their wealth before destroying a large Spanish squadron as he escaped. In 1671, Morgan attacked Panama City, landing on the Caribbean coast and traversing the isthmus before he attacked the city, which was on the Pacific coast. To appease the Spanish, with whom the English had signed a peace treaty, Morgan was arrested and summoned to London in 1672, but was treated as a hero by the general populace and the leading figures of government and royalty, including Charles II.

Morgan was appointed a Knight Bachelor in November 1674 and returned to the Colony of Jamaica shortly afterward to serve as the territory's Lieutenant Governor. He served on the Assembly of Jamaica until 1683 and on three occasions he acted as Governor of Jamaica in the absence of the current post-holder. A memoir published by Alexandre Exquemelin, a former shipmate of Morgan's, accused him of widespread torture and other offences; Morgan won a libel suit against the book's English publishers, but Exquemelin's portrayal has affected history's view of Morgan. His life was romanticised after his 1688 death and he became the inspiration for pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres.

## Early life

Born Harri Morgan around 1635 in Wales, either in Llanrumney or Pencarn (both in Monmouthshire, between Cardiff and Newport). The historian David Williams, writing in the Dictionary of Welsh Biography, observes that attempts to identify his parents and antecedents "have all proved unsatisfactory", although his will referred to distant relations. Several sources state Morgan's father was Robert Morgan, a farmer. Nuala Zahedieh, writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, states that details of Morgan's early life and career are uncertain, although in later life he stated that he had left school early and was "much more used to the pike than the book".

It is unknown how Morgan made his way to the Caribbean. He may have travelled to the Caribbean as part of the army of Robert Venables, sent by Oliver Cromwell as part of the Caribbean expedition against the Spanish in the West Indies in 1654, or he may have served as an apprentice to a maker of cutlery for three years in exchange for the cost of his emigration. Richard Browne, who served as surgeon under Morgan in 1670 stated that Morgan had travelled either as a "private gentleman" soon after the 1655 capture of Jamaica by the English, or he may have been abducted in Bristol and transported to Barbados, where he was sold as a servant. In the 17th century the Caribbean offered an opportunity for young men to become rich quickly, although significant investment was needed to obtain high returns from the sugar export economy. Other opportunities for financial gain were through trade or plunder of the Spanish Empire. Much of the plunder was from privateering, whereby individuals and ships were commissioned by government to attack the country's enemies.

## Career as a privateer

It is probable that in the early 1660s Morgan was active with a group of privateers led by Sir Christopher Myngs attacking Spanish cities and settlements in the Caribbean and Central America when England was at war with Spain. It is likely that in 1663 Morgan captained one of the ships in Myngs' fleet, and took part in the attack on Santiago de Cuba and the Sack of Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula.

Sir Thomas Modyford had been appointed the Governor of Jamaica in February 1664 with instructions to limit the activities of the privateers; he made a proclamation against their activities on 11 June 1664, but economic practicalities led to his reversing the policy by the end of the month. About 1,500 privateers used Jamaica as a base for their activity and brought much revenue to the island. As the planting community of 5,000 was still new and developing, the revenue from the privateers was needed to avoid economic collapse. A privateer was granted a letter of marque which gave him a licence to attack and seize vessels, normally of a specified country, or with conditions attached. A portion of all spoils obtained by the privateers was given to the sovereign or the issuing ambassador.

In August 1665 Morgan, along with fellow captains John Morris and Jacob Fackman, returned to Port Royal with a large cargo of valuables. Modyford was impressed enough with the spoils to report back to the government that "Central America was the properest  [sic] place for an attack on the Spanish Indies". Morgan's activities over the following two years are not documented, but in early 1666 he was married in Port Royal to his cousin, Mary Morgan, the daughter of Edward, the island's Deputy Governor; the marriage gave Henry access to the upper levels of Jamaican society. The couple had no children.

Hostilities between the English and Dutch in 1664 led to a change in government policy: colonial governors were now authorised to issue letters of marque against the Dutch. Many of the privateers, including Morgan, did not take up the letters, although an expedition to conquer the Dutch island of Sint Eustatius led to the death of Morgan's father-in-law, who was leading a 600-man force.

Sources differ about Morgan's activities in 1666. H. R. Allen, in his biography of Morgan, considers the privateer was the second-in-command to Captain Edward Mansvelt. Mansvelt had been issued a letter of marque for the invasion of Curaçao, although he did not attack Willemstad, the main city, either after he decided that it was too well defended or that there was insufficient plunder. Alternatively, Jan Rogoziński and Stephan Talty, in their histories of Morgan and piracy, record that during the year, Morgan oversaw the Port Royal militia and the defence of Jamaica; Fort Charles at Port Royal was partly constructed under his leadership. It was around this time that Morgan purchased his first plantation on Jamaica.

### Puerto Principe (1667)

In 1667 diplomatic relations between the kingdoms of England and Spain were worsening, and rumours began to circulate in Jamaica about a possible Spanish invasion. Modyford authorised privateers to take action against the Spanish, and issued a letter of marque to Morgan "to draw together the English privateers and take prisoners of the Spanish nation, whereby he might inform of the intention of that enemy to attack Jamaica, of which I have frequent and strong advice". He was given the rank of admiral and, in January 1668, assembled 10 ships and 500 men for the task; he was subsequently joined by 2 more ships and 200 men from Tortuga (now part of Haiti).

Morgan's letter of marque gave him permission to attack Spanish ships at sea; there was no permission for attacks on land. Any plunder obtained from the attacks would be split between the government and the owners of the ships rented by the privateers. If the privateers stepped outside their official remit and raided a city, any resultant plunder would be retained by the privateers. Rogoziński observes that "attacks on cities were illegal piracy – but extremely profitable", although Zahedieh records that if Morgan was able to provide evidence of a potential Spanish attack, the attacks on cities were justifiable under the terms of his commission. Morgan's initial plan was to attack Havana, but, on discovering it was heavily defended, changed the target to Puerto Principe (now Camagüey), a town 50 miles (80 km) inland. Morgan and his men took the town, but the treasure obtained was less than hoped for. According to Alexandre Exquemelin, who sailed with Morgan, "It caused a general resentment and grief, to see such a small booty". When Morgan reported the taking of Puerto Principe to Modyford, he informed the governor that they had evidence that the Spanish were planning an attack on British territory: "we found seventy men had been pressed to go against Jamaica ... and considerable forces were expected from Vera Cruz and Campeachy ... and from Porto Bello and Cartagena to rendezvous at St Jago of Cuba [Santiago]".

After the action, one of the English privateers quarrelled with one of his French shipmates and stabbed him in the back, killing him. Before a riot between the French and English sailors could begin, Morgan arrested the English sailor, and promised the French sailors that the man would be hanged on his return to Port Royal. Morgan kept his word and the sailor was hanged.

### Porto Bello (1668)

After dividing the spoils of the conquest of Puerto Principe, Morgan announced a plan to attack Porto Bello (now in modern-day Panama). The city was the third largest and strongest on the Spanish Main, and on one of the main routes of trade between the Spanish territories and Spain. Because of the value of the goods passing through its port, Porto Bello was protected by two castles in the harbour and another in the town. The 200 French privateers, unhappy with the division of the treasure and the murder of their countryman, left Morgan's service and returned to Tortuga. Morgan and his ships briefly landed at Port Royal before leaving for Porto Bello.

On 11 July 1668 Morgan anchored short of Porto Bello and transferred his men to 23 canoes, which they paddled to within three miles (4.8 km) of the target. They landed and approached the first castle from the landward side, where they arrived half an hour before dawn. They took the three castles and the town quickly. The privateers lost 18 men, with a further 32 wounded; Zahedieh considers the action at Porto Bello displayed a "clever cunning and expert timing which marked ... [Morgan's] brilliance as a military commander".

Exquemelin wrote that in order to take the third castle, Morgan ordered the construction of ladders wide enough for three men to climb abreast; when they were completed he "commanded all the religious men and women whom he had taken prisoners to fix them against the walls of the castle ... these were forced, at the head of the companies to raise and apply them to the walls ... Thus many of the religious men and nuns were killed". Terry Breverton, in his biography of Morgan, writes that when a translation of Exquemelin's book was published in England, Morgan sued for libel and won. The passage about the use of nuns and monks as a human shield was retracted from subsequent publications in England.

Morgan and his men remained in Porto Bello for a month. He wrote to Don Agustín, the acting president of Panama, to demand a ransom for the city of 350,000 pesos. As they stripped the city of its wealth it is probable that torture was used on the residents to uncover hidden caches of money and jewels. Zahedieh records that there were no first-hand reports from witnesses that confirmed Exquemelin's claim of widespread rape and debauchery. After an attempt by Don Agustín to recapture the city by force – his army of 800 soldiers was repelled by the privateers – he negotiated a ransom of 100,000 pesos. Following the ransom and the plunder of the city, Morgan returned to Port Royal, with between £70,000 and £100,000 of money and valuables; Zahedieh reports that the figures were more than the agricultural output of Jamaica, and nearly half Barbados's sugar exports. Each privateer received £120 – equivalent to five or six times the average annual earnings of a sailor of the time. Morgan received a five per cent share for his work; Modyford received a ten per cent share, which was the price of Morgan's letter of marque. As Morgan had overstepped the limits of his commission, Modyford reported back to London that he had "reproved" him for his actions although, Zahedieh observes, in Britain "Morgan was widely viewed as a national hero and neither he nor Modyford were rebuked for their actions".

### Lake Maracaibo and Gibraltar (1668–1669)

Morgan did not stay long in Port Royal and in October 1668 sailed with ten ships and 800 men for Île-à-Vache, a small island he used as a rendezvous point. His plan was to attack the Spanish settlement of Cartagena de Indias, the richest and most important city on the Spanish Main. In December he was joined by a former Royal Navy frigate, Oxford, which had been sent to Port Royal to aid in any defence of Jamaica. Modyford sent the vessel to Morgan, who made it his flagship. On 2 January 1669 Morgan called a council of war for all his captains, which took place on Oxford. A spark in the ship's powder magazine destroyed the ship and over 200 of its crew. Morgan and the captains seated on one side of the table were blown into the water and survived; the four captains on the other side of the table were all killed.

The loss of Oxford meant Morgan's flotilla was too small to attempt an attack on Cartagena. Instead he was persuaded by a French captain under his command to repeat the actions of the pirate François l'Olonnais two years previously: an attack on Maracaibo and Gibraltar, both on Lake Maracaibo in modern-day Venezuela. The French captain knew the approaches to the lagoon, through a narrow and shallow channel. Since l'Olonnais and the French captain had visited Maracaibo, the Spanish had built the San Carlos de la Barra Fortress, 20 miles (32 km) outside the city, on the approach. Talty states that the fortress was placed in an excellent position to defend the town, but that the Spanish had undermanned it, leaving only nine men to load and fire the fortress's 11 guns. Under covering cannon fire from the privateer's flagship, Lilly, Morgan and his men landed on the beach and stormed the fortification; they found it empty when they eventually breached its defences. A search soon found that the Spanish had left a slow-burning fuse leading to the fort's powder kegs as a trap for the buccaneers, which Morgan extinguished. The fort's guns were spiked and then buried so they could not be used against the privateers when they returned from the rest of their mission.

Morgan arrived at Maracaibo to find the city largely deserted, its residents having been forewarned of his approach by the fortress's troops. He spent three weeks sacking the city. Privateers searched the surrounding jungle to find the escapees; they, and some of the remaining occupants, were tortured to find where money or treasure had been hidden. Satisfied he had stolen all he could, he sailed south across Lake Maracaibo, to Gibraltar. The town's occupants refused to surrender, and the fort fired enough of a barrage to ensure Morgan kept his distance. He anchored a short distance away and his men landed by canoe and assaulted the town from the landward approach. He met scant resistance, as many of the occupants had fled into the surrounding jungle. He spent five weeks in Gibraltar, and there was again evidence that torture was used to force residents to reveal hidden money and valuables.

Four days after he left Maracaibo, Morgan returned. He was told that a Spanish defence squadron, the Armada de Barlovento, was waiting for him at the narrow passage between the Caribbean and Lake Maracaibo, where the San Carlos de la Barra Fortress was sited. The forces, under the command of Don Alonso del Campo y Espinosa, had 126 cannon with which to attack Morgan, and had re-armed San Carlos de la Barra Fortress. The Spaniards had orders to end piracy in the Caribbean, and negotiations between Morgan and Espinosa continued for a week. The final offer put by the Spanish commander was for Morgan to leave all their spoils and slaves and to return to Jamaica unmolested, but no agreement was reached that would allow Morgan and his men to pass the fleet with their spoils but without attack. Morgan put the Spaniards' offers to his men, who voted instead to fight their way out. As they were heavily outgunned, one privateer suggested that a fire ship aimed at Espinosa's flagship, Magdalen would work.

To this end, a crew of 12 prepared a ship that had been seized in Gibraltar. They disguised vertical logs of wood with headwear, to make the Spaniards believe that the vessel was fully crewed. To make it look more heavily armed, additional portholes were cut in the hull and logs placed to resemble cannons. Barrels of powder were placed in the ship and grappling irons laced into the ships rigging, to catch the ropes and sails of Magdalen and ensure the vessels would become entangled.

On 1 May 1669 Morgan and his flotilla attacked the Spanish squadron. The fire ship plan worked, and Magdalen was shortly aflame; Espinosa abandoned his flagship and made his way to the fort, where he continued to direct events. The second-largest Spanish ship, Soledad, tried to move away from the burning vessel, but a problem with the rigging meant they drifted aimlessly; privateers boarded the ship, fixed the rigging and claimed the craft as plunder. The third Spanish vessel was also sunk by the privateers. Morgan still needed to pass the San Carlos de la Barra Fortress, but was still out-gunned by the stronghold, which had the ability to destroy the privateer fleet if it tried to pass. The privateer decided to negotiate, and threatened to sack and burn Maracaibo if he was not allowed to pass. Although Espinosa refused to negotiate, the citizens of Maracaibo entered into talks with Morgan, and agreed to pay him 20,000 pesos and 500 head of cattle if he agreed to leave the city intact. During the course of the negotiations with the Maracaibos, Morgan had undertaken salvage operations on Magdalen, and secured 15,000 pesos from the wreck. Before taking any action, Morgan tallied his takings and divided it equally between his ships, to ensure that it was not all lost if one ship was sunk; it totalled 250,000 pesos, and a huge quantity of merchandise and a number of local slaves.

Morgan observed that Espinosa had set his cannon for a landward attack from the privateers – as they had done previously. The privateers faked a landing of their forces. The fort and its battlements were stripped of men as the Spanish prepared for a night assault from the English forces. That evening, with Spanish forces deployed to repel a landing, Morgan's fleet raised anchor without unfurling their sails; the fleet moved on the tide, raising sail only when it had moved level with the fortress, and Morgan and his men made their way back to Port Royal unscathed. Zahedieh considers the escape showed Morgan's "characteristic cunning and audacity".

During his absence from Port Royal, a pro-Spanish faction had gained the ear of King Charles II, and English foreign policy had changed accordingly. Modyford admonished Morgan for his action, which had gone beyond his commission, and revoked the letters of marque; no official action was taken against any of the privateers. Morgan invested a share of his prize money in an 836-acre (338 ha) plantation – his second such investment.

### Attack on Panama (1669–1671)

In 1669 Mariana, the Queen Regent of Spain, ordered attacks on English shipping in the Caribbean. The first action took place in March 1670 when Spanish privateers attacked English trade ships. In response Modyford commissioned Morgan "to do and perform all manner of exploits, which may tend to the preservation and quiet of this island". By December Morgan was sailing toward the Spanish Main with a fleet of over 30 English and French ships carrying a large number of privateers. Zahedieh observes that the army of privateers was the largest that had gathered in the Caribbean at the time, which was "a mark of Morgan's renown".

Morgan's first action was to take the connected islands of Old Providence and Santa Catalina in December 1670. From there his fleet sailed to Chagres, the port from which ships were loaded with goods to transport back to Spain. Morgan took the town and occupied Fort San Lorenzo, which he garrisoned to protect his line of retreat. On 9 January 1671, with his remaining men, he ascended the Chagres River and headed for Panama City, on the Pacific coast. Much of the journey was on foot, through dense rainforests and swamps. The governor of Panama had been forewarned of a potential attack, and had sent Spanish troops to attack Morgan and his men along the route. The privateers transferred to canoes to complete part of the journey, but were still able to beat off the ambushes with ease. After three days, with the river difficult to navigate in places, and with the jungle thinning out, Morgan landed his men and travelled overland across the remaining part of the isthmus.

The privateers, including Captain Robert Searle, arrived at Old Panama City on 27 January 1671; they camped overnight before attacking the following day. They were opposed by approximately 1,200 Spanish infantry and 400 cavalry; most were inexperienced. Morgan sent a 300-strong party of men down a ravine that led to the foot of a small hill on the Spanish right flank. As they disappeared from view, the Spanish front line thought the privateers were retreating, and the left wing broke rank and chased, followed by the remainder of the defending infantry. They were met with well-organised firing from Morgan's main force of troops. When the party came into view at the end of the ravine, they were charged by the Spanish cavalry, but organised fire destroyed the cavalry and the party attacked the flank of the main Spanish force. In an effort to disorganise Morgan's forces, the governor of Panama released two herds of oxen and bulls onto the battlefield; scared by the noise of the gunfire, they turned and stampeded over their keepers and some of the remaining Spanish troops. The battle was a rout: the Spanish lost between 400 and 500 men, against 15 privateers killed.

Panama's governor had sworn to burn down the city if his troops lost to the privateers, and he had placed barrels of gunpowder around the largely wooden buildings. These were detonated by the captain of artillery after Morgan's victory; the resultant fires lasted until the following day. Only a few stone buildings remained standing afterwards. Much of Panama's wealth was destroyed in the conflagration, although some had been removed by ships, before the privateers arrived. The privateers spent three weeks in Panama and plundered what they could from the ruins. Morgan's second-in-command, Captain Edward Collier, supervised the torture of some of the city's residents; Morgan's fleet surgeon, Richard Browne, later wrote that at Panama, Morgan "was noble enough to the vanquished enemy".

The value of treasure Morgan collected during his expedition is disputed. Talty writes that the figures range from 140,000 to 400,000 pesos, and that owing to the large army Morgan assembled, the prize-per-man was relatively low, causing discontent. There were accusations, particularly in Exquemelin's memoirs, that Morgan left with the majority of the plunder. He arrived back in Port Royal on 12 March to a positive welcome from the town's inhabitants. The following month he made his official report to the governing Council of Jamaica, and received their formal thanks and congratulations.

## Arrest and release; knighthood and governorship (1672–1675)

During Morgan's absence from Jamaica, news reached the island that England and Spain had signed the Treaty of Madrid. The pact aimed to establish peace in the Caribbean between the two countries; it included an agreement to revoke all letters of marque and similar commissions. The historian Violet Barbour considers it probable that one of the Spanish conditions was the removal of Modyford from the Governorship. Modyford was arrested and sent to England by Sir Thomas Lynch, his recent replacement.

The destruction of Panama so soon after the signing of the treaty led to what Allen describes as "a crisis in international affairs" between England and Spain. The English government heard rumours from their ambassadors in Europe that the Spanish were considering war. In an attempt to appease them, Charles II and his Secretary of State, the Earl of Arlington, ordered Morgan's arrest. In April 1672 the privateer admiral was returned to London where, Barbour writes, he was "handsomely lionized ... as the hero on whom Drake's mantle had fallen". Although some sources state that Morgan was also incarcerated in the Tower of London, Pope writes that Tower records make no mention of his presence there.

Morgan probably remained at liberty throughout his time in London, and the political mood changed in his favour. Arlington asked him to write a memorandum for the King on how to improve Jamaica's defences. Although there was no court case – Morgan was never charged with an offence – he gave informal evidence to the Lords of Trade and Plantations and proved he had no knowledge of the Treaty of Madrid prior to his attack on Panama. Unhappy with Lynch's conduct in Jamaica, the King and his advisers decided in January 1674 to replace him with John Vaughan, 3rd Earl of Carbery. Morgan would act as his deputy. Charles appointed Morgan a Knight Bachelor in November 1674, and two months later, Morgan and Carbery left for Jamaica. They were accompanied by Modyford, released from the Tower of London without charge and made the Chief Justice of Jamaica. They travelled on board the Jamaica Merchant, which held cannon and shot meant to boost Port Royal's defences. The ship foundered on the rocks of Île-à-Vache and Morgan and the crew were temporarily stranded on the island until picked up by a passing merchant ship.

## In Jamaican politics (1675–1688)

On his arrival in Jamaica, the 12-man Assembly of Jamaica voted Morgan an annual salary of £600 "for his good services to the country"; the move angered Carbery, who did not get on with Morgan. Carbery later complained of his deputy that he was "every day more convinced of ... [Morgan's] imprudence and unfitness to have anything to do with civil government". Carbery also wrote to the Secretary of State to bemoan Morgan's "drinking and gaming at the taverns" of Port Royal.

Although Morgan had been ordered to eradicate piracy from Jamaican waters, he continued his friendly relations with many privateer captains, and invested in some of their ships. Zahedieh estimates that there were 1,200 privateers operating in the Caribbean at the time, and Port Royal was their preferred destination. These had a welcome in the city if Morgan received the dues owed to him. As Morgan was no longer able to issue letters of marque to privateer captains, his brother-in-law, Robert Byndloss, directed them to the French governor of Tortuga to have a letter issued; Byndloss and Morgan received a commission for each one signed.

In July 1676 Carbery called for a hearing against Morgan in front of the Assembly of Jamaica, accusing him of collaborating with the French to attack Spanish interests. Morgan admitted he had met the French officials, but indicated that this was diplomatic relations, rather than anything duplicitous. In the summer of 1677 the Lords of Trade said they had yet to come to a decision on the matter and in early 1678 the king and the Privy Council recalled Carbery from Jamaica, leaving Morgan as governor for three months. In July 1678 Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Carlisle, was appointed governor.

By the late 1670s France became an increasing threat in the Caribbean, and Morgan took control of the defence of Port Royal. He declared martial law in 1678 and 1680 – both during his periods as temporary governor of the island – because of the threat of invasion, re-built the fortifications surrounding the town, and increased the number of cannon from 60 to more than 100 in the five years up to 1680.

Morgan and his allies on the Assembly of Jamaica made earnest efforts to deal with privateers and pirates. However, Morgan was soon undermined by his Secretary Rowland Powell, who forged his name on a proclamation that ran contrary to established law in favor of the monopoly of the Royal African Company. Criticism of Morgan's governance was also fomented in London by two former governors of Jamaica, Carbery and Lynch. After Lynch paid £50,000 to Charles II, Morgan's commissions as lieutenant-governor and lieutenant-general were revoked and Lynch was appointed as the island's governor; Morgan still retained his position on the Assembly of Jamaica. Morgan had been a heavy drinker for several years; he felt his reputation tarnished and received the news of the revocation of his positions badly, increasing his intake of alcohol to the point where his health began to suffer. Lynch removed Morgan's supporters from the Assembly of Jamaica by 1683, and in October that year he removed Morgan and his brother-in-law, leaving the assembly packed with men loyal to him. In 1684 Lynch died, and was temporarily replaced as governor by his friend, the lieutenant-general, Hender Molesworth.

In 1684 an account of Morgan's exploits was published by Exquemelin, in a Dutch volume entitled De Americaensche Zee-Roovers (trans: About the Buccaneers of America). Morgan took steps to discredit the book and successfully brought a libel suit against the book's publishers William Crooke and Thomas Malthus. In his affidavit he stated that he had "against evil deeds, piracies and robberies the greatest abhorrence and distrust", and that "for the kind of men called buccaneers", he "always had and still has hatred". The court found in his favour and the book was retracted; damages of £200 were paid to him.

In December 1687 Lynch's permanent replacement arrived in Port George, Morgan's friend from his time in London, Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle. He dismissed Molesworth and gave Morgan an unofficial role as advisor. In July 1688 Albemarle persuaded the king to allow Morgan to regain a position on the Assembly, but the former privateer was too ill to attend. Hans Sloane, Albemarle's private physician, inspected Morgan and diagnosed dropsy; he also saw Morgan was drinking to excess and ordered him to reduce his alcohol intake, a directive which Morgan ignored. Sloane described his patient as

> lean, sallow-coloured, his eyes a little yellowish and belly jutting out or prominent ... He complained to me of want of appetite for victuals, he had a kicking ... to vomit every morning and generally a small looseness attending him, and withal is much given to drinking and sitting up late, which I supposed had been the cause of his present indisposition.

## Slave plantations

By the 1670s and 1680s, Morgan – in his capacity as an owner of three large plantations – led three campaigns against the Jamaican Maroons of Juan de Serras. Morgan achieved some success against the Maroons, who withdrew further into the Blue Mountains, where they were able to stay out of the reach of Morgan and his forces. However, Morgan failed in his attempts to either capture de Serras or to subdue his community of runaway slaves.

By the time Morgan died, he owned three plantations which held captive large numbers of African people as slaves. He left most of his estate to his wife for the rest of her life. On her death, most of his land and the enslaved people were passed to his nephew Charles, second son of Robert Byndloss, who served as Chief Justice of Jamaica in 1681. Morgan also left a parcel of land in the now-defunct parish of St George to another Robert Byndloss (born c. 1673) the eldest son of his brother-in-law Robert Byndloss.

Morgan also left some land in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica, to his friend, Roger Elletson, who was the ancestor of a future governor of Jamaica with the same name. Morgan's will was probated in 1689, and at his death he owned 131 Africans as slaves on his estates, of whom 64 were male and 67 female. About 33 were listed as boys, girls or children. Because enslaved Africans were regarded as possessions, they were given a monetary value of £1,923.

## Death and subsequent events

Morgan died on 25 August 1688 at Lawrencefield Estate, located in modern Port Maria, Jamaica. Albemarle ordered a state funeral, and laid Morgan's body at King's House for the public to pay respects. An amnesty was declared so that pirates and privateers could pay their respects without fear of arrest. He was buried at Palisadoes cemetery, Port Royal, followed by a 22-gun salute from the ships moored in the harbour. Morgan was a wealthy man when he died. His personal wealth was valued at £5,263.

His will initially left his plantations and slaves to his wife, Mary Elizabeth, but because they were childless, on her death his estate was to pass to his nephews, the children of his brother-in-law Byndloss. The burial of Lady Morgan was recorded in Saint Andrew Parish, Jamaica, on 3 March 1696.

In his will, signed on 17 June 1688, Morgan left his Jamaican property to his godsons Charles Byndloss and Henry Archbold, on condition they adopted the surname of Morgan. These were the children of his two cousins Anna Petronilla Byndloss and Johanna Archbold. To his sister Catherine Loyd he awarded £60 per annum from his estate "paid into the hands of my ever honest cozen  [sic] Thomas Morgan of Tredegar".

On 7 June 1692 an earthquake struck Port Royal. About two-thirds of the town, amounting to 33 acres (13 ha), sank into Kingston Harbour immediately after the main shock. Palisadoes cemetery, including Morgan's grave, was one of the parts of the city to fall into the sea; his body has never been subsequently located.

## Legacy

Rogoziński observes that Morgan is probably the "best-known pirate" because of Exquemelin's book, although, Cordingly writes that Exquemelin bore a grudge over what he saw was Morgan's theft of the bounty from Panama. His experience explains "why he painted such a black picture of Morgan and portrayed him as a cruel and unscrupulous villain", which subsequently affected historians' view of Morgan. Allen observes that, partly because of Exquemelin, Morgan has not been well-served by historians. He cites the examples of the historians whose biographies were so flawed they wrote that Morgan had died in either London, prison or the Tower of London. These included Charles Leslie, A New History of Jamaica (1739), Alan Gardner, History of Jamaica (1873), Hubert Bancroft, History of Central America (1883) and Howard Pyle's work, Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates (compiled in 1921).

Exquemelin wrote that Morgan's men undertook widespread torture in several of the towns they captured. According to Stephen Snelders, in his history of piracy, the Spanish reports of Morgan's raids do not refer to torture being practiced on the residents of Porto Bello or Gibraltar – although there are reliable reports that it was carried out in Panama. The historian Patrick Pringle observes that while torture seems cruel and ruthless to contemporary eyes, it was an accepted part of judicial interrogation in many European countries at the time. Morgan always fought with a commission from the governor of Jamaica. In doing so, he was acting as a reserve naval force for the English government in the defence of Jamaica. As the Spanish did not recognise privateering as a legal activity, even if a captain carried letters of marque, they considered Morgan to be a pirate, something he firmly rejected.

Rogoziński observes that Morgan does not appear in later fictional works as much as other pirates because of his "ambiguous mixture of charismatic leadership and selfish treachery", although his name and persona have featured in literature, including Rafael Sabatini's 1922 novel Captain Blood and John Steinbeck's first novel, Cup of Gold (1929), both of which are based in large part on Morgan's career. Morgan and stories of a hidden haul of treasure also feature to a lesser extent in other works, including Ian Fleming's 1954 novel Live and Let Die and John Masefield's 1920 poem "Captain Stratton's Fancy". Screen renditions of his life include Captain Blood (1935), The Black Swan (1942), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), Morgan, the Pirate (1961), Pirates of Tortuga (1961) and The Black Corsair (1976). Morgan has also been featured in several video games, including Sid Meier's Pirates! and Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships.

In 1944 the Seagram Company started manufacturing the Captain Morgan brand of rum, named after the privateer. In 2001 the Captain Morgan brand was sold to Diageo, the multinational drinks company based in London. The name of Morgan has been attached to local sites in the Caribbean, such as Morgan's Bridge, Morgan's Pass and Morgan's Valley in Clarendon, Morgan's Harbour Hotel and Beach Club in Kingston, the Hotel Henry Morgan, located in Roatán, Honduras, the Port Morgan resort located in Haiti and Captain Morgan's Retreat and Vacation Club on Ambergris Caye, Belize.

The economist Peter Leeson believes that pirates and privateers were generally shrewd businessmen, far removed from the modern, romanticised view of them as murderous tyrants. The anthropologist Anne M. Galvin and the historian Kris Lane separately see Morgan as obtaining wealth to become a member of the landed gentry; Galvin wrote that Morgan showed "social mobility through self-interested acts of outlawry, political wiles, and business acumen". Glenn Blalock, writing for the American National Biography, claims that Morgan was seen as a hero to many Jamaicans and British both for his exploits as a buccaneer and for ensuring Jamaica remained a key part of the British Empire. However, some Jamaicans see Morgan as a "criminal pirate" who sought to maintain the system of slavery.

Thomas describes Morgan as

> a man of courage, determination, bravery, and ... charisma. He was a planner, a brilliant military strategist and intensely loyal to the king, to England and to Jamaica. ... But unlike so many of the Brethren, he was flexible and adaptable, able to see that the future for Jamaica lay not in plunder or pillage but in peaceful trade. ... He was also an adept politician and held office longer than any of the governors of his time.

Privateer and political office holder in Jamaica (1635–1688)


Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game developed by Tecmo, Nintendo SPD and Grasshopper Manufacture. The fourth installment in the Fatal Frame series and the first on a Nintendo console, it was released in 2008 by Nintendo for the Wii in Japan. A remaster for eighth and ninth generation consoles and Windows published by Koei Tecmo was released worldwide in 2023.

The story, set on the fictional Rougetsu Island, focuses on Ruka Minazuki, one of a group of girls who was held captive on the island for unknown reasons. Years after their rescue, still suffering from amnesia, Ruka and the two surviving girls return to the island to seek out the truth. The game's title stems from a ritual mask key to the story. The gameplay, as with previous entries in the series, revolves around the main character exploring environments and tackling hostile ghosts using the Camera Obscura.

The idea for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse came to series co-creator Keisuke Kikuchi when he first saw the Wii hardware. Kikuchi and series co-creator Makoto Shibata returned as respective producer and director, while Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda acted as co-director, co-writer and designer. The gameplay concept was making the player literally feel the fear evoked in the game. The addition of further developers to the project enabled the team to reconsider the standard formula, although it proved to be a chaotic experience. As with previous games, the theme songs were sung by Tsuki Amano. When released, the Wii original became the best-selling entry in the series to that date, and received generally positive reviews from critics.

## Gameplay

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is a survival horror video game that has players taking control of four different characters navigating a variety of different environments, including traditional Japanese houses and a Meiji-era sanatorium-turned-hotel, while facing hostile ghosts through photography using the series' recurring Camera Obscura. In the original version, third-person navigation and first-person control of in-game weapons such as the Camera Obscura are controlled using the Wii Remote and Nuchuck. The 2023 remaster reworks these for each console's controls. During exploration, the characters are regularly attacked by hostile spirits, who take away the characters' health through touch.

The two central characters can fight off and defeat spirits using the Camera Obscura. Shots taken by the Camera Obscura deal varying amounts of damage based on how close the ghost is, the angle of the shot, and the film used. These factors are taken together to determine how many points the player is awarded for a shot. The most damaging type of shot is the "Fatal Frame", which is achieved if a shot is taken when the ghost is attacking. Points are used as the in-game currency, which can be used at save points to purchase items such as medicine and other items. Blue gems scattered around the environment can be used to upgrade the Camera Obscura, with some upgrades speeding reload time or enabling shots to deal more damage. Types of film range from an unlimited low-quality film that deals little damage to rarer and more powerful film types.

In addition to the Camera Obscura, the third character can use a flashlight to explore their surroundings, and one character has access to a special Spirit Flashlight, which uses moonlight to pacify spirits. Should a ghost attack, gestures with the Wii Remote can shake them off. The "New Game+" mode unlocks additional costumes and further items and upgrades, many of them dependent on how much the player has scored during the initial playthrough. On higher difficulties, the number of items available is reduced.

## Synopsis

In 1970, ten years prior to the start of the game, suspected serial killer Yō Haibara kidnapped five girls from their rooms in a sanatorium on Rougetsu, an island south of Honshu. The girls were rescued from a cavern beneath the sanatorium by detective Chōshirō Kirishima, who had been pursuing Haibara, but they had all lost their memories. Two years later, a catastrophe strikes Rougetsu Island which kills off the inhabitants. Eight years later, in the present, two of the rescued girls have died in mysterious circumstances and two of the survivors, Misaki Asō and Madoka Tsukimori, return to discover the truth about their pasts. Despite being warned by her mother not to return to the island, fellow survivor Ruka Minazuki goes there to find Misaki and Madoka. Shortly before Ruka's arrival, Madoka is killed by hostile spirits.

Chōshirō, the detective who rescued them, also returns to the island to both find Ruka and continue his pursuit of Haibara. During her exploration, Ruka learns that she and Misaki are suffering from a supernatural disease dubbed Moonlight Syndrome, which affects their memories and identity and is spread by touch and vision. Each character also collects pieces of a mask used in a local ritual dance to guide souls into the afterlife. During the course of the story, it is revealed that Misaki arranged their return to the island so their illness might be cured, and that Chōshirō himself died eight years before, and is now helping the girls guided by the benevolent spirit of Ruka's mother Sayaka.

It is gradually revealed that Ruka's father Soya Yomotsuki had become obsessed with completing the ritual dance, as it would also cure the disease and required the construction of a special mask for the dancer. Ruka herself became infected, and was treated at the sanatorium along with the other girls and the dancer, Haibara's sister Sakuya. The ritual was a catastrophic failure due to another tourist version of the ritual taking place concurrently; Sakuya reached the final stage of the disease and fell into a coma when the mask shattered, the other girls collapsed and had their memories wiped, and the dancers in the tourist ritual all died. Two years after Misaki and Madoka left the island with Ruka, Sakuya woke up and infected the whole island, killing everyone who saw her face including Yomotsuki.

To lay Sakuya to rest and calm Rougetsu's dead inhabitants, the ritual must be completed, and for that the mask must be restored. Ruka comes into possession of all the mask fragments, which reform into the complete Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Confronting Sakuya atop Rougetsu's lighthouse, she manages to pacify her with a sacred tune called "Tsukimori" taught to her by Sayaka, then Chōshirō puts the mask on Sakuya, completing the ritual and allowing all the island's spirits to pass into the afterlife including Sakuya, Chōshirō and Yomotsuki. Depending on the game's difficulty setting, Misaki's fate is either left unknown, or her illness is cured after she is saved by Madoka's spirit and she leaves the island with Ruka.

## Development

Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was co-developed by Tecmo, Grasshopper Manufacture and Nintendo Software Planning & Development. Tecmo was in charge of the gameplay and atmosphere, Grasshopper Manufacture were put in charge of character motion and other unspecified aspects of development, while Nintendo managed general production. Makoto Shibata and Keisuke Kikuchi, series creators and respective director and producer of the previous games in the series, returned to their respective posts. In addition, Grasshopper Manufacture's Goichi Suda acted as a co-director, co-writer and designer. Suda was initially reluctant to work on the project due to his intense dislike for ghosts and horror games. According to a later interview with Kikuchi, he was first inspired when he saw the potential in the Wii hardware, and was the first to propose the project to Nintendo. The main development goal for Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was "feeling fear with [the player's] body", with gameplay functions closely tied into the Wii hardware. Among these were feeding sounds through the Wii remote's speaker and creating effects using the rumble function. An adjustment they made was to the camera perspective: while it had been placed at a distance in previous games, it was shifted to an over-the-shoulder third-person view so the control of the torch was more realistic. This raised concerns as to the pace of the character's movement. Taking into account similar criticisms from fans of earlier games, the characters' speed was increased. This aspect was undergoing revision until quite late into development. The CGI scenes were created by Shirogumi.

When designing the game's main setting, the team moved away from the traditional enclosed Japanese mansions from previous games in favor of somewhere that blended Eastern and Western architectural tastes to create different gameplay opportunities, described in-game as a Meiji-era hotel. Traditional mansion settings were also included, with more locations being present than in previous games. The color yellow was chosen as the game's image color, while the key words used to describe the plot were "memory", "moon" and "mask". The subtitle refers to the mask that is key to the Kagura Dance Ritual. The mask in turn tied into story themes of the phases of the moon, the nature of memory, and music. During development, Shibata and Kikuchi felt that Grasshopper and Nintendo's involvement helped them reevaluate the series formula and try out new things. After development, Kikuchi said that the three companies' varying ideas on the project made the development "a complete and utter mess", though it ultimately worked out well. The characters were designed by Sawaki Takeyasu, who had previously worked in that capacity on Ōkami. The music was composed by Masafumi Takada and Etsuko Ichikawa. As with the previous two games, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse features songs by Japanese singer Tsuki Amano: the theme song "Zero Tuning", and the ending theme "Noise".

## Release

Mask of the Lunar Eclipse was first revealed in January 2008 at a Tecmo press conference. It was the first series title to be developed and released for a Nintendo console. It was released on July 31. Its release was timed to coincide with a traditional time in Japan for people to tell each other ghost stories. Upon release, the game featured several bugs affecting player progress through the game, as revealed in a message to fans from Nintendo. While no North American release was planned, a European release was in the works and was leaked via a brief mention in a French gaming magazine. After the leak, Nintendo stated that a European release had been planned, but since then the localization had been cancelled. No other third-party publisher besides Nintendo would publish the game overseas, leaving Mask of the Lunar Eclipse a Japan-exclusive title for the time being.

After Nintendo's announcement, a three-person team decided to create a fan translation of the game. The development process was compared by them to "a Frankenstein's monster", referring to how they needed to assess the data, construct a development schedule for the translation patch, theorize on the file structure, and then create a tool to access the game's data files. The modification program was then tested on Super Smash Bros. Brawl by a dedicated tester, then sent back for refinement. They worked hard to preserve the atmosphere of the original game, along with attempting to make the translation as true as possible to the original without being overly verbose. To help translate the text, they posted the script in segments on internet forums, though access to the work was later restricted due to quality concerns. During this time, they found several competent translators who were able to complete the final 20% of the script translation. It took several months for the entire process of extracting text, translation, then patching in the translated text to be completed. The patch ended up being quite large as the game designers had split the game into hundreds of different data archives, and suitable accommodations and adjustments needed to be made. The fan translation was released on January 19, 2010. The patch was designed to work on any Wii device, bypassing the console's region locking, and included a newly-made costume for the main character.

Prior to Western release, the game was commonly dubbed "Fatal Frame / Project Zero IV" or "Fatal Frame / Project Zero: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse" by journalists. A Western release was eventually announced in September 2022. Released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, this version is a remaster that includes updated graphics and new unlockable costumes. As with earlier releases, the game was given the title Fatal Frame in North America, and Project Zero in Europe. The remaster and worldwide release were inspired by the success of a remaster of the fifth Fatal Frame title, Maiden of Black Water in 2021. The game was released on March 9, 2023; in Japan the PS4 and Switch versions received both physical and digital releases, while the game was released as a digital exclusive in the rest of the world. The game was available as both a standard edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition including a digital artbook and soundtrack. Pre-order bonuses included in-game costumes, while another in-game accessory was unlocked if save from Maiden of Black Water was detected. Details on the localized settings and characters were released in December 2022.

## Reception

Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse received "mixed or average" reviews, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

During its debut, Mask of the Lunar Eclipse sold approximately 30,000 units, making one of the weaker debuts of the series. As of the end of December 2008, the game had sold nearly 75,000 units. While these were low sales compared to other Wii titles, it made Mask of the Lunar Eclipse the best-selling title in the series to that date. The remaster sold 120,000 units worldwide between its release of 9 March 2023 and by the end of Koei Tecmo's fiscal year on 31 March 2023.

The reviewers for Famitsu were united in their opinion that, while not a revolutionary title within the series, it was a high-quality game. Eurogamer's Kristan Reed regularly noted its similarity to previous entries in the series, praising the atmosphere and gameplay, while criticizing the control scheme and its negative effect on combat and navigation. In a preview of the game, Richard Eisenbeis of Kotaku praised the game's multiple storylines and settings, but was mixed about its familiar gameplay and again criticized the controls. In closing, he generally cited it as a good entry in the series. Matthew Blundon of Nintendo Life, echoing the criticism of the controls, said that it would please hardcore horror game players. Albert Lichi of Cubed3 again faulted the control set up. In most other respects he was highly positive, praising the story, combat and graphics, calling it a "labor of love" on the part of the development team. In its import review, Edge generally enjoyed the unsettling atmosphere that the developers had succeeded in creating by using the dark settings and close-set camera angle. The reviewer also defended the often-criticized control scheme, saying that it added to the feeling of fear. In closing, the reviewer said that the subtlety of the game showed the flaws in other horror franchises such as Silent Hill.

Zoey Handley of Destructoid felt that the game had an audience due to its atmosphere and gameplay, but noted that the story presentation and elements of its combat and controls had not aged well. Reviewing the Switch version, Nintendo Life's Ollie Reynolds felt that the game's combat and design dated it for modern fans, but praised the narrative and art design of the environments and ghosts. Fran Soto of Hardcore Gamer enjoyed the game and felt it worked better on new hardware with analog control than it did with the original Wii hardware, but noted its slow character movement and issues with the camera controls. Push Square's John Cal McCormick likewise faulted the slow movement, additionally faulting repetitive combat and a "clunky" feel, but praised its updated graphics and atmosphere. Joe DeVader of Nintendo World Report felt that its control issues and overall design were better suited to series fans than newcomers, but enjoyed the atmosphere and praised the graphical upgrade. Chris Scullion, writing for Video Games Chronicle, echoed recurring complaints around the movement speed while praising the atmosphere and gameplay design.

2008 video game