Cologne, of a noble family. He became secretary to the Emperor Maximilian, by whom he was knighted for his bravery in the Italian wars. He next travelled through various parts of Europe, and while in England wrote a commentary on St. Paul's Epistles. In 1518 he settled at Metz, which place, however, he was obliged to quit, at the instigation of the monks, and went to Cologne, and thence to Geneva. He next travelled to Antwerp, in 1528, and was taken into the service of Margaret of Austria, governess of the Low Countries. In 1530 he published his treatise of the Vanity of the Sciences,' and soon afterwards his Occult Philosophy. In 1535 he was at Lyons, where he was imprisoned for defaming the king's mother, but soon obtained his discharge, and died the same year at Grenoble. All his works were collected and printed at Leyden, 1550, in 3 vols. New Memoirs of Corn. Agrippa,' by Henry Morley, appeared in 1856. Agrippa I., Herod, grandson of Herod the Great, He gave great offence to Tiberius, who threw him into prison; but on Caligula's succession, was not only released, but invested with the tetrarchy of Abilene and other districts: to which was afterwards added the kingdom of Judea. He commenced a persecution of the Christians, in which the apostle St. James perished; and after a reign of seven years died at Cæsarea, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, A.D. 43. Agrippa II., Herod, son and successor of the preceding, was the seventh and last of the Jewish monarchs of the family of Herod the Great. It was before this prince that St. Paul pleaded his cause with so much eloquence that Agrippa acknowledged he had almost persuaded him to be a Christian. He died at Rome about the year 94. Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, a distinguished Roman commander, and the associate and friend of the Emperor Augustus, was born B.C. 63. He took a leading part in the civil wars which followed the death of Julius Cæsar; became consul in 37; obtained a naval victory over Sextus Pompeius in the following year, and chiefly contributed to the victory of Augustus (then Octavius) at Actium, in 31. He was once ædile, consul again in 28 and 27, and three times tribune. He spent large sums on public works, and in his third consulship built the Pantheon. He seemed to be marked out as the successor of Augustus, whose daughter Julia he married on the death of Marcellus. Julia was his third wife. Vipsania, his daughter by his first wife, was married to Tiberius; and Agrippina, one of his daughters, by Julia, became the wife of Germanicus. Agrippa was twice made governor of Syria, and distinguished himself by his wise and just administration. Died, B.C. 12. Agrippina, the elder daughter of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, was married in the first instance to Tiberius, who divorced her, and she became the wife of Germanicus Cæsar, whom she accompanied in his military expeditions. On the death of the latter at Antioch, A.D. 17, she returned to Rome with his remains, and took advantage of the public grief for the death of her husband to accuse Piso, who was suspected of having hastened it. The latter was shortly afterwards found dead in his bed; and Tiberius, jealous of the affection of the people for Agrippina, banished her to a small island, where she died of hunger, in 33. Agrippina, the younger, daughter of Germanicus and the elder Agrippina, and the mother of Nero, was at once cruel and licentious. After losing two husbands, she married her uncle, the Emperor Claudius, whom she poisoned in 54, to make way for the elevation of her son Nero. She ruled in his name, but after a few years he caused her to be assassinated, and exhibited to the senate a list of all the crimes of which she had been guilty. Aguesseau, Marquis d'. seau.] [D'Agues Aguilar, Grace, a pleasing moral writer of the Jewish persuasion, was born at Hackney, 1816. Her first work was the 'Magic Wreath;' but this was far exceeded in merit by her Home Influence' and her Vale of Cedars,' &c., published posthumously. The promising career of this authoress was cut short at Frankfort, July, 1847. Ahmed. [Achmet.] Ahmed Pasha. [Jezzar.] Ahrendt, or Arents, Martin Frederick, antiquary and palæographer, was a native of Holstein. He spent forty years in travelling on foot through Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, and other parts of Europe, in search of Scandinavian antiquities and Runic monuments, and carried on an extensive correspondence with his learned contemporaries. He died at a small village near Vienna, in 1824. Aidan, St., bishop of Lindisfarne, and the 'Apostle of Northumbria,' was at first a monk of Iona. When Oswald succeeded to the kingdom of Northumbria, and desired to recover his people from the apostasy into which they had fallen, he sent to the Culdees (monks of Ïona), among whom he had been brought up, for religious teachers. Aidan answered to his call, and devoted himself with zeal, patience, and wisdom to the great task. In 635 he settled on the island of Lindisfarne, and there founded a monastery, which flourished about 200 years, and was at last destroyed by the Danes. The see of Lindisfarne was ultimately transferred to Durham. Aidan died, 31 August, 651. Aignan, St., Duke of. [Beauvillier.] Aikin, John, M.D., born Jan. 15, 1747, at Kibworth, Leicestershire, was the only son of Dr. J. Aikin, classical and afterwards theological tutor in the Dissenting Academy at Warrington. In 1764 he became a student in the university of Edinburgh. On his return he went to Yarmouth, Norfolk, where, with little interruption, he continued till 1792, when he removed to London, and devoted himself chiefly to literature, in which he was eminently success ful. In 1796 he became the editor of the Monthly Magazine, which he superintended from its commencement till 1806. In 1799, he published, in conjunction with Dr. Enfield, the first volume of a General Biographical Dictionary, in 4to., which, however, was not completed till 1815. Dr. Aikin was also the author of the well-known and favourite Evenings at Home,' and of a Natural History of the Year,' which has served as a model for subsequent works of the same class. Died, 1822, aged 75. Aikin, Lucy, daughter of the above, was born at Warrington in 1781. She began to contribute to reviews and magazines in her 17th year, and in 1819 made herself generally known by her first historical work, Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth,' a careful and lively picture of the period. She afterwards produced similar works on the reigns of James I. and Charles I.; Memoirs of her father and of Mrs. Barbauld; a volume of poems entitled Epistles on Women; and in 1843, Memoirs of Addison. After her father's death she resided, with the exception of a short interval, at Hampstead. Miss Aikin was acquainted with almost all her distinguished literary contemporaries, and had a keen relish and a rare capacity for social intercourse. She was for nearly 20 years the correspondent of Dr. Channing. Died, January 29, 1865, and was buried at Hampstead, beside her friend Joanna Baillie. An interesting volume of Memoirs, Miscellanics, and Lotters,' edited by her friond Mr. Le Breton, appeared the same year. Aikman, William, a Scotch painter, born at Cairney, in 1682. He was the friend of Allan Ramsay, the poet Thomson, Pope, &c. Died, 1731. The best portraits of Thomson, Gay, and Ramsay aro by Aikman. tem Psalmos Penitentiales.' The French translation of the latter was one of the earliest books printed. Died, 1420 or 1425. Aimoin, of Aquitaine, author of a legendary history of France, is supposed to have lived in the 9th century. The history is brought down to 1165 by another hand; and is in the third volume of the Collection of Duchesne. Ainsworth, Henry, an eminent biblical commentator and divine among the English nonconformists, flourished at the latter end of the 16th century. His writings exhibited much learning and acuteness, and excited the attention of Hall, bishop of Exeter, who entered the lists against him. He subsequently went to Amsterdam, where he died in 1662. Ainsworth, Robert, a distinguished lexicographer. His most important work was his well-known Latin Dictionary. He was 8 native of Woodyale, in Lancashire, and was born in 1660. He died in London in 1743. His Dictionary was first published in 1736, and has passed through many editions, but has long been superseded. Aiton, William, an excellent botanist, born in Lanarkshire, He was a pupil of Philip Miller of the Chelsea Physic-Garden, and became a great favourite with George III., who appointed him head-gardener at Kew in 1759. In this situation he formed one of the best collections of rare exotic plants in the world, a catalogue of which he published in 1789, under the title of 'Hortus Kewensis,' an elaborate work in 3 vols. Aiton numbered among his friends the great naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, and the painters Gainsborough and Zoffany. Died, 1793. Aitzema, Leo, an historian of Friesland, born, 1600, and died, 1669. He was author of Ailly, Pierre d' (Petrus de Alliaco), a the History of the United Provinces, from celebrated French cardinal, born at Compiègne 1621-1668, in 15 vols.; an extremely valuable in 1350. Ho early entered the college of Na-work, especially for the number and importance varre, Paris, and distinguished himself by his of orginal documents, memoirs, &c., which it attainments in theology and philosophy. In contains. 1380 he was appointed Grand Master of his Akber, sultan of the Moguls, was born college, and contributed greatly to its increased in 1542, and succeeded his father Humayun renown, Nine years later he became chan- in his fourteenth year. The supreme power cellor of the university of Paris, and confessor was for a time vested in Behram Khan, a to the King, Charlos VI. In 1396 ho was distinguished commander; but in 1560 Akber made bishop of Cambray, and in 1411 cardinal. took the government into his own hands. The He took a distinguished part at the Council of empire was then in a weak, distracted, and Pisa, and was president of the Council of Con- disorganised state, and the young sovereign at stance when John Huss was condemned. He once applied himself with manly energy to was learned, eloquent, and carnost; ho advo- the task of its restoration. His aim was to cated a reform of the Church, but stoutly op- become the head of the whole Indian nation. posed the doctrinos of Huss. He nequired the Revolts of officers in various provinces had to tttle of the Hammer of Horotics. One of the bo suppressed, and then the numerous proworks of Cardinal Alliacus, entitled Imago vinces which had been lost had to be reMundi,' is memorable as the source from which conquered. Thus he was involved in a long Columbus gathered what he knew of those pas-course of wars, the result of which was the exsages in Greek and Roman writers which incited him to his great enterprise. Ho appears to have had the writings of Alliacus with him on his voyages. Among his nu merous other works are Libellus do Emendatione Ecclesiæ,' and Meditationes circa Sep But tension of his empire from the narrow limits toleration in religion, and would fain have established a new religion, which should be common to all his subjects. He made great reforms in the revenue system and in the army, and provided carefully for the local government of provinces, for the administration of justice, and the regulation of the police. He promoted commerce, and science, and literature, took part in religious and philosophical discussions, and had for his chief personal friend the great scholar Feizi, and his brother, the statesman Abul Fazl. His last years were saddened by the misconduct of his three sons. Died, after a reign of 50 years, in 1605. Jesuit. He died in 1594, not without suspicion that he was poisoned. Aland, Sir John Fortescue (Lord Fortescue), a baron of the Exchequer, and a puisne judge of the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, in the reigns of George I. and II., was descended from the famous Sir John Fortescue, lord chief justice and lord high chancellor of England in the reign of Henry VI. He was born in 1670, and received his education at Oxford; was an able lawyer, an impartial judge, and well versed in Anglo-Saxon literature. Died, 1746. Akenside, Mark, poet and physician, was born in 1721 at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He finished his studies at the universities of Edinburgh and Leyden, in the latter of which he took his degree as a doctor of medicine in 1744. In the same year appeared his principal poem, 'On the Pleasures of the Imagination, which immediately attained immense popularity, and long retained it. This was fol-year published a volume of plays. He publowed by the Epistle to Curio,' a satire; and, in 1745, he published ten odes on various subjects. He continued, from time to time, to send forth his poetical compositions, most of which appeared in Dodsley's Collection. Dr. Akenside also wrote a number of medical works. He died in 1770, aged 49. The 'Pleasures of Imagination' is scarcely readable now. It is more a rhetorical exercise and a tiresome display of fine writing than a poem. A Life of Akenside, by Bucke, appeared in 1832; and a Memoir, by Dyce, is prefixed to the Aldine edition of his Poems. Alarcon y Mendoza, Juan Ruiz de, one of the greatest Spanish dramatists, was born in Mexico. He was of a noble family of the town of Alarcon in Spain, and it is presumed that he came to Europe about the latter end of the 16th century. Almost nothing is known of the events of his life. In 1628 he held the lucrative office of Prolocutor of the Royal Council for the Indies, and the same lished a second volume in 1634. Alarcon was a humpback, enormously conceited, and very unpopular among his countrymen. Though he wrote at least twenty dramas, his name was forgotten and his works neglected for nearly two hundred years; but his fame has now revived, his works have been newly edited, some of them are translated into French, and he is now admitted to rank next to Cervantes and Lope de Vega; and even in one respect to rival them-the delineation of character. The moral tone of his dramas is, for his age, very high, and in his dramatis persone we have specimens of the best Spaniards, both men and women, of his time. One of his best plays is Alamanni, Lodovico, a Florentine poet and statesman, was born in 1495. Involved in a plot against the Cardinal Giulio de Me-La Verdad Sospechosa,' or Suspected Truth, dicis, he fled to France, and was sent ambassador from Francis I. to the emperor. His works are 'La Coltivazione,' 'Opere Toscane,' 'Girone il Cortese,' &c. Died, 1556. of which Corneille made a very clever translation and adaptation in Le Menteur.' This was re-translated into Spanish, and became very popular, no one suspecting its origin. Among Alarcon's other plays are Change for the better,' How to gain Friends,' and 'The Weaver of Segovia.' Died, 1639. Alan, Alleyn, or Allen, William, an Englishman of good family, was born at Rossal, Lancashire, in 1531. Educated at Oxford by a tutor warmly attached to popery, he entered Alaric I., king of the Visigoths, and conupon the world under a strong prepossession queror of Rome, was descended from a noble in favour of the Catholic faith; and, while Gothic family, and for some years served in very young, became principal of St. Mary's the Roman armies; but on the death of TheoCollege, and proctor of the university. On the dosius he put himself at the head of his counaccession of Elizabeth, he went to Louvain, trymen, who threw off the Roman yoke, and and was appointed head of the English Col- led them into Greece. In the following year, lege. He now strenuously exerted himself, 396, Stilicho was sent against him, and he was both by his writings and example, to advance driven out of Greece. In the year 400, being the papal cause; and by his suggestions Philip then the acknowledged sovereign of the VisiII. was induced to undertake the invasion of goths, he invaded Italy. In 402, he made a England; to facilitate which, Alan published second irruption, but was defeated by Stilicho a defence of the pope's bull against Elizabeth, at Pollentia, in 403, and compelled to make with an exhortation to her subjects to rise in peace. After this, he was employed in the favour of the Spaniards. For these services he service of the Emperor Honorius, but in 408 he was made cardinal and archbishop of Mechlin. again entered the Roman territory, and laid It is said, that towards the close of his life he siege to the capital. His terms were complied repented of the measures he had recommended with, and he retired into Tuscany; but, being against his country; and, on his death-bed, joined by his brother, Ataulphus, he returned wished to address the English students at and besieged Rome a second time in 409, only Rome, but was prevented by the ascendant retiring on his own terms. He renewed the siege a third time in the following year, when | cation, she retired, in 1780, to a cloister. At the city was taken, and given up to pillage for his death, in 1788, the French court allowed six days. After ravaging Southern Italy he her an annuity of 60,000 livres. She soon was preparing to pass into Africa, when he fell after secretly married the poet Alfieri, and suddenly ill and died at Cosenza, in the autumn settled at Florence. Widow a second time in of 410. His followers deposited the remains 1803, she survived the house of Stuart, which of their beloved leader in a grave dug in the became extinct at the death of her brother-inbed of the river Bucento, its course being law, the Cardinal of York, in 1807, and died turned a while for the purpose. at Florence, in 1824. Alaric II., king of the Visigoths, succeeded his father Euric in 485, and reigned over all the country between the Rhone and the Garonne. He adapted to his states the Theodosian collection of laws, and published an abridgment of it as the law of the Visigoths, since known by the title of the code of Alaric. He was slain in battle by Clovis, king of the Franks, 507. Alasco, John, uncle to Sigismund, king of Poland, was born in 1499. He was in great esteem with most of the learned men of his day, and enjoyed the friendship of many of them, particularly Erasmus and Zuinglius, through which he became a convert to the Protestant faith; to which he was so zealously devoted as to obtain the title of the Reformer of Poland. He died at Frankfort, in 1560. Alba, Duke of. [Alva.] Alban, St., said to be the first Christian martyr in Britain, lived at Verulam, and having given shelter to a priest was arrested, and refusing to save himself by denying the faith, was beheaded. The abbey of St. Alban's was built on the scene of his martyrdom. Died, 304. Albani, Alessandro, an eminent virtuoso, born at Urbino, 1692, raised to the rank of cardinal by Innocent XIII., and died, 1779, aged 87, very highly esteemed. In 1762, his collection of drawings and engravings, consisting of 300 volumes, was purchased by George III. for 14,000 crowns. Albani, Giovanni Francisco, nephew of the above, was born at Rome, 1720, and in 1747 was made a cardinal. He opposed the suppression of the Jesuits, as a measure fraught with danger to the church; but, in all other respects, was a most enlightened prelate. He imitated his uncle in his encouragement of letters and learned men; but when the French entered Rome they plundered his palace, confiscated his estates, and reduced him, then in his 77th year, to poverty: his valuable collection was sent off to Paris, and even the plants of his garden were rooted up and sold. Amidst this devastation the cardinal took refuge in a convent, whence he removed to Naples; and returned to Rome in 1800, where he lived till his death in 1803. Albani, or Albany, Countess of, was the Princess Louisa Maria Caroline, who married Charles Stuart, The Pretender.' She was cousin of the last reigning prince of StolbergGedern; was born in 1753; married in 1772, when she took the title of Countess of Albany; but to escape from the barbarity of her husband, who lived in a continual state of intoxi Albani, Francisco, a very celebrated painter, born at Bologna, 1578, and died, 1660. Albani studied with Guido under the Caracci, and attained great excellence in delineating feminine and infantine beauty. Albani, Giovanni Battista, a younger brother of the above, was also a painter, and excelled in landscape. Albategni, a distinguished Arabian astronomer, was born in Mesopotamia, and flourished in the ninth and tenth centuries. His astronomical observations, continued for nearly 50 years, and the important improvements he made in the method and instruments of observation, obtained for him the title of the Ptolemy of the Arabs. He lived chiefly at Baghdad, and died in 929. Albemarle, Duke of. [Monk, George.] Alberoni, Giulio, cardinal and first minister of Spain, was born in the Duchy of Parma in 1664. He entered the church, and afterwards became secretary to the Duke of Vendôme, then commanding the French army in Italy. He accompanied Vendôme to France and to Spain, was named agent of the Duke of Parma at Madrid, ingratiated himself with the king, Philip V., and got himself made cardinal and first minister. He immediately formed and began to execute schemes for the extension of the power of Spain, invading Sardinia and Sicily, and carrying on intrigues in France, England, and Turkey: but the alliance of France and England against him defeated his projects, and led to his dismissal and exile. He went to Rome, was subsequently legate to the Romagna, where he indulged his passion for intrigue, spent his last years in retirement, and died in 1752. Albert, Francis Augustus Charles Emmanuel, Prince Consort of England, the second son of H. R. H. Ernest, Duke of SaxeCoburg Saalfeld, was born at Ehrenberg, August 26, 1819. He was educated at the castle under his father's supervision, by masters selected from the College of Coburg, until in May, 1837, he, with his elder brother, the present Duke Ernest, entered the University of Bonn, as a student in law. Here he remained till September, 1838, having acquired a high reputation for his attainments in science and art, together with the esteem and love of the whole people of Bonn, for his blameless life and his charity to the poor. Besides his studies in jurisprudence and history, his leisure hours were devoted to music and painting. His 'Savoyard Minstrel Boy,' painted during his student life, is now one of the most prized pictures in the the deep and general sorrow of the whole nation. He died in the 43rd year of his age, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, December 23, 1861. His remains were afterwards removed to the mausoleum erected by the Queen at Frogmore. A national memorial to the Prince Consort is in process of erection in Hyde Park (1866). Albert, marquis of Brandenburg-Culmbach, surnamed the German Alcibiades, born in 1522, was a principal actor in the troubles of Germany during the reign of Charles V., against whom he made a league and declared war in 1552. After capturing many towns and fortresses, and devastating various parts of Germany, he was defeated in August, 1553, by Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and put under the ban of the empire. He fled to France, but was allowed to return, and died at Pforzheim, 1558. Albert, Charles d'. [Luynes, Duke of.] Albert, Louis Joseph d', son of Louis Charles, duke of Luynes, born in 1672, and died in 1758. He distinguished himself in several campaigns, and was appointed fieldmarshal by the Emperor Charles VII., who sent him ambassador to France, and created him prince of Grünberghen. Albert I., duke of Austria and emperor, was the son of Rudolph of Hapsburg, and was born in 1248. He arrogantly claimed the empire on the death of his father in 1292, but the electors chose Adolphus of Nassau. The latter being deposed in 1298, and soon after defeated and slain by Albert, Albert was elected and crowned Queen's collection. At Bonn his greatest friends | were Count Buest and Professor Welcker; he was also highly esteemed by Schlegel, who, professing to detest princelings,' readily extended his friendship to Prince Albert. In 1838 he visited England with his father for the coronation of the Queen, and remained in Windsor and London longer than the guests of higher rank. In 1839 the visit was repeated, and after it the Queen announced to the Privy Council her intention to ally herself in marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg Gotha. The marriage was notified to Parliament in the Queen's speech of January 16, 1840. Thus, in his twenty-first year, Prince Albert, having been naturalized by Act of Parliament, became the second person in the English realm, and entered on a position of unusual difficulty. He came amongst a people jealous of all foreign interference, and from time to time faction was ready to impute to him a desire to secure to himself the office of Commander-in-Chief, and inaugurate a military despotism. The charge that he interfered in advising the crown was met in Parliament by the open avowal of its correctness; and the admission that the Prince really took part in discussions with ministers, and that he would persevere in what was at once his duty and his constitutional right, silenced once and for all these unjust insinuations. Prince Albert availed himself of every opportunity for improving the condition of the poor, as well as for furthering the advancement of art and learning generally. Thus, although in 1847 he accepted from the University of the same year. He first joined with France Cambridge-when ratified by an election-the against the pope, and then with the pope against office of Chancellor, which he had at first de-France. He made war on the Netherlands, on clined, he was probably more pleased when in 1859 he was selected as President of the British Association. His interest in agriculture was shown not merely by his masterly speeches at the Royal Agricultural Society's meeting in York (1848) and elsewhere, but by the care with which he superintended his model farm at Windsor. The condition of the labouring classes was the subject of his first important speech in public, in the same year (1848); and this subject lay unquestionably at the bottom of that wise design which was carried out in the Great Exhibition of 1851. The work of 1851 did not fail in its purpose; and the same good energy promoted a second Great Exhibition for the year 1862, at the opening of which his well-known form was missed. On the 25th of June, 1857, he was styled by Royal Warrant 'Prince Consort,' to give him precedence in foreign courts, having received the baton of a Field Marshal, together with the title of 'Royal Highness' in 1840. Early in December, 1861, symptoms of indisposition showed themselves Albert, archduke of Austria, and governor in a feverish cold, from which, however, no of the Netherlands, was sixth son of the Emapprehensions were entertained until the third peror Maximilian II., and was born in 1559. or fourth day preceding his death. On Satur-At a very early age he was made cardinal archday, December 14, after an apparent improve- bishop of Toledo. In 1583 he was appointed ment, the announcement of which was eagerly viceroy of Portugal, and in 1596 governor of the welcomed by the public, he died without suffer- Low Countries, where he married the daughter ing, to the profound grief of his family, and of Philip II., and carried on the war against the Hungary and Bohemia; and by his despotic measures in Switzerland provoked the revolution which led to the formation of the Swiss confederation. An act of private injustice to his nephew, Don John, occasioned a conspiracy against him, and he was murdered in Switzerland, 1st May, 1308. Albert II., emperor (and V. duke of Austria), was the son of Duke Albert IV., and was born at Vienna in 1397. At seven years of age he succeeded to the dukedom, but did not assume the government till 1411. He took part in the war against the Hussites with the Emperor Sigismund, whose daughter he married in 1421. He succeeded to the throne of Bohemia at the close of 1437, again carried on war with the Hussites, was chosen king of Hungary, and finally emperor. His first measures promised well for the empire; but having set out to repel a Turkish invasion of Hungary, he fell ill and died there in October, 1439. He had not been crowned emperor. |