A synod held in 1618, to which all the Protestant Churches were invited to send representatives. It was specially convened for the purpose of considering the Arminian heresy, and resulted in the condemnation of Arminianism, and the expulsion of its followers from Holland.
When Sir James Douglas (The Good) recovered his castle from the English in 1306, he massacred the garrison, and threw their bodies, together with all the stores and provisions found in the castle, into a cellar. This was called by the English the “Douglas Larder.”
The Civil War in Scotland between the King’s men and Queen’s men from 1568 to 1573, was so called from the family name of the Earl of Morton, who was Regent during the later period of the war.
A treaty between Charles II and Louis XIV, signed in 1670, by which Charles was to re-establish Roman Catholicism, receiving from Louis £200,000 a year, and the use of 6,000 French troops. He was to aid Louis in his designs against Holland, receiving as a reward the Province of Zeeland, and further to support Louis in his claim to the Spanish succession, for which service he was to receive as payment Minorca and Ostend.
A revolt of peasants under George Dózsa, in Hungary, in the reign of Ladislas (1490-1516) which was suppressed with considerable difficulty and great cruelty, and led to the peasants being reduced to a condition little removed from serfdom.
An outbreak in New York in 1863, to resist the drafting of New Yorkers into the Union Army. The mob held possession of the city for four days, the absence of the militia at the front having left only the police available for the protection of the city. It is calculated that over 1,000 persons were killed, and damage done to the extent of two million dollars during the riots.
The persecution of the Huguenots in Poitou and other parts of France by the dragoons of Louvois and Marillac in 1685.
A case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1855. Dred Scott, a negro, claimed that having lived with his owner in a free labour state, he could not be sold back into slavery on his master’s death. The Supreme Court decided against him, and further laid it down that he had nolocus standibefore the Court, as the rights of citizenship could not be claimed by any person who had been a slave or was the descendant of a slave.
An alliance, more or less formal, between the three Emperors of Austria, Germany, and Russia, dating from a personal meeting in 1872. It had ceased to exist in any form prior to 1879, when the foundation of the existing Triple Alliance was laid.
In December, 1894, Captain Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer, employed at the General Staff in Paris, was found guilty of supplying confidential documents to foreign Powers, and sentenced to degradation and transportation for life. His friends were convinced of his innocence, and began an agitation which by degrees attracted the attention of many eminent Frenchmen, among others Emile Zola, who took up his cause with great warmth. Eventually the Government were forced to submit the case to the Cour de Cassation, which quashed the conviction and ordered a new trial. Dreyfus was brought back to France in 1899, and tried by court-martial at Rennes. Though his innocence was generally believed in outside France, he was again found guilty, but was almost immediately pardoned by the President. The Case was the occasion of a wild outburst of anti-semitism in France. In February, 1903, it was rumoured that the case was to be re-opened by the Dreyfusites, evidence having come to light of the methods adopted by the General Staff to secure the second conviction.
In 1895 the Transvaal Government raised the rates on merchandise on the railway between the Vaal and Johannesburg, in order to force importers to usethe newly-opened Delagoa Bay Railway. The Cape importers thereupon unloaded their merchandise at the frontier, and sent it on to Johannesburg by waggon. President Kruger then closed the drifts, or fords, on the Vaal on October 1. He was reminded that this action was a breach of the London Convention, but he remained obdurate, and it was found necessary to resort to a display of force, before which he gave way.
Generally known as Poyning’s Act.
A Scottish Parliament which assembled in 1661. It passed the Episcopal Ordination and the Mile Acts, and it is said that at the passing of the first-named Act, the whole assembly, with one exception, was intoxicated.
The alliance at present existing (1903) between France and Russia. Its earliest form was a military convention, signed in 1891, whereby it was stipulated that either nation should, with a specified force, assist in repelling an attack on the other by Germany. This convention was extended in 1894, and in 1897 became a definite alliance, for defensive purposes only, wherein all special reference to Germany is dropped.
The control by England and France of the Egyptian finances established by a decree of September 4, 1879, which provided that the Comptrollers-General of the two Powers should have the rank of Egyptian Ministers, and the right to attend, but not to vote at, meetings of the Council, together with full powers of inquiry into all questions of finance. The Dual Control ceased to exist when France declined to co-operate with England in the suppression of the Arabi revolt.
This name is given to the seizure and destruction of six English vessels at Duclair, on the Seine, by the Germans during their occupation of France in 1870. Full apologies and compensation were given.
Among the Norsemen a claimant was allowed, under certain conditions, to make good his claim by an appeal to arms. If victorious his claim was considered established. This system was abolished among the Danes and Norsemen by King Knut.
A Russian sect, claiming to live without submitting themselves to human laws, and without reference to any other authority than that of God. The refusal to undergo military service led to their expulsion from Russia, and they are now domiciled in Canada, where, in 1902, they caused the authorities no little trouble by their refusal to submit to the law of the land.
The final settlement of the Montenegro boundary question, long pending between the Great Powers and Turkey, replacingthe Corti Compromise which was not carried out. The transfer of territory fixed by this arrangement was completed in 1881.
The Prince de Condé, the leader of the conspiracy of Amboise, was so called by his confederates.
The Parliament of Henry IV, which met at Coventry in 1404.SeeUnlearned Parliament.
A convention of Ulster volunteer corps, held in 1781, at which resolutions were passed protesting against Irish legislative dependence on England and against a perpetual Mutiny Act. The meeting further demanded freedom of commerce for Ireland, and proclaimed its belief in the right of private judgment in religious matters.
November 11, 1603, on which day Marie de’ Medici, Anne of Austria, and the Duke of Orleans, were outwitted by Richelieu, whom they had persuaded Louis XIII to dismiss from his service. The Cardinal returned to office more powerful than ever.
Durham was made a County Palatine in the reign of William I, and Palatine privileges were enjoyed by the Bishops of Durham until 1836. The administrative authority is now exercised on behalf of the Crown.
A company with trading and political rights, to which a charter was granted in 1602. Its affairs were controlled by a board of directors in Holland, and a governor-general in the Indies. It founded a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. In 1795 the Company ceased to exist, having become insolvent.
A rising in New York in 1690 under Jacob Leisler, declaring for William III.
The catastrophe of Dysieaa, where the revolting peasants were defeated by Waldemar I of Denmark in 1181.
The constitution of England during the reign of Eadgar (959-975) when, under the virtual rule of Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, the various tribes of Saxons and Danes were united under one administration. Knut re-established Eadgar’s Law on his accession in 1016.
Bertrand Duguesclin, Constable of France (died 1380), was so called.
In Saxon times, a national officer, appointed by the king and council to control military affairs in the shire. He sat with the sheriff in the Shire Court.
The name given to the Synod of the English Church at which the Wycliffite doctrines were declared heretical. It was socalled from a shock of earthquake which was felt during the sitting of the Synod.
The first charter to the Indian merchants was granted in 1600, and made perpetual in 1609, a company being constituted under the title of the India Company, with the monopoly of the Eastern trade. During the Revolution a rival company was formed whose competition threatened to extinguish the older Company, but eventually the two were amalgamated in 1708. As the field of operations in India was extended, political questions became increasingly important, and such was the maladministration of the Company, that the Government was constantly forced to interfere. In 1773 a Regulating Act was passed, by which a new council was appointed and other administrative reforms introduced, but the consequent improvement was not marked, and in 1784 Pitt’s India Bill withdrew all political power from the hands of the Company, while leaving their trading rights intact, and established a Board of Control, to be appointed by the British Government. In 1813 the trading monopoly of the Company was broken, so far as India was concerned, by the admission of independent traders to the Company’s territories, but they still retained the China trade. In 1834, however, the restrictions on trade still afforded by the Company’s charter were felt to be out of harmony with modern commercial ideas, and the whole of the Company’s trading rights were swept away, in return for an annuity, payable for forty years, of £630,000, redeemable at the end of that period, at the Government’s option, for a sum of £12,000,000. Before that period was ended, however, the Indian Mutiny broke out, and on its suppression, in 1858, the Company was finally dissolved, and India passed under the direct rule of the United Kingdom.
A clause in the Religious Peace of Augsburg, of 1555, providing that any spiritual prince who changed his religion was to forfeit his office and the revenues of his see.
An Act passed in 1851 in response to the agitation caused by the action of the Pope in appointing Cardinal Wiseman to the Roman Catholic Archbishopric of Westminster. The Act declared the assumption of such titles to be illegal, but provided no penalties for a breach of the law, and hence was never enforced. It was repealed in 1871.
A philosophical school, or sect, founded in France about 1761 by a physician of Mantes, named Quesnay. He maintained that there was a natural order of human institutions, divinely ordained, and that, if this were adhered to, prosperity must ensue. He further argued that agriculture was the only true source of wealth. These doctrines largely influenced Turgot, the finance minister of Louis XVI.
Bands of brigands who harried France during the Hundred Years’ War.
An edict issued in 1598 by Henri IV of France (Henry of Navarre) granting toleration to the Huguenots. It was revoked by Louis XIV in 1685, as a preliminary to a cruel persecution of the Protestants, one result of which was their wholesale emigration to England, Holland, and other Protestant countries.
SeeCapitularies, Châteaubriand, Emancipation, Fraternity, Hatti Humayun, Majestäts Brief, Moulins, Nemours, Orléans, Pavia, Perpetual, Quarantaine, Reformation, Restitution, Reunion, Romorantin, Six, Soissons, Tours, Villers-Cotterets, Worms.
Two treaties, signed in 1560, between France and Scotland and France and England respectively. By the first France undertook to withdraw her troops from Scotland, leaving the Government in the hands of the Council of the Lords. By the second she acknowledged Elizabeth’s sovereignty over England and Ireland, and undertook to maintain her pledges to the Scots.
A stringent law against polygamy, passed by the United States Congress in 1882. It was specially directed against the practice prevailing in the Mormon settlements of Utah.
An Act passed in 1870, establishing a system of national elementary education in England and Wales, controlled by popularly elected bodies known as School Boards. Its introducer was Mr. W. E. Forster. The system lasted till 1902, when it was abolished by the Act passed in that year.
An Act for the regulation and co-ordination of primary and secondary education in England and Wales, excepting London. It abolishes the School Boards established by the Act of 1870, and makes the County Council or Borough Council the education authority, subject in certain respects to the Board of Education. It further provides for the inclusion in the scheme of denominational schools, which prior to the passing of the Act received no support from the rates, but are now maintained from the same sources as the old board schools for all purposes of secular education.
The sobriquet of Philippe, Duc d’Orléans, assumed by him to show his sympathy with the Revolutionary party in France in 1789.
The confederation formed in 1351-1353 by the admission of Zurich, Glarus, Zug and Berne into the Perpetual League of the four Forest Cantons.
A book published in 1649, shortly after the execution of Charles I, purporting to be hisown account of his reign. In 1660, however, the authorship of it was claimed by Dr. Gauden, Bishop of Exeter. The point in dispute is still unsettled, though most authorities oppose the theory that it is the work of Charles.
SeeManoa.
A Danish order of knighthood, said to date from the first Crusade, but reorganized in 1693 by Christian V. It is confined to thirty members, exclusive of royal knights.
A short profession of the Protestant faith, issued on the accession of Queen Elizabeth, pending the revision of the forty-two Articles of 1552.
The sobriquet of Sir Stratford Canning (Lord Stratford de Redcliffe), British Ambassador to the Porte from 1825 to 1828, and again from 1842 to 1858.
An Act passed in 1833 for the abolition of slavery in the British dominions. It provided that all children under six, and all born after the passing of the Act, should be free. All other slaves were, for a period of twelve years, to serve their masters for three-fourths of their time, the remaining fourth being their own. This period was subsequently reduced to seven years, and after being tried for four years the system was abandoned, and all slaves completely freed. Twenty million pounds was voted as compensation to the planters for the loss of their slave property.
An edict issued by Freiherr von Stein, Prussian Minister in 1807, abolishing every form of villeinage then existing in Prussia, and declaring that from 1810 there should be none but freemen in the Prussian dominions.
A proclamation, issued by President Lincoln in January 1, 1863, declaring that all persons held in slavery in the States in arms against the Union were henceforth free. This proclamation did not apply to those States which had not seceded from the Union, whose slaves were liberated by an amendment to the Constitution.
An Act of Congress, passed in 1807, as a reply to the English Orders in Council, prohibiting English vessels from making use of American ports. The Act was repealed in 1809.
An Act passed by the United States Congress in 1810, by which vessels flying the United States flag were forbidden to trade between France and England, while French and English vessels were, at the same time, forbidden to touch at American ports. The American shipowners very soon found means to evade this law.
A deputation from the Victorian Government, underGraham Berry, to the Colonial Office, in 1878, arising out of the Victorian Deadlock. The Colonial Secretary declined to interfere, and the “Embassy” became the laughing-stock of the Colony.
The nobles and other Royalists, to the number of 123,000, who left France during the Revolution. Their estates were forfeited, and owing to the terms of the “Charte” of Louis XVIII were not, as a rule, recovered at the Restoration. It was said of them that they returned from exile “having learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.”
A nickname of François du Tremblay, the familiar of Cardinal Richelieu.
An Irish rising under Robert Emmett in 1803. It was fomented by Napoleon, who had despatched numerous emissaries to Ireland during the currency of the Peace of Amiens. The rising was easily suppressed, and Emmett was hanged.
The State of New York is so called as being the richest and most influential of the States of the Union.
The State of Georgia is so-called.
A bill rendering employers liable for compensation to their workmen for injuries received while at work. The bill was not passed, being wrecked by the question of “contracting out.” Many large employers of labour had arrangements with their men, by which the latter contributed to an assurance fund, maintained in the main by the employer, for the purpose of providing compensation for injury, the men being bound, under these conditions, not to take legal action for compensation. The House of Commons passed a clause rendering such contracts illegal, but the Lords inserted an amendment rendering them legal under certain safeguards as to the amount of the employers’ contribution to the fund, etc. Neither party would give way, and the bill was withdrawn.
An Act providing compensation for death or injury, to workmen or their representatives, to be paid by the employer. The Act permits “contracting out,” but in cases where the insurance fund is not sufficient to provide the compensation required by the Act, the employer is bound to make up the amount.
Concessions granted to the colonists in South America under Spanish rule, whereby they were permitted to hold as slaves, for a certain number of years, such Indians as they might require, for agricultural or mining purposes.
An Act to facilitate the sale of encumbered estates in Ireland, and to give certain powers to sell, in cases otherwise restricted under entail.
The famous work of Diderot Voltaire, d’Alembert and others, which was declared to be irreligious, and was undoubtedly hostile to the Church and to superstition. It was produced between 1751 and 1765, and was proscribed in 1757, but continued to circulate notwithstanding.
The nickname of “The Child of Fortune” was given to Masséna by Napoleon, after the battle of Rivoli in 1797.
The Camissards called themselves by this title.
An agreement between Charles I and the two Scottish commissioners at Carisbrooke, in 1647, by which the Scotch agreed to support the king with an armed force, in return for which he undertook to accept the Covenant and establish Presbyterianism. The supporters of this agreement in Scotland were known as Engagers.
This arose from an edict of William I, inflicting a heavy fine for the murder of one of his soldiers. It was always assumed that any dead body discovered was that of a Norman, and to escape the fine it was necessary to prove that the corpse was that of an Englishman. This was called “Presentment of Englishry.”
The Club of the Duc d’Orléans, Philippe Egalité, circ. 1789.
A system of land tenure, introduced by the statute “De Donis” in 1285, wherein the holder has only a life interest in the land, which passes at his death to his heirs male, and is precluded from alienation, or from any act which may diminish the capital value of the estate.
SeeSpurs.
An Act passed by the Drunken Parliament in 1662, enacting that all holders of livings should be episcopally ordained. It is said that under this act some 350 ministers were deprived of their livings.
A revolutionary society, formed at Pernambuco in 1824, with the object of seceding from the Empire of Brazil and forming a republic. Its leader was Paes de Andrade. The revolt was suppressed in the same year.
The period of Monroe’s presidentship of the United States (1816-1820), during which there was a truce between the two great political parties.
The followers of Thomas Liebler, known as Erastus, a Swiss theologian (1524-1583). He held that the Church was a civil institution, and subject to the State, and that consequently the Churchper sehad no right to punish by excommunication or otherwise any offences against the Church, its doctrine orgovernment, such right belonging to the State alone.
Under the Brehon Law in Ireland, the only punishment recognized for all classes of offences, namely a money compensation.
A confederation of speculators who obtained control of the Erie Railway, and, working in with the Tammany Ring in New York, succeeded in amassing large fortunes, at the expense of the shareholders. The various transactions between the two rings were exposed in 1871, and the Erie Ring was ousted from the management of the railway.
The reversion to the crown of an estate held in vassalage, on the failure of heirs to the vassal.
SeeScutage.
The name given to a party of extreme Federalists in the United States about 1800. The name is taken from Essex County, Massachusetts, which was the centre of their influence.
The nickname of George of Denmark, the husband of Queen Anne. It was his invariable remark when any startling news was told him.
The Scottish Parliament was so called, as being an assembly of the three estates of the kingdom, namely the Clergy, the Barons, and the Burgesses. All the three Estates sat in one chamber.
The new constitution promulgated by Bermudez, the Minister of the Queen-Regent, Christina of Spain, in 1834, to replace the despotic system of Ferdinand.
The code of laws issued by Louis IX of France, directed against the abuses of seignorial jurisdiction, and providing for the regular administration of justice by state functionaries. It also settled the principles of procedure in the courts thus established.
The outcasts in old Japan. They exercised all the most degrading trades, acting as scavengers, butchers, tanners, executioners, etc. They are supposed by some authorities to be descendants of Korean prisoners of war.
An oath imposed upon the English clergy by the Canons of 1640, to the effect that they would never consent to any alteration in the government of the Church of England, by Archbishops, Deans, Archdeacons, etcetera.
In early Anglo-Saxon times land held on the original allotment made at the time of the Saxon invasion, as opposed to Bocland, land held by grant or charter.
The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was thus re-named, on passingto the Duke of Parma under the provisions of the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801.
A stockade erected and defended by the Ballarat miners under Peter Lalor in 1854. The stockade was taken by the Government troops, and the outbreak quickly suppressed, but it resulted in the appointment of a commission to inquire into the miners’ grievances, which reported largely in their favour in the course of the following year.
A society of foreign political refugees, formed in London in 1855 to promote the Republican movement on the Continent. Its founders were Mazzini, Kossuth, and Ledru-Rollin.
The name given to the army which finally overpowered the Taeping rebels in 1865 under General Gordon.
May 1, 1517, the date of a serious outbreak of the London apprentices, when grave outrages were perpetrated on foreigners and others.
A convention putting an end to the civil war in Portugal, signed in 1834, by which the Pretender, Don Miguel, renounced the throne, and agreed to leave Portugal.
A name given to the State of New York, from its motto, “Excelsior.”
A court formed out of theCuria Registo deal with questions of finance. It was established by Roger of Salisbury, in the reign of Henry I.
A Bill introduced into Parliament in 1679, providing for the exclusion of James, Duke of York, from the succession. The bill failed to pass, but was reintroduced in 1681. After it had been read a first time Charles II dissolved Parliament, and did not summon another during his reign.
SeeSixteen, Council of.
The Bull issued by Leo X in 1520, “against the errors of Martin Luther.” It was publicly burnt by Luther in the market place of Wittemburg.
The First Families of Virginia. The name given to the descendants of the adventurers who colonized Virginia under the Charter of 1606.
George Washington was so called.
A series of Acts providing for the inspection and regulation of factories in Great Britain. The first Act dealing with this question was the Cotton Industry Act of 1831, and further legislation took place in 1834, 1844, 1850, 1864, 1867, 1870, and 1874, some of these Acts relating to factories as a whole, and others to particular trades. The most important enactment,however, is that of 1878, which deals with factories and workshops of all kinds, as well as with domestic workshops. Regulations are made limiting the hours of employment of women, young persons, and children, forbidding the carrying on of certain trades by women, and providing for systematic inspection by Government officials.
Votes manufactured, chiefly in country districts, by the creation of small freeholders. The sale of land to accomplish this was often merely nominal, no money passing, and the vendor lending the purchase money under mortgage.
The sobriquet of Joan, Countess of Salisbury, the wife of Edward the Black Prince.
Hannah Lightfoot, whom George III married in 1759, the year before he ascended the throne. The marriage was, of course, not recognized.
The daughter of Lord Clifford and mistress of Henry II of England.
A treaty between Henry II of England and William the Lyon of Scotland, signed in 1174. William, who had been captured by the English and carried off to Normandy, agreed, as the price of his liberty, to acknowledge Henry’s suzerainty and do homage for his crown. The right was, however, surrendered by Richard Cœur de Lion in 1189, in exchange for a payment of 10,000 marks.
Falczi, Treaty of.
SeePruth.
A plot, headed by Falieri, the Doge of Venice, to overthrow the Government of the Republic. The conspiracy was discovered, and Falieri was beheaded within the walls of the Ducal Palace in 1355.
A series of laws introduced by Dr. Falk, Prussian Minister of Public Worship, between 1872 and 1879, in pursuance of the Kulturkampf. They were exceedingly oppressive to the Catholic population. The more important of them were passed in the month of May, 1873, whence they are also known as the May laws.
A secret agreement, made in 1733, between Louis XV of France and Philip V of Spain, the object of which was the harassing of English commerce in the South Seas, and the recovery by Spain of Gibraltar and Minorca. It culminated in 1761 in a close alliance between the two Powers, to which the Bourbon Princes of Parma and Naples were also admitted.
An agreement between Giovanni de’ Medici and Philip V of Spain, in 1731, by which the former recognized Don Carlos as his heir to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
The day of the Cornsacks was January 3, 1591, whensome of the followers of Henri IV of France disguised themselves as millers, and attempted to seize the barrier of St. Honoré, with the object of making themselves masters of Paris.
A nickname of George III.
A political organization formed in the United States in 1873 to promote the interests of the agricultural classes. It was absorbed by the Populists in 1891.
The Farquharsons of Deeside were practically exterminated in the reign of James VI by the Gordons under the Marquis of Huntly, in revenge for the murder of Gordon of Brackley. Two hundred children who survived the massacre were kept by Huntly as wild beasts, and fed from a pig trough. They were rescued from their inhuman captor by the Laird of Grant, who distributed them among his clansmen. It is said that their descendants are still known as the Race of the Trough.
SeeRappenkrieg.
This question brought France and England to the verge of war in 1898. In that year, Captain Marchand, after an adventurous journey from the French Soudan, reached Fashoda on the Nile, and hoisted the French flag there and at certain points on the Sobat river. Sir Herbert Kitchener, who had just captured Khartoum, invited Marchand to withdraw, and hoisted the English and Egyptian flags. Marchand refusing, the matter was referred to London and Paris. The French were at first inclined to hold that, the Anglo-Egyptian occupation of the Soudan having been suspended by the Mahdist domination, it was open to them to make a settlement on the Nile. It was clearly proved, however, that they had been warned on several occasions that this would not be permitted, and after some hesitation, due probably to the doubt as to whether they would have the support of Russia if they stood firm, they yielded, and the Marchand expedition was withdrawn.
The sobriquet of Samuel Adams, the American revolutionary leader (1722-1803.)
This title has been bestowed upon several patriots in ancient and modern history, among others Cosmo de’ Medici of Florence (1389-1464), Andrea Doria, the Genoese Admiral (1468-1560), and George Washington (1732-1799).
A title bestowed on Louis XII of France (1498-1515), and on Christian III of Denmark (1533-1559).
SeeHalf-breeds.
A Council formed in accordance with the provisions of the Imperial Federation EnablingAct of 1855, by delegates from Victoria, Queensland, South and Western Australia, and Tasmania, which met at Hobart in January, 1886, under the presidency of James Service. The non-adhesion of New South Wales, however, was fatal to the scheme.
A Swiss Constitution, evolved by the “Long Diet” of Zurich, and approved by the Powers at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.
The party in Mexico who favour a large measure of autonomy in the separate states, and oppose excessive centralization of authority in the central government.
A party, in the early days of American independence, who favoured the concentration of power in the hands of the central government, while their opponents, known as Anti-federalists, and later as Democrats, were supporters of the rights of individual states.
A band of young Marseillais, who, under the leadership of Barbaroux, marched to Paris in 1792 to aid the Revolution.
In mediaeval Germany, the private wars between the semi-independent barons and knights were known by this name.
The peasants of Egypt. The word signifies “tillers.”
An Irish revolutionary society, established about 1858. During the American Civil War, it became an organized institution, with headquarters in New York, with the avowed object of fomenting disturbances in Ireland, and making the Government of that country by England impossible. Its leader was James Stephens. In 1866 the Fenians attempted a raid into Canada, which was entirely unsuccessful. In 1867 a general rising in Ireland was planned, which also failed. Two further unsuccessful attempts upon Canada took place in 1870 and 1871, from which point its activity was confined to a few isolated outrages of small importance. The name Fenian is taken from the old Irish Militia, which was known as Fionna Eirinn.
In Anglo-Saxon times a tax levied on the land for the support of the royal household. It was paid in kind.
SeeChristian Alliance.
In Anglo-Saxon and early feudal times, a rent paid by the shires on public lands and royal domains.
Persons, generally royal favourites, who obtained the right of collecting the taxes, by payment of a fixed sum. This system was initiated in France in 1546 by Francis I, who farmed out the Gabelle, and continued until the Revolution.
A system of land tenure general on the continent ofEurope, becoming universal in France in the tenth century, while it was introduced into England at the time of the Norman Conquest. The king as lord paramount was the owner of the whole country, which was held in fief, or vassalage, by the great territorial lords, who owed him homage and service, military or other. They in turn had vassals of lesser degree, bound to them by similar ties, but, subject to the due discharge of such service, perfectly free. By the growth of “subinfeudation” this system became indefinitely extended.
A club formed in 1791, during the French Revolution, by the monarchical majority of the Jacobin Club, who objected to the principles and language of the minority. Their impolitic action in seceding from the Jacobins rendered the extreme revolutionists masters of the situation, owing to the enormous influence of the name Jacobin throughout France.
In feudal times land held by a vassal by military service or other feudal tenure.
An officer charged, under the Landdrost, with the superintendence of military matters in the South African States. See Commando.
SeeLügenfeld.
The battlefield of Fraga, in Spain, where fell, in 1134, Alfonso I of Aragon, surnamed the Warrior, and famed for his successes against the Moors, whom he expelled from the valley of the Ebro.
The meeting place of Henry VIII and Francis I, between Guines and Ardres. This meeting, which took place in 1520, was arranged by Francis with the object of securing the friendship of Henry, and detaching him from the Spanish alliance. A marriage was agreed upon between the Dauphin and Princess Mary of England, but within a very few weeks Henry went back on his word, and gave Charles V an undertaking that he would proceed no further in the matter.
An unsuccessful conspiracy to overthrow the Doge, Doria, and the French party in Genoa in 1547.
A plot to assassinate Louis Philippe in July, 1835. A machine composed of twenty-four gun-barrels was fired from an upper window at the Royalcortége, as the king was on his way to a review. The king was unhurt, but several prominent persons, including Marshal Mortier, were killed. Fieschi and his accomplices were caught red-handed.
A council of state appointed by the Barons of the Mad Parliament in 1258 to carry on the Government. The Fifteen produced the Provisions of Oxford, under which the kingdom was governed until the Mise of Amiens in 1264.
The Jacobite rebellion in Scotland in 1815, under the Earl of Mar. The rebels succeeded in penetrating into England, but were defeated at Preston, and shortly afterwards Mar was defeated at Sheriffmuir. With little further fighting the rebel army was broken up, and the Pretender retired to France. Lords Derwentwater and Kenmure and many other less important personages were executed for complicity in the rebellion.
A sect of fanatics who formed an important element in the Cromwellian armies. They considered the Protectorate to be the Fifth Monarchy prophesied in the Apocalypse, during which the millennium would come upon the earth.
An ordinance of the Cape Government in 1828, by which Hottentots and other free natives were relieved from all the restrictions of the pass law, and put upon a political equality with the whites. This was very distasteful to the Dutch settlers.
A committee of merchants and gentry in New York, formed in 1774. They were in favour of a General Congress, but opposed to the non-intercourse policy advocated by some other colonies, and especially in Massachusetts.
Henry Spencer, Bishop of Norwich, who led the troops against Wat Tyler in 1381, was so called.
A committee appointed in 1895 to report on the financial relations between England and Ireland. In the following year, a majority report was issued in which it was stated that the Act of Union had laid too heavy a financial burden on Ireland; that the increase in the Irish contribution sanctioned in 1853 and in 1860 was unjustifiable; and that Ireland’s tax revenue was one-eleventh, whereas it should only be one-twentieth of that of England.
A statute passed in the 4th year of Henry VII, re-enacted almost verbatim from a statute of Richard III, the object of which was to prevent the multiplication in the courts of suits for the recovery of lands. The method adopted was to fix at five years the period of occupation giving prescriptive rights.
A fire which broke out on September 2, 1660, at a house in Fish Street Hill. It burnt for four days and destroyed eighty-nine churches, including St. Paul’s, and over 13,000 houses.
The sobriquet of John, Duke of Bedford, Regent of France (1390-1435).
Tamerlane, the great Tartar conqueror, was so called.
The extreme supporters of Slavery and States’ Rights in the Southern States of Americawere so called by their political opponents before the Civil War.
An official edict of the Porte, issued in the Sultan’s name, though not necessarily bearing his signature.
A charter issued by Henry I, in 1100, by which he re-established the law of King Edward, that is to say the old institutions of the country prior to the Conquest. He further undertook to make only such claims upon his feudatories as were in accordance with feudal law, and made the same course obligatory on them in relation to their vassals. He also recognized the right of bequeathing property by will.
George IV, when Prince Regent, was so called.
A treaty between Great Britain and the United States, signed in 1888, providing for reciprocal fishing rights for the Canadian and American fishermen. Pending ratification amodus vivendiwas established, by which American fishermen could fish in Canadian and Newfoundland waters on payment of a license of $1.50 per ton. The Senate, however, declined to ratify the treaty.
A document embodying certain changes in ritual, in the direction of Episcopalianism, forced upon the Scotch Presbyterians by James I in 1621. They excited great discontent, but remained in force until 1638.
A confederation, under Danish law, of the five tribes which occupied the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. The five boroughs were Derby, Lincoln, Leicester, Stamford and Nottingham. The confederacy was broken up in 910 by Æthelflaed, the Lady of the Mercians.
The name given to the Lower House of Assembly under the Directoire in France (1795-1799).
The name applied to the five men composing the French Directoire (1795-1799).
Pym, Hampden, Haselrig, Strode and Holles, five members of the Long Parliament, who were specially active in their opposition to the king’s illegal actions. Charles attempted to arrest them in the House of Commons in 1642, but they escaped to the City, and Charles was unable to seize them, in the face of the support accorded to them by the citizens.
An Act passed in 1665, forbidding any clergyman who had not subscribed to the Act of Uniformity to teach, or to come within five miles of a borough or corporate town. A similar Act, known as the Mile Act, had been passed in Scotland three years earlier.
The five tribes of Red Indians who formerly ranged the east coast of America, along the Hudson, and as far south as the Delaware. They were alwayson the English side in the wars with France. They were the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas. The remnants of these tribes are now domiciled in Canada.
A sect which appeared in Hungary during the Great Plague of 1348. They looked upon scourging as the only means of avoiding the divine punishment for sin.
A rising in Cornwall, headed by Thomas Flammock in 1497, in opposition to the tax levied for the maintenance of the war against Scotland. The rebels were defeated at Blackheath, and Flammock and others executed.
Marriages celebrated within the precincts of the Fleet Prison by clergymen of indifferent character. They were rendered impossible by Lord Hardwicke’s Act in 1753.
SeeBuccaneers.
A sweeping measure of reform introduced into the Irish Parliament by Flood in 1784. It gave rise to scenes of the wildest disorder, both in the House and throughout the country.
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) was so called.
A mutiny on board an English vessel on a voyage to Singapore in 1684, the crew, composed of various nationalities, murdering the captain and first mate. The second mate, who was spared to navigate the vessel, was able to give information which led to the arrest of most of the crew, five of whom were hanged in due course.
In early Saxon times all the land which was not partitioned off into homesteads, or specially granted, remained the property of the nation, and was known as folcland. In the times of the later Saxon kings, the folcland became royal demesne, and after the Conquest William seized it as crown property.
A treaty between Henri IV of France and the Duc de Mayenne, by which the League came to an end.
SeeRigsdag.
In early Saxon times the gathering of the tribe in arms was so called.
A treaty between Great Britain and the King of Ashanti, signed after the first Ashanti War in 1874. The king renounced the right to exact tribute from the kings of Denkera and Adansi, other native chiefs, and also his supremacy over Elmira. He agreed to offer no obstacle to British trade, to maintain an open road to Kumasi, and to abolish human sacrifices. Prempeh’s failure to adhere to the terms of this treaty led to the second Ashanti expedition in 1900.
A decree issued by Napoleon in October, 1810, ordering all British merchandise found in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other places in the occupation of the French troops to be destroyed.
A treaty, disclosed in the autumn of 1807, between Napoleon and Godoy, the Minister of Charles IV, and thede factoruler of Spain. It provided for the joint occupation of Portugal by France and Spain, and the dismemberment of that country, Godoy receiving as his reward the provinces of Alemtejo and the Algarves to be erected into a principality, and the northern province to be given to the King of Etruria, in exchange for Tuscany, which would pass to Napoleon.
A treaty between Napoleon and the Allied Powers, signed April 14, 1814, after the occupation of Paris. Napoleon surrendered all claims to the thrones of France and Italy, and received in return the sovereignty of Elba for himself, and Parma and Piacenza for the Empress and the King of Rome.
An Act of Congress, passed in 1900, establishing local self-government in Porto Rico, and creating a tariff. In 1901 the tariff provisions were repealed, and free trade with the United States instituted.
An Act of Congress passed in 1870, giving the Federal authorities the right to intervene in certain contingencies in the police and other internal arrangements of individual States. This Act was rendered necessary by the covert support given by the authorities of the Southern States to such organizations as the Ku-Klux Klan. A similar Act was passed in 1871.
The popular name for the bill introduced by Mr. Lodge in Congress, in 1890, for the reform of the electoral law of the United States. The bill did not pass the Senate.
An Act passed in 1819, making it a misdemeanour for a British subject to enlist in the service of a foreign power at war with a nation friendly to Great Britain, or to build or equip any ship for the service of such power.
A charter granted by Henry III in 1217, when renewing Magna Charta, mitigating the severity of the Forest laws of the Anglo-Norman kings.
An expedition sent to Formosa by Japan in 1873-4, to exact reparation for the murder of a ship’s crew from the Loo Choo Islands. China was highly incensed, and war between the two nations was imminent, but Sir Thomas Wade persuaded the Chinese to pay an indemnity and recognize Japanese sovereignty over the Loo Choo Islands.
The second Jacobite rebellion, in 1845, under the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward. Joined by many of the Highland clans, he succeeded in defeating the English under Cope at Preston Pans, and penetrated into England as far as Derby, but was forced to retreat, and was finally disastrously defeated by the Duke of Cumberland at Culloden. Charles Edward escaped to France, but many of his leading supporters were captured and executed.
SeeArgonauts.
The articles of the Reformed Church of England, as issued originally in 1552, were forty-two in number. They were afterwards reduced, by the omission of three, to thirty-nine, which remain binding to-day.
A nickname given to Blucher during the campaign of 1813.
A tax on chimneys imposed by the Black Prince in Gascony.
In early Scottish history a court established for the purpose of dealing with all cases in which the Scottish Burghs were concerned.
A system of communism devised by Charles Fourier, the French Socialist, in 1832. The proposal was to form communities of 1,800 persons each, known asphalanges, to be united under a central government. The gains of eachphalangewere to be held in common. An attempt to establish the system near Versailles was completely unsuccessful.
A small but active body of free-lances of the Conservative party, which was formed under Lord Randolph Churchill during the session of 1880. Though various Conservative members acted with it from time to time, the party is generally considered to have consisted of four persons. Lord Randolph Churchill, Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Gorst, Sir H. Drummond Wolff and Mr. Arthur Balfour.
A tax on commoners who became possessed of fiefs, to compensate for their inability to render military service. It was imposed by Louis IX of France in 1260, and abolished by his successor, Philip III.
An Act passed in 1884, assimilating the county to the borough franchise, and giving the vote to residents in a house who are neither occupiers nor lodgers (known as the Service Franchise) under certain restrictions. In the House of Lords, Lord Cairns carried an amendment that the Act should not become operative until a Redistribution Bill had been passed.
An order of mendicant friars, founded by St. Francis d’Assisi, and authorized by Innocent II in 1215. They were not confined to monasteries, like the earlier orders, but worked amongst the poor, and tookthemselves a vow of poverty in addition to the ordinary monastic vows.
A treaty by which France recognized the independence of the United States. Both parties agreed to give each other most-favoured-nation treatment in tariff matters, while America accepted the French interpretation of the treaties of Utrecht and Paris with respect to the Newfoundland fishery question, thus admitting the right of France not only to the fishing, but to the use of one half of the shore for drying stations. France further agreed to recognize any conquests made by the United States from England in the course of the war.
A treaty between France and Annam, by which Annam recognized the French sovereignty of Lower Cochin China, and granted free navigation of the Red River.
By this instrument Siam ceded to France all her territory on the east of the Mekong, and agreed to keep no fortified place within fifteen miles of the river on the west bank. France was to occupy Chantaboon until the conditions were fulfilled.
By this treaty Siam made further territorial concessions to France, ceding practically all the territory ever held by Annam or Tonquin. She also conceded to France the right to protect Siamese subjects of Annamese or Tonquinese extraction, and undertook to open a certain number of official posts to Frenchmen. France agreed to evacuate Chantaboon.
A militia raised for the first time by Charles VII of France in 1448. Each parish was ordered to provide and equip one man, who, in return for his military service, was freed from all taxation.
French peasants who took up arms during the Franco-German war of 1870, and carried on a species of guerilla warfare against the German troops. In the early part of the war they were treated as brigands, and shot when captured. Later they were organized by the French authorities, and were then treated as belligerents.
A league composed of the Emperor, the Kings of Prussia and Sweden, the Elector Palatine and the Landgrave of Hesse, formed in 1744 with the object of forcing Maria Theresa to acknowledge Charles VII as Emperor.
A treaty signed by Austria, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia, confirming the various territorial changes effected by the Treaties of Paris and Vienna of 1815.