Bibliography.—With this article compareEcclesia,Strategus,Archon,Draco,Solon,Cleisthenes, where collateral information is given. Besides the chief histories of Greece (Grote, ed. 1907, Meyer &c.), see Gilbert,Constitutional Antiquities(Eng. trans. by E.J. Brooks and T. Nicklin, 1895); J.B. Bury,History of Greece(1900); A.H.J. GreenidgeHandbook of Greek Constitutional History(1896); J.E. Sandys’ edition of theConstitution of Athens; Boeckh,Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener(1886); Schumann,Griechische Altertümer(1897-1902); Busolt,Die griechischen Staats- und Rechtsaltertümer(1902). See also H. Swoboda,Die griechischen Volksbeschlüsse(1890); Szanto,Das griechische Bürgerrecht(1892); Perrot,Essai sur le droit public d’Athènes(1869). It should be observed that all works published before 1891 are so far useless that they are without the information contained in theConstitution of Athens(q.v.). See alsoGreek Law.
Bibliography.—With this article compareEcclesia,Strategus,Archon,Draco,Solon,Cleisthenes, where collateral information is given. Besides the chief histories of Greece (Grote, ed. 1907, Meyer &c.), see Gilbert,Constitutional Antiquities(Eng. trans. by E.J. Brooks and T. Nicklin, 1895); J.B. Bury,History of Greece(1900); A.H.J. GreenidgeHandbook of Greek Constitutional History(1896); J.E. Sandys’ edition of theConstitution of Athens; Boeckh,Die Staatshaushaltung der Athener(1886); Schumann,Griechische Altertümer(1897-1902); Busolt,Die griechischen Staats- und Rechtsaltertümer(1902). See also H. Swoboda,Die griechischen Volksbeschlüsse(1890); Szanto,Das griechische Bürgerrecht(1892); Perrot,Essai sur le droit public d’Athènes(1869). It should be observed that all works published before 1891 are so far useless that they are without the information contained in theConstitution of Athens(q.v.). See alsoGreek Law.
(J. M. M.)
1The institution of pay for the councillors may safely be ascribed to Pericles although we have no direct evidence of it before 411B.C.(Thuc. viii. 69; seePericles).
1The institution of pay for the councillors may safely be ascribed to Pericles although we have no direct evidence of it before 411B.C.(Thuc. viii. 69; seePericles).
BOULEVARD(a Fr. word, earlierboulevart, from Dutch or Ger.Bollwerk, cf. Eng. “bulwark”), originally, in fortification, an earthwork with a broad platform for artillery. It came into use owing to the width of the gangways in medieval walls being insufficient for the mounting of artillery thereon. The boulevard or bulwark was usually an earthen outwork mounting artillery, and so placed in advance as to prevent the guns of a besieger from battering the foot of the main walls. It was as a rule circular. Semicirculardemi-boulevardswere often constructed round the bases of the old masonry towers with the same object. In modern times the word is most frequently used to denote a promenade laid out on the site of a former fortification, and, by analogy, a broad avenue in a town planted with rows of trees.
BOULLE, ANDRÉ CHARLES(1642-1732), French cabinet-maker, who gave his name to a fashion of inlaying known as Boulle or Buhl work. The son of Jean Boulle, a member of a family ofébénisteswho had already achieved distinction—Pierre Boulle, who diedc.1636, was for many yearstourneur et menuisier du roy des cabinets d’ébène,—he became the most famous of his name and was, indeed, the second cabinet-maker—the first was Jean Macé—who has acquired individual renown. That must have begun at a comparatively early age, for at thirty he had already been granted one of those lodgings in the galleries of the Louvre which had been set apart by Henry IV. for the use of themost talented of the artists employed by the crown. To be admitted to these galleries was not only to receive a signal mark of royal favour, but to enjoy the important privilege of freedom from the trammels of the trade gilds. Boulle was given the deceased Jean Macé’s own lodging in 1672 by Louis XIV. upon the recommendation, of Colbert, who described him as “le plus habile ébéniste de Paris,” but in the patent conferring this privilege he is described also as “chaser, gilder and maker of marqueterie.” Boulle appears to have been originally a painter, since the first payment to him by the crown of which there is any record (1669) specifies “ouvrages de peinture.” He was employed for many years at Versailles, where the mirrored walls, the floors of “wood mosaic,” the inlaid panelling and the pieces in marqueterie in the Cabinet du Dauphin were regarded as his most remarkable work. These rooms were long since dismantled and their contents dispersed, but Boulle’s drawings for the work are in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. His royal commissions were, indeed, innumerable, as we learn both from theComptes des bâtimentsand from the correspondence of Louvois. Not only the most magnificent of French monarchs, but foreign princes and the great nobles and financiers of his own country crowded him with commissions, and themotof the abbé de Marolles, “Boulle y tourne en ovale,” has become a stock quotation in the literature of French cabinet-making. Yet despite his distinction, the facility with which he worked, the high prices he obtained, and his workshops full of clever craftsmen, Boulle appears to have been constantly short of money. He did not always pay his workmen, clients who had made considerable advances failed to obtain the fine things they had ordered, more than one application was made for permission to arrest him for debt under orders of the courts within the asylum of the Louvre, and in 1704 we find the king giving him six months’ protection from his creditors on condition that he used the time to regulate his affairs or “ce scra la derniére grâce que sa majesté lui fera là-dessus.” Twenty years later one of his sons was arrested at Fontainebleau and kept in prison for debt until the king had him released. In 1720 his finances were still further embarrassed by a fire which, beginning in another atelier, extended to his twenty workshops and destroyed most of the seasoned materials, appliances, models and finished work of which they were full. The salvage was sold and a petition for pecuniary help was sent to the regent, the result of which does not appear. It would seem that Boulle was never a good man of business, but, according to his friend Mariette, many of his pecuniary difficulties were caused by his passion for collecting pictures, engravings and other objects of art—the inventory of his losses in the fire, which exceeded £40,000 in amount, enumerates many old masters, including forty-eight drawings by Raphael and the manuscript journal kept by Rubens in Italy. He attended every sale of drawings and engravings, borrowed at high interest to pay for his purchases, and when the next sale took place, fresh expedients were devised for obtaining more money. Collecting was to Boulle a mania of which, says his friend, it was impossible to cure him. Thus he died in 1732, full of fame, years and debts. He left four sons who followed in his footsteps in more senses than one—Jean Philippe (born before 1690, dead before 1745), Pierre Benoit (d. 1741), Charles André (1685-1749) and Charles Joseph (1688-1754). Their affairs were embarrassed throughout their lives, and the three last are known to have died in debt.
All greatness is the product of its opportunities, and the elder Boulle was made by the happy circumstances of his time. He was born into a France which was just entering upon the most brilliant period of sumptuary magnificence which any nation has known in modern times. Louis XIV., so avid of the delights of the eye, by the reckless extravagance of his example turned the thoughts of his courtiers to domestic splendours which had hitherto been rare. The spacious palaces which arose in his time needed rich embellishment, and Boulle, who had not only inherited the rather flamboyant Italian traditions of the late Renaissance, but hadébénisteriein his blood, arose, as some such man invariably does arise, to gratify tastes in which personal pride and love of art were not unequally intermingled. He was by no means the first Frenchman to practise the delightful art of marqueterie, nor was he quite the inventor of the peculiar type of inlay which is chiefly associated with his name; but no artist, before or since, has used these motives with such astonishing skill, courage and surety. He produced pieces of monumental solidity blazing with harmonious colour, or gleaming with the sober and dignified reticence of ebony, ivory and white metal. The Renaissance artists chiefly employed wood in making furniture, ornamenting it with gilding and painting, and inlaying it with agate, cornelian, lapis-lazuli, marble of various tints, ivory, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl and various woods. Boulle improved upon this by inlaying brass devices into wood or tortoise-shell, which last he greatly used according to the design he had immediately in view, whether flowers, scenes, scrolls, &c.; to these he sometimes added enamelled metal. Indeed the use of tortoise-shell became so characteristic that any furniture, however cheap and common, which has a reddishfondthat might by the ignorant be mistaken for inlay, is now described as “Buhl”—the name is the invention of the British auctioneer and furniture-maker. In this process the brass is thin, and, like the ornamental wood or tortoise-shell, forms a veneer. In the first instance the production of his work was costly, owing to the quantity of valuable material that was cut away and wasted, and, in addition, the labour lost in separately cutting for each article or copy of a pattern. By a subsequent improvement Boulle effected an economy by gluing together various sheets of material and sawing through the whole, so that an equal number of figures and matrices were produced at one operation. Boulle adopted from time to time various plans for the improvement of his designs. He placed gold-leaf or other suitable material under the tortoise-shell to produce such effect as he required; he chased the brass-work with a graver for a like purpose, and, when the metal required to be fastened down with brass pins or nails, these were hammered flat and disguised by ornamental chasing. He also adopted, in relief or in the round, brass feet, brackets, edgings, and other ornaments of appropriate design, partly to protect the corners and edges of his work, and partly for decoration. He subsequently used other brass mountings, such as claw-feet to pedestals, or figures in high or low relief, according to the effect he desired to produce. These mounts in the pieces that undoubtedly come from Boulle’satelierare nearly always of the greatest excellence. They were cast in the rough—the tools of the chaser gave them their sharpness, their minute finish, their jewel-like smoothness.
Unhappily it is by no means easy, even for the expert, to declare the authenticity of a commode, a bureau, or a table in the manner of Boulle and to all appearance from his workshops. His sons unquestionably carried on the traditions for some years after his death, and his imitators were many and capable. A few of the more magnificent pedigree-pieces are among the world’s mobiliary treasures. There are, for instance, the two famousarmoires, which fetched £12,075 at the Hamilton Palace sale; the marqueterie commodes, enriched with bronze mounts, in the Bibliotheque Mazarine; various cabinets and commodes and tables in the Louvre, the Musée Cluny and the Mobilier National; the marriage coffers of the dauphin which were in the San Donato collection. There are several fine authenticated pieces in the Wallace collection at Hertford House, together with others consummately imitated, probably in the Louis Seize period. On the rare occasions when a pedigree example comes into the auction-room, it invariably commands a high price; but there can be little doubt that the most splendid and sumptuous specimens of Boulle are diminishing in number, while the second and third classes of his work are perhaps becoming more numerous. The truth is that this wonderful work, with its engraved or inlaid designs of Bérain, its myriads of tiny pieces of ivory and copper, ebony and tortoise-shell, all kept together with glue and tiny chased nails, and applied very often to a rather soft, white wood, is not meet to withstand the ravages of time and the variations of the atmosphere. Alternate heat and humidity are even greater enemies of inlaid furniture than time and wear—such delicate things are rarely much used, andare protected from ordinary chances of deterioration. There is consequently reason to rejoice when a piece of real artistry in furniture finds its final home in a museum, where a degree of warmth is maintained which, however distressing it may be to the visitor, at least preserves the contents from one of the worst enemies of the collector.
(J. P.-B.)
BOULOGNE,orBoullongne, the name of a family of French painters. Louis (1609-1674), who was one of the original members of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture (1648), became celebrated under Louis XIV. His traditions were continued by his children:Genevieve(1645-1708), who married the sculptor Jacques Clerion;Madeleine(1646-1710), whose work survives in theTrophies d’armesat Versailles;Bon(1649-1717), a successful teacher and decorative artist; andLouisthe younger (1654-1733), who copied Raphael’s cartoons for the Gobelins tapestry, and besides taking a high place as a painter was also a designer of medals.
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER,a fortified seaport of northern France and chief town of an arrondissement in Pas-de-Calais, situated on the shore of the English Channel at the mouth of the river Liane, 157 m. N.N.W. of Paris on the Northern railway, and 28 m. by sea S.E. of Folkestone, Kent. Pop. (1906) 49,636. Boulogne occupies the summit and slopes of a ridge of hills skirting the right bank of the Liane; the industrial quarter of Capécure extends along the opposite bank, and is reached by two bridges, while the river is also crossed by a double railway viaduct. The town consists of two parts, the Haute Ville and the Basse Ville. The former, situated on the top of the hill, is of comparatively small extent, and forms almost a parallelogram, surrounded by ramparts of the 13th century, and, outside them, by boulevards, and entered by ancient gateways. In this part are the law court, the château and the hotel de ville (built in the 18th century), and a belfry tower of the 13th and 17th centuries is in the immediate neighbourhood. In the château (13th century) now used as barracks, the emperor Napoleon III was confined after the abortive insurrection of 1840. At some distance north-west stands the church of Notre-Dame, a well-known place of pilgrimage, erected (1827-1866) on the site of an old building destroyed in the Revolution, of which the extensive crypt still remains. The modern town stretches from the foot of the hill to the harbour, along which it extends, terminating in an expanse of sandy beach frequented by bathers, and provided with a bathing establishment and casino. It contains several good streets, some of which are, however, very steep. A main street, named successively rue de la Lampe, St Nicolas and Grande rue, extends from the bridge across the Liane to the promenade by the side of the ramparts. This is intersected first by the Quai Gambetta, and farther back by the rue Victor Hugo and the rue Nationale, which contain the principal shops. The public buildings include several modern churches, two hospitals and a museum with collections of antiquities, natural history, porcelain, &c. Connected with the museum is a public library with 75,000 volumes and a number of valuable manuscripts, many of them richly illuminated. There are English churches in the town, and numerous boarding-schools intended for English pupils. Boulogne is the seat of a sub-prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. There are also communal colleges, a national school of music, and schools of hydrography, commerce and industry. Boulogne has for a long time been one of the most anglicized of French cities; and in the tourist season a continuous stream of English travellers reach the continent at this point.
The harbour is formed by the mouth of the Liane. Two jetties enclose a channel leading into the river, which forms a tidal basin with a depth at neap-tides of 24 ft. Alongside this is an extensive dock, and behind it an inner port. There is also a tidal basin opening off the entrance channel. The depth of water in the river-harbour is 33 ft. at spring-tide and 24 ft. at neap-tide; in the sluice of the dock the numbers are 29½ and 23½ respectively. The commerce of Boulogne consists chiefly in the importation of jute, wool, woven goods of silk and wool skins, threads, coal, timber, and iron and steel, and the exportation of wine, woven goods, table fruit, potatoes and other vegetables, skins, motor-cars, forage and cement. The average annual value of the exports in the five years 1901-1905 was £10,953,000 (£11,704,000 in the years 1896-1900), and of the imports £6,064,000 (£7,003,000 in the years 1896-1900). From 1901 to 1905 the annual average of vessels entered, exclusive of fishing-smacks, was 2735, tonnage 1,747,699; and cleared 2750, tonnage 1,748,297. The total number of passengers between Folkestone and Boulogne in 1906 was 295,000 or 49% above the average for the years 1901-1905. These travelled by the steamers of the South-Eastern & Chatham railway company. The liners of the Dutch-American, Hamburg-American and other companies also call at the port. In the extent and value of its fisheries Boulogne is exceeded by no seaport in France. The most important branch is the herring-fishery; next in value is the mackerel. Large quantities of fresh fish are transmitted to Paris by railway, but an abundant supply is reserved to the town itself. The fishermen live for the most part in a separate quarter called La Beurrière, situated in the upper part of the town. In 1905 the fisheries of Boulogne and the neighbouring village of Étaples employed over 400 boats and 4500 men, the value of the fish taken being estimated at £1,025,000. Among the numerous industrial establishments in Boulogne and its environs may be mentioned foundries, cement-factories, important steel-pen manufactories, oil-works, dye-works, fish-curing works, flax-mills, saw-mills, and manufactories of cloth, fireproof ware, chocolate, boots and shoes, and soap. Shipbuilding is also carried on.
Among the objects of interest in the neighbourhood the most remarkable is the Colonne de la Grande Armée, erected on the high ground above the town, in honour of Napoleon I., on occasion of the projected invasion of England, for which he here made great preparations. The pillar, which is of the Doric order, 166 ft. high, is surmounted by a statue of the emperor by A.S. Bosio. Though begun in 1804, the monument was not completed till 1841. On the edge of the cliff to the east of the port are some rude brick remains of an old building called Tour d’Ordre, said to be the ruins of a tower built by Caligula at the time of his intended invasion of Britain.
Boulogne is identified with theGessoriacumof the Romans, under whom it was an important harbour. It is suggested that it was thePortus Itiuswhere Julius Caesar assembled his fleet (seeItius Portus). At an early period it began to be known asBononia, a name which has been gradually modified into the present form. The town was destroyed by the Normans in 882, but restored about 912. During the Carolingian period Boulogne was the chief town of a countship that was for long the subject of dispute between Flanders and Ponthieu. From the year 965 it belonged to the house of Ponthieu, of which Godfrey of Bouillon, the first king of Jerusalem, was a scion. Stephen of Blois, who became king of England in 1135, had married Mahaut, daughter and heiress of Eustace, count of Boulogne. Their daughter Mary married Matthew of Alsace (d. 1173), and her daughter Ida (d. 1216) married Renaud of Dammartin. Of this last marriage was issue Mahaut, countess of Boulogne, wife of Philip Hurepel (d. 1234), a son of King Philip Augustus. To her succeeded the house of Brabant, issue of Mahaut of Boulogne, sister of Ida, and wife of Henry I. of Brabant; and then the house of Auvergne, issue of Alice, daughter of Henry I. of Brabant, inherited the Boulonnais. It remained in the possession of descendants of these families until Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy, seized upon it in 1419. In 147 7 Louis XI. of France reconquered it, and reunited it to the French crown, giving Lauraguais as compensation to Bertrand IV. de la Tour, count of Auvergne, heir of the house of Auvergne. To avoid doing homage to Mary of Burgundy, suzerain of the Boulonnais and countess of Artois, Louis XI declared the countship of Boulogne to be held in fee of Our Lady of Boulogne. In 1544 Henry VIII.— more successful in this than Henry III. had been in 1347—took the town by siege; but it was restored to France in 1550.From 1566 to the end of the 18th century it was the seat of a bishopric.
BOULOGNE-SUR-SEINE,a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, S.W. of Paris and immediately outside the fortifications. Pop. (1906) 49,412. The town has a Gothic church of the 14th and 15th centuries (restored in 1863) founded in honour of Notre-Dame of Boulogne-sur-Mer. To this fact is due the name of the place, which was previously called Menus-lès-St Cloud. Laundrying is extensively carried on as well as the manufacture of metal boxes, soap, oil and furniture, and there are numerous handsome residences. For the neighbouring Bois de Boulogne seeParis.
BOULTON, MATTHEW(1728-1809), English manufacturer and engineer, was born on the 3rd of September 1728, at Birmingham, where his father, Matthew Boulton the elder, was a manufacturer of metal articles of various kinds. To this business he succeeded on his father’s death in 1759, and in consequence of its growth removed his works in 1762 from Snowhill to what was then a tract of barren heath at Soho, 2 mi. north of Birmingham. Here he undertook the manufacture of artistic objects in metal, as well as the reproduction of oil paintings by a mechanical process in which he was associated with Francis Eginton (1737-1805), who subsequently achieved a reputation as a worker in stained or enamelled glass. About 1767, Boulton, who was finding the need of improving the motive power for his machinery, made the acquaintance of James Watt, who on his side appreciated the advantages offered by the Soho works for the development of his steam-engine. In 1772 Watt’s partner, Dr John Roebuck, got into financial difficulties, and Boulton, to whom he owed £1200, accepted the two-thirds share in Watt’s patent held by him in satisfaction of the debt. Three years later Boulton and Watt formally entered into partnership, and it was mainly through the energy and self-sacrifice of the former, who devoted all the capital he possessed or could borrow to the enterprise, that the steam-engine was at length made a commercial success. It was also owing to Boulton that in 1775 an act of parliament was obtained extending the term of Watt’s 1769 patent to 1799. In 1800 the two partners retired from the business, which they handed over to their sons, Matthew Robinson Boulton and James Watt junior. In 1788 Boulton turned his attention to coining machinery, and erected at Soho a complete plant with which he struck coins for the Sierra Leone and East India companies and for Russia, and in 1797 produced a new copper coinage for Great Britain. In 1797 he took out a patent in connexion with raising water on the principle of the hydraulic ram. He died at Birmingham on the 18th of August 1809.
BOUND,orBoundary(from O. Fr.bonde, Med. Lat.bodenaorbutina, a frontier line), that which serves to indicate the limit or extent of land. It is usually defined by a certain mark, such as a post, ditch, hedge, dyke, wall of stones, &c., though on the other hand it may have to be ascertained by reference to a plan or by measurement. In law, the exact boundary of land is always a matter of evidence; where no evidence is available, the court acts on presumption. For example, the boundary of land on opposite sides of a road, whether public or private, is presumed to be the middle line of the road. Where two fields are separated by a hedge and ditch the boundary line will run between the hedge and the ditch. Boundaries of parishes, at common law, depended upon ancient and immemorial custom, and in many parishes great care was taken to perpetuate the boundaries of the parish by perambulations from time to time. The confusion of local boundaries in England was the subject of several commissions and committees in the 19th century, and much information will be found in their reports (1868, 1870, 1873, 1888). The Local Government Act 1888, ss. 50-63, contains provisions for the alteration of local areas.
BOUNDS, BEATING THE,an ancient custom still observed in many English parishes. In former times when maps were rare it was usual to make a formal perambulation of the parish boundaries on Ascension day or during Rogation week. The latter is in the north of England still called “Gang Week” or “Ganging Days” from this “ganging” or procession. The priest of the parish with the churchwardens and the parochial officials headed a crowd of boys who, armed with green boughs, beat with them the parish border-stones. Sometimes the boys were themselves whipped or even violently bumped on the boundary-stones to make them remember. The object of taking boys was obviously to ensure that witnesses to the boundaries should survive as long as possible. In England the custom is as old as Anglo-Saxon days, as it is mentioned in laws of Alfred and Aethelstan. It is thought that it may have been derived from the Roman Terminalia, a festival celebrated on the 22nd of February in honour of Terminus, the god of landmarks, to whom cakes and wine were offered, sports and dancing taking place at the boundaries. In England a parish-ale or feast was always held after the perambulation, which assured its popularity, and in Henry VIII.’s reign the occasion had become an excuse for so much revelry that it attracted the condemnation of a preacher who declared “these solemne and accustomable processions and supplications be nowe growen into a right foule and detestable abuse.” Beating the bounds had a religious side in the practice which originated the term Rogation, the accompanying clergy being supposed to beseech (rogare) the divine blessing upon the parish lands for the ensuing harvest. This feature originated in the 5th century, when Mamercus, bishop of Vienne, instituted special prayers and fasting and processions on these days. This clerical side of the parish bounds-beating was one of the religious functions prohibited by the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth; but it was then ordered that the perambulation should continue to be performed as a quasi-secular function, so that evidence of the boundaries of parishes, &c. might be preserved (Gibson,Codex juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani(1761) pp. 213-214). Bequests were sometimes made in connexion with bounds-beating. Thus at Leighton Buzzard on Rogation Monday, in accordance with the will of one Edward Wilkes, a London merchant who died in 1646, the trustees of his almshouses accompanied the boys. The will was read and beer and plum rolls distributed. A remarkable feature of the bequest was that while the will is read one of the boys has to stand on his head.
BOUNTY(through O. Fr.bontet, from Lat.bonitas, goodness), a gift or gratuity; more usually, a premium paid by a government to encourage some branch of production or industry, as in England in the case of the bounty on corn, first granted in 1688 and abolished in 1814, the herring-fishery bounties, the bounties on sail-cloth, linen and other goods. It is admitted that the giving of bounties is generally impolitic, though they may sometimes be justified as a measure of state. The most striking modern example of a bounty was that on sugar (q.v.). Somewhat akin to bounties are the subsidies granted to shipping (q.v.) by many countries. Bounties or, as they may equally well be termed, grants are often given, more especially in new countries, for the destruction of beasts of prey; in the United States and some other countries, bounties have been given for tree-planting; France has given bounties to encourage the Newfoundland fisheries.
Bounty was also the name given to the money paid to induce men to enlist in the army or navy, and, in the United Kingdom, to the sum given on entering the militia reserve. During the American Civil War, many recruits joined solely for the sake of the bounty offered, and afterwards deserted; they were called “bounty-jumpers.” The term bounty was also applied in the English navy to signify money payable to the officers and crew of a ship in respect of services on particular occasions.
Queen Anne’s Bounty (q.v.) is a fund applied for the augmentation of poor livings in the established church.
King’s Bounty is a grant made by the sovereign of his royal bounty to those of his subjects whose wives are delivered of three or more children at a birth.
BOURBAKI, CHARLES DENIS SAUTER(1816-1897), French general, was born at Pau on the 22nd of April 1816, the son of a Greek colonel who died in the War of Independence in 1827. He entered St Cyr, and in 1836 joined the Zouaves, becoming lieutenant of the Foreign Legion in 1838, and aide-de-camp toKing Louis Philippe. It was in the African expedition that he first came to the front. In 1842 he was captain in the Zouaves; 1847, colonel of the Turcos; in 1850, lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Zouaves; 1851, colonel; 1854, brigadier-general. In the Crimean War he commanded a portion of the Algerian troops; and at the Alma, Inkerman and Sevastopol Bourbaki’s name became famous. In 1857 he was made general of division, commanding in 1859 at Lyons. His success in the war with Italy was only second to that of MacMahon, and in 1862 he was proposed as a candidate for the vacant Greek throne, but declined the proffered honour. In 1870 the emperor entrusted him with the command of the Imperial Guard, and he played an important part in the fighting round Metz.
A curious incident of the siege of Metz is connected with Bourbaki’s name. A man who called himself Regnier,1about the 21st of September, appeared at Hastings, to seek an interview with the refugee empress Eugénie, and failing to obtain this he managed to get from the young prince imperial a signed photograph with a message to the emperor Napoleon. This he used, by means of a safe-conduct from Bismarck, as credentials to Marshal Bazaine, to whom he presented himself at Metz, telling him on the empress’s alleged authority that peace was about to be signed and that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki was to go to Hastings for the purpose. Bourbaki at once went to England, with Prussian connivance, as though he had a recognized mission, only to discover from the empress at Hastings that a trick had been played on him; and as soon as he could manage he returned to France. He offered his services to Gambetta and received the command of the Northern Army, but was recalled on the 19th of November and transferred to the Army of the Loire. In command of the hastily-trained and ill-equipped Army of the East, Bourbaki made the attempt to raise the siege of Belfort, which, after the victory of Villersexel, ended in the repulse of the French in the three days’ battle of the Lisaine. Other German forces under Manteuffel now closed upon Bourbaki, and he was eventually driven over the Swiss frontier with the remnant of his forces (seeFranco-German War). His troops were in the most desperate condition, owing to lack of food; and out of 150,000 men under him when he started, only 84,000 escaped from the Germans into Swiss territory. Bourbaki himself, rather than submit to the humiliation of a probable surrender, on the 26th of January 1871 delegated his functions to General Clinchant, and in the night fired a pistol at his own head, but the bullet, owing to a deviation of the weapon, was flattened against his skull and his life was saved. General Clinchant carried Bourbaki into Switzerland, and he recovered sufficiently to return to France. In July 1871 he again took the command at Lyons, and subsequently became military governor. In 1881, owing to his political opinions, he was placed on the retired list. In 1885 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the senate. He died on the 27th of September 1897. A patriotic Frenchman and a brilliant soldier and leader, Bourbaki, like some other French generals of the Second Empire whose training had been obtained in Africa, was found wanting in the higher elements of command when the European conditions of 1870 were concerned.
1The whole Regnier affair remained a mystery; the man himself— who on following Bourbaki to England made the impression on Lord Granville (see theLife of Lord Granville, by Lord Fitzmaurice, ii. 61) of being a “swindler” but honestly wishing to serve the empress—was afterwards mixed up in the Humbert frauds of 1902-1903; he published his own version of the affair in 1870 in a pamphlet,Quel est votre nom?It has been suspected that on the part either of Bazaine or of the German authorities some undisclosed intrigue was on foot.
1The whole Regnier affair remained a mystery; the man himself— who on following Bourbaki to England made the impression on Lord Granville (see theLife of Lord Granville, by Lord Fitzmaurice, ii. 61) of being a “swindler” but honestly wishing to serve the empress—was afterwards mixed up in the Humbert frauds of 1902-1903; he published his own version of the affair in 1870 in a pamphlet,Quel est votre nom?It has been suspected that on the part either of Bazaine or of the German authorities some undisclosed intrigue was on foot.
BOURBON.The noble family of Bourbon, from which so many European kings have sprung, took its name from Bourbon l’Archambault, chief town of a lordship which in the 10th century was one of the largest baronies of the kingdom of France. The limits of the lordship, which was called the Bourbonnais, were approximately those of the modern department of Allier, being on the N. the Nivernais and Berry, on the E. Burgundy and Lyonnais, on the S. Auvergne and Marche and on the W. Berry. The first of the long line of Bourbons known in history was Adhémar or Aimar, who was invested with the barony towards the close of the 9th century. Matilda, heiress of the first house of Bourbon, brought this lordship to the family of Dampierre by her marriage, in 1196, with Guy of Dampierre, marshal of Champagne (d. 1215). In 1272 Beatrix, daughter of Agnes of Bourbon-Dampierre, and her husband John of Burgundy, married Robert, count of Clermont, sixth son of Louis IX. (St Louis) of France. The elder branches of the family had become extinct, and their son Louis became duke of Bourbon in 1327. In 1488 the line of his descendants ended with Jean II., who died in that year. The whole estates passed to Jean’s brother Pierre, lord of Beaujeu, who was married to Anne, daughter of Louis XI. Pierre died in 1503, leaving only a daughter, Suzanne, who, in 1505, married Charles de Montpensier, heir of the Montpensier branch of the Bourbon family. Charles, afterwards constable of France, who took the title of duke of Bourbon on his marriage, was born in 1489, and at an early age was looked upon as one of the finest soldiers and gentlemen in France. With the constable ended the direct line from Pierre I., duke of Bourbon (d. 1356). But the fourth in descent from Pierre’s brother, Jacques, count of La Marche, Louis, count of Vendôme and Chartres (d. 1446), became the ancestor of the royal house of Bourbon and of the noble families of Condé, Conti and Montpensier. The fourth in direct descent from Louis of Vendôme was Antoine de Bourbon, who in 1548 married Jeanne d’Albret, heiress of Navarre, and became king of Navarre in 1554. Their son became king of France as Henry IV. Henry was succeeded by his son, Louis XIII., who left two sons, Louis XIV., and Philip, duke of Orleans, head of the Orleans branch. Louis XIV.’s son, the dauphin, died before his father, and left three sons, one of whom died without issue. Of the others the elder, Louis of Burgundy, died in 1712, and his only surviving son became Louis XV. The younger, Philip, duke of Anjou, became king of Spain, and founded the Spanish branch of the Bourbon family. Louis XV. was succeeded by his grandson, Louis XVI., who perished on the scaffold. At the restoration the throne of France was occupied by Louis XVIII., brother of Louis XVI., who in turn was succeeded by his brother Charles X. The second son of Charles X., the duc de Berry, left a son, Henri Charles Ferdinand Marie Dieudonné d’Artois, duc de Bordeaux, and comte de Chambord (q.v.). From Louis XIV.’s brother, Philip, descended another claimant of the throne. Philip’s son was the regent Orleans, whose great-grandson, “Philippe Égalité,” perished on the scaffold in 1793. Égalité’s son, Louis Philippe, was king of the French from 1830 to 1848; his grandson, Louis Philippe, comte de Paris (1838-1894), inherited on the death of the comte de Chambord the rights of that prince to the throne of France, and was called by the royalists Philip VII. He had a son, Louis Philippe Robert, duc d’Orléans, called by his adherents Philip VIII.
Spanish Branch.—Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., became king of Spain as Philip V., in 1700. He was succeeded in 1746 by his son Ferdinand VI., who died in 1759 without family, and was followed by his brother Charles III. Charles III.’s eldest son became Charles IV. of Spain in 1788, while his second son, Ferdinand, was made king of Naples in 1759. Charles IV. was deposed by Napoleon, but in 1814 his son, Ferdinand VII., again obtained his throne. Ferdinand was succeeded by his daughter Isabella, who in 1870 abdicated in favour of her son, Alphonso XII. (d. 1885). Alphonso’s posthumous son became king of Spain as Alphonso XIII. Ferdinand’s brother, Don Carlos (d. 1855), claimed the throne in 1833 on the ground of the Salic law, and a fierce war raged for some years in the north of Spain. His son Don Carlos, count de Montemolin (1818-1861), revived the claim, but was defeated and compelled to sign a renunciation. The nephew of the latter, Don Carlos Maria Juan Isidor, duke of Madrid, for some years carried on war in Spain with the object of attaining the rights contended for by the Carlist party.
GENEALOGICAL TABLE OF THE HOUSE OF BOURBON
I.The French Bourbons.
II.The Spanish and Italian Bourbons.
Neapolitan Branch.—The first Bourbon who wore the crown of Naples was Charles III. of Spain, who on his succession to the Spanish throne in 1759, resigned his kingdom of Naples to his son Ferdinand. Ferdinand was deposed by Napoleon, but afterwards regained his throne, and took the title of Ferdinand I., king of the Two Sicilies. In 1825 he was succeeded by his son Francis, who in turn was succeeded in 1830 by his son Ferdinand II. Ferdinand II. died in 1859, and in the following year his successor Francis II. was deprived of his kingdom, which was incorporated into the gradually-uniting Italy.
Duchies of Lucca and Parma.—In 1748 the duchy of Parma was conferred on Philip, youngest son of Philip V. of Spain. He was succeeded by his son Ferdinand in 1765. Parma was ceded to France in 1801, Ferdinand’s son Louis being made king of Etruria, but the French only took possession of the duchy after Ferdinand’s death in 1802. Louis’s son Charles Louis was forced to surrender Etruria to France in 1807, and he was given the duchy of Lucca by the congress of Vienna in 1815. In 1847, on the death of Marie Louise, widow of Napoleon, who had received Parma and Piacenza in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Paris of 1814, Charles Louis succeeded to the duchies as Charles II., at the same time surrendering Lucca to Tuscany. In 1849 he abdicated in favour of his son, Charles III., who married a daughter of the duke of Berry, and was assassinated in 1854, being succeeded by his son Robert. In 1860 the duchies were annexed by Victor Emmanuel to the new kingdom of Italy.
Bastard Branches.—There are numerous bastard branches of the family of Bourbon, the most famous being the Vendôme branch, descended from Caesar, natural son of Henry IV., and the Maine and Toulouse branches, descended from the two natural sons of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan.
See Coiffier de Moret,Histoire du Bourbonnais et des Bourbons(2 vols., 1824); Berand,Histoire des sires et ducs de Bourbon(1835); Désormeaux,Histoire de la maison de Bourbon(5 vols., 1782-1788); Achaintre,Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon(2 vols., 1825-1826); and Dussieux,Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon(1872).
See Coiffier de Moret,Histoire du Bourbonnais et des Bourbons(2 vols., 1824); Berand,Histoire des sires et ducs de Bourbon(1835); Désormeaux,Histoire de la maison de Bourbon(5 vols., 1782-1788); Achaintre,Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de Bourbon(2 vols., 1825-1826); and Dussieux,Généalogie de la maison de Bourbon(1872).
BOURBON, CHARLES,Duke of(1490-1527), constable of France, second son of Gilbert, count of Montpensier and dauphin of Auvergne, was born on the 17th of February 1490, his mother being a Gonzaga. In 1505 he married Suzanne, heiress of Peter II., duke of Bourbon, by Anne of France, daughter of King Louis XI., and assumed the title of duke of Bourbon. The addition of this duchy to the numerous duchies, countships and other fiefs which he had inherited on the death of his elder brother Louis in 1501, made him at the age of fifteen the wealthiest noble in Europe. He gained his first military experience in the Italian campaigns of Louis XII., taking part in the suppression of the Genoese revolt (1507) and contributing to the victory over the Venetians at Agnadello (May 14, 1509). Shortly after the accession of Francis I. Bourbon received the office of constable of France, and for his brilliant services at the battle of Marignano (September 1515) he was made governor of the Milanese, which he succeeded in defending against an attack of the emperor Maximilian. But dissensions arose between Francis and the constable. Grave, haughty and taciturn, Bourbon was but ill suited to the levities of the court, and his vast wealth and influence kindled in the king a feeling of resentment, if not of fear. The duke was recalled from the government of the Milanese; his official salary and the sums he had borrowed for war expenses remained unpaid; and in the campaign in the Netherlands against the emperor Charles V. the command of the vanguard, one of the most cherished prerogatives of the constables, was taken from him. The death of his wife without surviving issue, on the 28th of April 1521, afforded the mother of the king, Louise of Savoy, a means to gratify her greed, and at the same time to revenge herself on Bourbon, who had slighted her love. A suit was instituted at her instance against the duke in the parlement of Paris, in which Louise, as grand-daughter of Charles, duke of Bourbon (d. 1456), claimed the female and some of the male fiefs of the duchy of Bourbon, while the king claimed those fiefs which were originally appanages, as escheating to the crown, and other claims were put forward. Before the parlement was able to arrive at a decision, Francis handed over to his mother a part of the Bourbon estates, and ordered the remainder to be sequestrated.
Smarting under these injuries, Bourbon, who for some time had been coquetting with the enemies of France, renewed his negotiations with the emperor and Henry VIII. of England. It was agreed that the constable should raise in his own dominions an armed force to assist the emperor in an invasion of France, and should receive in return the hand of Eleonora, queen dowager of Portugal, or of another of the emperor’s sisters, and an independent kingdom comprising his own lands together with Dauphiné and Provence. He was required, too, to swear fidelity to Henry VIII. as king of France. But Bourbon’s plans were hampered by the presence of the French troops assembling for the invasion of Italy, and for this reason he was unable to effect a junction with the emperor’s German troops from the east. News of the conspiracy soon reached the ears of Francis, who was on his way to take command of the Italian expedition. In an interview with Bourbon at Moulins the king endeavoured to persuade him to accompany the French army into Italy, but without success. Bourbon remained at Moulins for a few days, and after many vicissitudes escaped into Italy. The joint invasion of France by the emperor and his ally of England had failed signally, mainly through lack of money and defects of combination. In the spring of 1524, however, Bourbon at the head of the imperialists in Lombardy forced the French across the Sesia (where the chevalier Bayard was mortally wounded) and drove them out of Italy. In August 1524 he invested Marseilles, but being unable to prevent the introduction of supplies by Andrea Doria, the Genoese admiral in the service of Francis, he was forced to raise the siege and retreat to the Milanese. He took part in the battle of Pavia (1525), where Francis was defeated and taken prisoner. But Bourbon’s troops were clamouring for pay, and the duke was driven to extreme measures to satisfy their demands. Cheated of his kingdom and his bride after the treaty of Madrid (1526), Bourbon had been offered the duchy of Milan by way of compensation. He now levied contributions from the townsmen, and demanded 20,000 ducats for the liberation of the chancellor Girolamo Morone (d. 1529), who had been imprisoned for an attempt to realize his dream of an Italy purged of the foreigner. But the sums thus raised were wholly inadequate. In February 1527 Bourbon’s army was joined by a body of German mercenaries, mostly Protestants, and the combined forces advanced towards the papal states. Refusing to recognize the truce which the viceroy of Naples had concluded with Pope Clement VII., Bourbon hastened to put into execution the emperor’s plan of attaching Clement to his side by a display of force. But the troops, starving and without pay, were in open mutiny, and Spaniards and Lutherans alike were eager for plunder. On the 5th of May 1527 the imperial army appeared before the walls of Rome. On the following morning Bourbon attacked the Leonine City, and while mounting a scaling ladder fell mortally wounded by a shot, which Benvenuto Cellini in hisLifeclaims to have fired. After Bourbon’s death his troops took and sacked Rome.