Chapter 8

See William Raimond Baird,American College Fraternities(6th ed., New York, 1905); Albert C. Stevens,Cyclopedia of Fraternities(Paterson, N. J., 1899); Henry D. Sheldon,Student Life and Customs(New York, 1901); Homer L. Patterson,Patterson’s College and School Directory(Chicago, 1904); H. K. Kellogg,College Secret Societies(Chicago, 1874); Albert P. Jacobs,Greek Letter Societies(Detroit, 1879).

(W. R. B.*)

FRATICELLI(plural diminutive of Ital.frate, brother), the name given during the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries to a number of religious groups in Italy, differing widely from each other, but all derived more or less directly from the Franciscan movement. Fra Salimbene says in hisChronicle(Parma ed., p. 108): “All who wished to found a new rule borrowed something from the Franciscan order, the sandals or the habit.” As early as 1238 Gregory IX., in his bullQuoniam abundavit iniquitas, condemned and denounced as forgers (tanquam falsarios) all who begged or preached in a habit resembling that of the mendicant orders, and this condemnation was repeated by him or his successors. The term Fraticelli was used contemptuously to denote, not any particular sect, but the members of orders formed on the fringe of the church. Thus Giovanni Villani, speaking of the heretic Dolcino, says in hisChronicle(bk. viii. ch. 84): “He is not a brother of an ordered rule, but afraticellowithout an order.” Similarly, John XXII., in his bullSancta Romana et Universalis Ecclesia(28th of December 1317), condemns vaguely those “profanae multitudinis viricommonly called Fraticelli, or Brethren of the Poor Life, or Bizocchi, or Beguines, or by all manner of other names.”

Some historians, in their zeal for rigid classification, have regarded the Fraticelli as a distinct sect, and have attempted to discover its dogmas and its founder. Some of the contemporaries of these religious groups fell into the same error, and in this way the vague term Fraticelli has sometimes been applied to the disciples of Armanno Pongilupo of Ferrara (d. 1269), who was undoubtedly a Cathar, and to the followers of Gerard Segarelli and Dolcino, who were always known among themselves as Apostolic Brethren (Apostolici). Furthermore, it seems absurd to classify both the Dolcinists and the Spiritual Franciscans as Fraticelli, since, as has been pointed out by Ehrle (Arch. f. Lit. u. Kirchengesch. des Mittelalters, ii. 107, &c.), Angelo of Clarino, in hisDe septem tribulationibus, written to the glory of the Spirituals, does not scruple to stigmatize the Dolcinists as “disciples of the devil.” It is equally absurd to include in the same category the ignorant Bizocchi and Segarellists and such learned disciples of Michael of Cesena and Louis of Bavaria as William of Occam and Bonagratia of Bergamo, who have often been placed under this comprehensive rubric.

The name Fraticelli may more justly be applied to the most exalted fraction of Franciscanism. In 1322 some prisoners declared to the inquisitor Bernard Gui at Toulouse that the Franciscan order was divided into three sections—the Conventuals, who were allowed to retain their real and personal property; the Spirituals or Beguines, who were at that time the objects of persecution; and the Fraticelli of Sicily, whose leader was Henry of Ceva (see Gui’sPractica Inquisitionis, v.). It is this fraction of the order which John XXII. condemned in his bullGloriosam Ecclesiam(23rd of January 1318), but without calling them Fraticelli. Henry of Ceva had taken refuge in Sicily at the time of Pope Boniface VIII.’s persecution of the Spirituals, and thanks to the good offices of Frederick of Sicily, a little colony of Franciscans who rejected all property had soon established itself in the island. Under Pope Clement V., and more especially under Pope John XXII., fresh Spirituals joined them; and this group of exalted and isolated ascetics soon began to regard itself as the sole legitimate order of the Minorites and then as the sole Catholic Church. After being excommunicated as “schismatics and rebels, founders of a superstitious sect, and propagators of false and pestiferous doctrines,” they proceeded to elect a general (for Michael of Cesena had disavowed them) and then a pope called Celestine (L. Wadding,Annales, at date 1313). The rebels continued to carry on an active propaganda. In Tuscany particularly the Inquisition made persistent efforts to suppress them; Florence afflicted them with severe laws, but failed to rouse the populace against them. The papacy dreaded their social even more than their dogmatic influence. At first in Sicily and afterwards throughout Italy the Ghibellines gave them a warm welcome; the rigorists and the malcontents who had either left the church or were on the point of leaving it, were attracted by these communities of needy rebels; and the tribune Rienzi was at one time disposed to join them. To overcome these ascetics it was necessary to have recourse to other ascetics, and from the outset the reformed Franciscans, or Franciscans of the Strict Observance, under the direction of their first leaders, Paoluccio da Trinci (d. 1390), Giovanni Stronconi (d. 1405), and St Bernardine of Siena, had been at great pains to restore the Fraticelli to orthodoxy. These early efforts, however, had little success. Alarmed by the number of the sectaries and the extent of their influence, Pope Martin V., who had encouraged the Observants, and particularly Bernardine of Siena, fulminated two bulls (1418 and 1421) against the heretics, and entrusted different legates with the task of hunting them down. These measures failing, he decided, in1426, to appoint two Observants as inquisitors without territorial limitation to make a special crusade against the heresy of the Fraticelli. These two inquisitors, who pursued their duties under three popes (Martin V., Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V.) were Giovanni da Capistrano and Giacomo della Marca. The latter’s valuableDialogus contra Fraticellos(Baluze and Mansi,Miscellanea, iv. 595-610) gives an account of the doctrines of these heretics and of the activity of the two inquisitors, and shows that the Fraticelli not only constituted a distinct church but a distinct society. They had a pope called Rinaldo, who was elected in 1429 and was succeeded by a brother named Gabriel. This supreme head of their church they styled “bishop of Philadelphia,” Philadelphia being the mystic name of their community; under him were bishops,e.g.the bishops of Florence, Venice, &c.; and, furthermore, a member of the community named Guglielmo Majoretto bore the title of “Emperor of the Christians.” This organization, at least in so far as concerns the heretical church, had already been observed among the Fraticelli in Sicily, and in 1423 the general council of Siena affirmed with horror that at Peniscola there was an heretical pope surrounded with a college of cardinals who made no attempt at concealment. From 1426 to 1449 the Fraticelli were unremittingly pursued, imprisoned and burned. The sect gradually died out after losing the protection of the common people, whose sympathy was now transferred to the austere Observants and their miracle-worker Capistrano. From 1466 to 1471 there were sporadic burnings of Fraticelli, and in 1471 Tommaso di Scarlino was sent to Piombino and the littoral of Tuscany to track out some Fraticelli who had been discovered in those parts. After that date the name disappears from history.

See F. Ehrle, “Die Spiritualen, ihr Verhältnis zum Franziskanerorden und zu den Fraticellen” and “Zur Vorgeschichte des Concils von Vienne,” inArchiv für Literatur- und Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, vols. i., ii., iii.; Wetzer and Welte,Kirchenlexikon, s.v. “Fraticellen”; H. C. Lea,History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, iii. 129-180 (London, 1888).

(P. A.)

FRAUD(Lat.fraus, deceit), in its widest sense, a term which has never been exhaustively defined by an English court of law, and for legal purposes probably cannot usefully be defined. But as denoting a cause of action for which damages can be recovered in civil proceedings it now has a clear and settled meaning. In actions in which damages are claimed for fraud, the difficulties and obscurities which commonly arise are due rather to the complexity of modern commerce and the ingenuity of modern swindlers than to any uncertainty or technicality in the modern law. To succeed in such an action, the person aggrieved must first prove a representation of fact, made either by words, by writing or by conduct, which is in fact untrue. Mere concealment is not actionable unless it amounts not only tosuppressio veri, but tosuggestio falsi. An expression of opinion or of intention is not enough, unless it can be shown that the opinion was not really held, or that the intention was not really entertained, in which case it must be borne in mind, to use the phrase of Lord Bowen, that the state of a man’s mind is as much a matter of fact as the state of his digestion. Next, it must be proved that the representation was made without any honest belief in its truth, that is, either with actual knowledge of its falsity or with a reckless disregard whether it is true or false. It was finally established, after much controversy, in the case ofDerryv.Peekin 1889, that a merely negligent misstatement is not actionable. Further, the person aggrieved must prove that the offender made the representation with the intention that he should act on it, though not necessarily directly to him, and that he did in fact act in reliance on it. Lastly, the complainant must prove that, as the direct consequence, he has suffered actual damage capable of pecuniary measurement.

As soon as the case ofDerryv.Peekhad established, as the general rule of law, that a merely negligent misstatement is not actionable, a statutory exception was made to the rule in the case of directors and promoters of companies who publish prospectuses and similar documents. By the Directors’ Liability Act 1890, such persons are liable for damage caused by untrue statements in such documents, unless they can prove that they had reasonable grounds for believing the statements to be true. It is also to be observed that, though damages cannot be recovered in an action for a misrepresentation made with an honest belief in its truth, still any person induced to enter into a contract by a misrepresentation, whether fraudulent or innocent, is entitled to avoid the contract and to obtain a declaration that it is not binding upon him. This is in accordance with the rule of equity, which since the Judicature Act prevails in all the courts. Whether the representation is fraudulent or innocent, the contract is not void, but voidable. The party misled must exercise his option to avoid the contract without delay, and before it has become impossible to restore the other party to the position in which he stood before the contract was made. If he is too late, he can only rely on his claim for damages, and in order to assert this claim it is necessary to prove that the misrepresentation was fraudulent. Fraud, in its wider sense of dishonest dealing, though not a distinct cause of action, is often material as preventing the acquisition of a right, for which good faith is a necessary condition. Also a combination or conspiracy by two or more persons to defraud gives rise to liabilities not very clearly or completely defined.

FRAUENBURG,a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Prussia, on the Frische Haff, at the mouth of the Bande, 41 m. S.W. from Königsberg on the railway to Elbing. Pop. 2500. The cathedral (founded 1329), with six towers, stands on a commanding eminence adjoining the town and surrounded by castellated walls and bastions. This is known as Dom-Frauenburg, and is the seat of the Roman Catholic bishop of Ermeland. Within the cathedral is a monument to the astronomer Copernicus bearing the inscriptionAstronomo celeberrimo, cujus nomen et gloria utrumque implevit orbem. There is a small port with inconsiderable trade.Frauenburgwas founded in 1287 and received the rights of a town in 1310.

FRAUENFELD,the capital of the Swiss canton of Thurgau, 27 m. by rail N.E. of Zürich or 14½ m. W. of Romanshorn. It is built on the Murg stream a little above its junction with the Thur. It is a prosperous commercial town, being situated at the meeting point of several routes, while it possesses several industrial establishments, chiefly concerned with different branches of the iron trade. In 1900 its population (including the neighbouring villages) was 7761, mainly German-speaking, while there were 5563 Protestants to 2188 Romanists. Frauenfeld is the artillery depôt for North-East Switzerland. The upper town is the older part, and centres round the castle, of which the tower dates from the 10th century, though the rest is of a later period. Both stood on land belonging to the abbot of Reichenau, who, with the count of Kyburg, founded the town, which is first mentioned in 1255. The abbot retained all manorial rights till 1803, while the political powers of the Kyburgers (who were the “protectors” of Reichenau) passed to the Habsburgs in 1273, and were seized by the Swiss in 1460 with the rest of the Thurgau. In 1712 the town succeeded Baden in Aargau as the meeting-place of the Federal Diet, and continued to be the capital of the Confederation till its transformation in 1798. In 1799 it was successively occupied by the Austrians and the French. The old Capuchin convent (1591-1848) is now occupied as a vicarage by the Romanist priest.

(W. A. B. C.)

FRAUENLOB,the name by whichHeinrich von Meissen, a German poet of the 13th century, is generally known. He seems to have acquired the sobriquet because in a famousLiederstreitwith his rival Regenbogen he defended the use of the wordFrau(i.e.frouwe, = lady) instead ofWeib(wîp= woman). Frauenlob was born about 1250 of a humble burgher family. His youth was spent in straitened circumstances, but he gradually acquired a reputation as a singer at the various courts of the German princes. In 1278 we find him with Rudolph I. in the Marchfeld, in 1286 he was at Prague at the knighting of Wenceslaus (Wenzel) II., and in 1311 he was present at a knightly festival celebrated by Waldemar of Brandenburg before Rostock. After this he settled in Mainz, and there according to the popular account, founded the first school of Meistersingers (q.v.). He died in 1318, and was buried in the cloisters of the cathedral atMainz. His grave is still marked by a copy made in 1783 of the original tombstone of 1318; and in 1842 a monument by Schwanthaler was erected in the cloisters. Frauenlob’s poems make a great display of learning; he delights in far-fetched metaphors, and his versification abounds in tricks of form and rhyme.

Frauenlob’s poetry was edited by L. Ettmüller in 1843; a selection will be found in K. Bartsch,Deutsche Liederdichter des 12. bis 14. Jahrhunderts(3rd ed., 1893). An English translation of Frauenlob’sCantica canticorum, by A. E. Kroeger, with notes, appeared in 1877 at St Louis, U.S.A. See A. Boerkel,Frauenlob(2nd ed., 1881).

FRAUNCE, ABRAHAM(c.1558-1633), English poet, a native of Shropshire, was born between 1558 and 1560. His name was registered as a pupil of Shrewsbury School in January 1571/2, and he joined St John’s College, Cambridge, in 1576, becoming a fellow in 1580/81. His Latin comedy ofVictoria, dedicated to Sidney, was probably written at Cambridge, where he remained until he had taken his M.A. degree in 1583. He was called to the bar at Gray’s Inn in 1588, and then apparently practised as a barrister in the court of the Welsh marches. After the death of his patron Sir Philip Sidney, Fraunce was protected by Sidney’s sister Mary, countess of Pembroke. His last work was published in 1592, and we have no further knowledge of him until 1633, when he is said to have written anEpithalamiumin honour of the marriage of Lady Magdalen Egerton, 7th daughter of the earl of Bridgwater, whose service he may possibly have entered.

His works are:The Lamentations of Amintas for the death of Phyllis(1587), a version in English hexameters of his friend’s, Thomas Watson’s, LatinAmyntas;The Lawiers Logike, exemplifying the praecepts of Logike by the practise of the common Lawe(1588);Arcadian Rhetorike(1588);Abrahami Fransi Insignium, Armorum ... explicatio(1588);The Countess of Pembroke’s Yvychurch(1591/2), containing a translation of Tasso’sAminta, a reprint of his earlier version of Watson, “The Lamentation of Corydon for the love of Alexis” (Virgil, eclogue ii.), a short translation from Heliodorus, and, in the third part (1592) “Aminta’s Dale,” a collection of “conceited” tales supposed to be related by the nymphs of Ivychurch;The Countess of Pembroke’s Emanuell(1591);The Third Part of the Countess of Pembroke’s Ivychurch, entituled Aminta’s Dale(1592). HisArcadian Rhetorikeowes much to earlier critical treatises, but has a special interest from its references to Spenser, and Fraunce quotes from theFaerie Queenea year before the publication of the first books. In “Colin Clout’s come home again,” Spenser speaks of Fraunce as Corydon, on account of his translations of Virgil’s second eclogue. His poems are written in classical metres, and he was regarded by his contemporaries as the best exponent of Gabriel Harvey’s theory. Even Thomas Nashe had a good word for “sweete Master France.”

The Countess of Pembroke’s Emanuell, hexameters on the nativity and passion of Christ, with versions of some psalms, were reprinted by Dr A. B. Grosart in the third volume of hisMiscellanies of the Fuller Worthies Library(1872). Joseph Hunter in hisChorus Vatumstated that five of Fraunce’s songs were included in Sidney’sAstrophel and Stella, but it is probable that these should be attributed not to Fraunce, but to Thomas Campion. See a life prefixed to the transcription of a MS. Latin comedy by Fraunce,Victoria, by Professor G. C. Moore Smith, published in Bang’sMaterialien zur Kunde des alteren englischen Dramas, vol. xiv., 1906.

FRAUNHOFER, JOSEPH VON(1787-1826), German optician and physicist, was born at Straubing in Bavaria on the 6th of March 1787, the son of a glazier who died in 1798. He was apprenticed in 1799 to Weichselberger, a glass-polisher and looking-glass maker. On the 21st of July 1801 he nearly lost his life by the fall of the house in which he lodged, and the elector of Bavaria, Maximilian Joseph, who was present at his extrication from the ruins, gave him 18 ducats. With a portion of this sum he obtained release from the last six months of his apprenticeship, and with the rest he purchased a glass-polishing machine. He now employed himself in making optical glasses, and in engraving on metal, devoting his spare time to the perusal of works on mathematics and optics. In 1806 he obtained the place of optician in the mathematical institute which in 1804 had been founded at Munich by Joseph von Utzschneider, G. Reichenbach and J. Liebherr; and in 1807 arrangements were made by Utzschneider for his instruction by Pierre Louis Guinand, a skilled optician, in the fabrication of flint and crown glass, in which he soon became an adept (see R. Wolf,Gesch. der Wissensch. in Deutschl.bd. xvi. p. 586). With Reichenbach and Utzschneider, Fraunhofer established in 1809 an optical institute at Benedictbeuern, near Munich, of which he in 1818 became sole manager. The institute was in 1819 removed to Munich, and on Fraunhofer’s death came under the direction of G. Merz.

Amongst the earliest mechanical contrivances of Fraunhofer was a machine for polishing mathematically uniform spherical surfaces. He was the inventor of the stage-micrometer, and of a form of heliometer; and in 1816 he succeeded in constructing for the microscope achromatic glasses of long focus, consisting of a single lens, the constituent glasses of which were in juxtaposition, but not cemented together. The great reflecting telescope at Dorpat was manufactured by him, and so great was the skill he attained in the making of lenses for achromatic telescopes that, in a letter to Sir David Brewster, he expressed his willingness to furnish an achromatic glass of 18 in. diameter. Fraunhofer is especially known for the researches, published in theDenkschriften der Münchener Akademiefor 1814-1815, by which he laid the foundation of solar and stellar chemistry. The dark lines of the spectrum of sunlight, earliest noted by Dr W. H. Wollaston (Phil. Trans., 1802, p. 378), were independently discovered, and, by means of the telescope of a theodolite, between which and a distant slit admitting the light a prism was interposed, were for the first time carefully observed by Fraunhofer, and have on that account been designated “Fraunhofer’s lines.” He constructed a map of as many as 576 of these lines, the principal of which he denoted by the letters of the alphabet from A to G; and by ascertaining their refractive indices he determined that their relative positions are constant, whether in spectra produced by the direct rays of the sun, or by the reflected light of the moon and planets. The spectra of the stars he obtained by using, outside the object-glass of his telescope, a large prism, through which the light passed to be brought to a focus in front of the eye-piece. He showed that in the spectra of the fixed stars many of the dark lines were different from those of the solar spectrum, whilst other well-known solar lines were wanting; and he concluded that it was not by any action of the terrestrial atmosphere upon the light passing through it that the lines were produced. He further expressed the belief that the dark lines D of the solar spectrum coincide with the bright lines of the sodium flame. He was also the inventor of the diffraction grating.

In 1823 he was appointed conservator of the physical cabinet at Munich, and in the following year he received from the king of Bavaria the civil order of merit. He died at Munich on the 7th of June 1826, and was buried near Reichenbach, whose decease had taken place eight years previously. On his tomb is the inscription “Approximavit sidera.”

See J. von Utzschneider,Kurzer Umriss der Lebensgeschichte des Herrn Dr J. von Fraunhofer(Munich, 1826); and G. Merz,Das Leben und Wirken Fraunhofers(Landshut, 1865).

FRAUSTADT(Polish,Wszowa), a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Posen, in a flat sandy country dotted with windmills, 50 m. S.S.W. of Posen, on the railway Lissa-Sagan. Pop. (including a garrison) 7500. It has three Evangelical and two Roman Catholic churches, a classical school and a teachers’ seminary; the manufactures include woollen and cotton goods, hats, morocco leather and gloves, and there is a considerable trade in corn, cattle and wool. Fraustadt was founded by Silesians in 1348, and afterwards belonged to the principality of Glogau. Near the town the Swedes under Charles XII. defeated the Saxons on the 13th of February 1706.

FRAYSSINOUS, DENIS ANTOINE LUC,Comte de(1765-1841), French prelate and statesman, distinguished as an orator and as a controversial writer, was born of humble parentage at Curières, in the department of Aveyron, on the 9th of May 1765. He owes his reputation mainly to the lectures on dogmatic theology, known as the “conferences” of Saint Sulpice, delivered in the church of Saint Sulpice, Paris, from 1803 to1809, to which admiring crowds were attracted by his lucid exposition and by his graceful oratory. The freedom of his language in 1809, when Napoleon had arrested the pope and declared the annexation of Rome to France, led to a prohibition of his lectures; and the dispersion of the congregation of Saint Sulpice in 1811 was followed by his temporary retirement from the capital. He returned with the Bourbons, and resumed his lectures in 1814; but the events of the Hundred Days again compelled him to withdraw into private life, from which he did not emerge until February 1816. As court preacher and almoner to Louis XVIII., he now entered upon the period of his greatest public activity and influence. In connexion with the controversy raised by the signing of the reactionary concordat of 1817, he published in 1818 a treatise entitledVrais Principes de l’église Gallicane sur la puissance ecclésiastique, which though unfavourably criticized by Lamennais, was received with favour by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The consecration of Frayssinous as bishop of Hermopolis “in partibus,” his election to the French Academy, and his appointment to the grand-mastership of the university, followed in rapid succession. In 1824, on the accession of Charles X., he became minister of public instruction and of ecclesiastical affairs under the administration of Villèle; and about the same time he was created a peer of France with the title of count. His term of office was chiefly marked by the recall of the Jesuits. In 1825 he published his lectures under the titleDéfense du christianisme. The work passed through 15 editions within 18 years, and was translated into several European languages. In 1828 he, along with his colleagues in the Villèle ministry, was compelled to resign office, and the subsequent revolution of July 1830 led to his retirement to Rome. Shortly afterwards he became tutor to the duke of Bordeaux (Comte de Chambord) at Prague, where he continued to live until 1838. He died at St Géniez on the 12th of December 1841.

See Bertrand,Bibl. Sulpicienne(t. ii. 135 sq.; iii. 253) for bibliography, and G. A. Henrion (Paris, 2 vols., 1844) for biography.

FRÉCHETTE, LOUIS HONORÉ(1839-1908), French-Canadian poet, was born at Levis, Quebec, on the 16th of November 1839, the son of a contractor. He was educated in his native province, and called to the Canadian bar in 1864. He started theJournal de Lévis, and his revolutionary doctrines compelled him to leave Canada for the United States. After some years spent in journalism at Chicago, he was in 1874 elected as the Liberal candidate to represent Levis in the Canadian parliament. At the elections of 1878 and 1882 he was defeated, and thereafter confined himself to literature. He editedLa Patrieand other French papers in the Dominion; and in 1889 was appointed clerk of the Quebec legislative council. He was long a warm advocate of the political union of Canada and the United States, but in later life became less ardent, and in 1897 accepted the honour of C.M.G. from Queen Victoria. He was president of the Royal Society of Canada, and of the Canadian Society of Arts, and received numerous honorary degrees. His works include:Mes Loisirs(1863);La Voix d’un exilé(1867), a satire against the Canadian government;Pêle-mêle(1877);Les Fleurs boréales, andLes Oiseaux de neige(1880), crowned by the French academy;La Légende d’un peuple(1887); two historical dramas,Papineau(1880) andFelix Poutré(1880);La Noël au Canada(1900), and several prose works and translations. An exponent of local French sentiment, he won the title of the “Canadian Laureate.” He died on the 1st of June 1908.

FREDEGOND(Fredigundis) (d. 597), Frankish queen. Originally a serving-woman, she inspired the Frankish king, Chilperic I., with a violent passion. At her instigation he repudiated his first wife Audovera, and strangled his second, Galswintha, Queen Brunhilda’s sister. A few days after this murder Chilperic married Fredegond (567). This woman exercised a most pernicious influence over him. She forced him into war against Austrasia, in the course of which she procured the assassination of the victorious king Sigebert (575); she carried on a malignant struggle against Chilperic’s sons by his first wife, Theodebert, Merwich and Clovis, who all died tragic deaths; and she persistently endeavoured to secure the throne for her own children. Her first son Thierry, however, to whom Bishop Ragnemod of Paris stood godfather, died soon after birth, and Fredegond tortured a number of women whom she accused of having bewitched the child. Her second son also died in infancy. Finally, she gave birth to a child who afterwards became king as Clotaire II. Shortly after the birth of this third son, Chilperic himself perished in mysterious circumstances (584). Fredegond has been accused of complicity in his murder, but with little show of probability, since in her husband she lost her principal supporter.

Henceforth Fredegond did all in her power to gain the kingdom for her child. Taking refuge at the church of Notre Dame at Paris, she appealed to King Guntram of Burgundy, who took Clotaire under his protection and defended him against his other nephew, Childebert II., king of Austrasia. From that time until her death Fredegond governed the western kingdom. She endeavoured to prevent the alliance between King Guntram and Childebert, which was cemented by the pact of Andelot; and made several attempts to assassinate Childebert by sending against him hired bravoes armed with poisonedscramasaxes(heavy single-edged knives). After the death of Childebert in 595 she resolved to augment the kingdom of Neustria at the expense of Austrasia, and to this end seized some cities near Paris and defeated Theudebert at the battle of Laffaux, near Soissons. Her triumph, however, was short-lived, as she died quietly in her bed in 597 soon after her victory.

See V. N. Augustin Thierry,Récits des temps mérovingiens(Brussels, 1840); Ulysse Chevalier,Bio-bibliographie(2nd ed.),s.v.“Frédégonde.”

(C. Pf.)

FREDERIC, HAROLD(1856-1898), Anglo-American novelist, was born on the 19th of August 1856 at Utica, N.Y., was educated there, and took to journalism. He went to live in England as London correspondent of theNew York Timesin 1884, and was soon recognized for his ability both as a writer and as a talker. He wrote several clever early stories, but it was not till he publishedIllumination(1896), followed byGloria Mundi(1898), that his remarkable gifts as a novelist were fully realized. He died in England on the 19th of October 1898.

FREDERICIA(Friedericia), a seaport of Denmark, near the S.E. corner of Jutland, on the west shore of the Little Belt opposite the island of Fünen. Pop. (1901) 12,714. It has railway communication with both south and north, and a steam ferry connects with Middelfart, a seaside resort and railway station on Fünen. There is a considerable shipping trade, and the industries comprise the manufacture of tobacco, salt and chicory, and of cotton goods and hats. A small fort was erected on the site of Fredericia by Christian IV. of Denmark, and his successor, Frederick III., determined about 1650 to make it a powerful fortress. Free exercise of religion was offered to all who should settle in the new town, which at first bore the name of Frederiksodde, and only received its present designation in 1664. In 1657 it was taken by storm by the Swedish general Wrangel, and in 1659, after the fortress had been dismantled, it was occupied by Frederick William of Brandenburg. It was not till 1709-1710 that the works were again put in a state of defence. In 1848 no attempt was made by the Danes to oppose the Prussians, who entered on the 2nd of May, and maintained their position against the Danish gunboats. During the armistice of 1848-1849 the fortress was strengthened, and soon afterwards it stood a siege of two months, which was brought to a glorious close by a successful sortie on the 6th of July 1849. In memory of the victory several monuments have been erected in the town and its vicinity, of which the most noticeable are the bronze statue of the Danish Land Soldier by Bissen (one of Thorvaldsen’s pupils), and the great barrow over 500 Danes in the cemetery of the Holy Trinity Church, with a bas-relief by the same sculptor. On the outbreak of the war of 1864, the fortress was again strengthened by new works and an entrenched camp; but the Danes suddenly evacuated it on the 28th of April after a siege of six weeks. The Austro-Prussian army partly destroyed the fortifications, and kept possession of the town till the conclusion of peace.

FREDERICK(Mod. Ger.Friedrich; Ital.Federigo; Fr.FrédéricandFédéric; M.H.G.Friderîch; O.H.G.Fridurîh, “king or lord of peace,” from O.H.G.fridu, A.S.frith, “peace,” andrîh“rich,” “a ruler,” for derivation of which seeHenry), a Christian name borne by many European sovereigns and princes, the more important of whom are given below in the following order:—(1) Roman emperors and German kings; (2) other kings in the alphabetical order of their states; (3) other reigning princes in the same order.

FREDERICK I.(c.1123-1190), Roman emperor, surnamed “Barbarossa” by the Italians, was the son of Frederick II. of Hohenstaufen, duke of Swabia, and Judith, daughter of Henry IX. the Black, duke of Bavaria. The precise date and place of his birth, together with details of his early life, are wanting; but in 1143 he assisted his maternal uncle, Count Welf VI., in his attempts to conquer Bavaria, and by his conduct in several local feuds earned the reputation of a brave and skilful warrior. When his father died in 1147 Frederick became duke of Swabia, and immediately afterwards accompanied his uncle, the German king Conrad III., on his disastrous crusade, during which he greatly distinguished himself and won the complete confidence of the king. Abandoning the cause of the Welfs, he fought for Conrad against them, and in 1152 the dying king advised the princes to choose Frederick as his successor to the exclusion of his own young son. Energetically pressing his candidature, he was chosen German king at Frankfort on the 4th or 5th of March 1152, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 9th of the same month, owing his election partly to his personal qualities, and partly to the fact that he united in himself the blood of the rival families of Welf and Waiblingen.

The new king was anxious to restore the Empire to the position it had occupied under Charlemagne and Otto the Great, and saw clearly that the restoration of order in Germany was a necessary preliminary to the enforcement of the imperial rights in Italy. Issuing a general order for peace, he was prodigal in his concessions to the nobles. Count Welf was made duke of Spoleto and margrave of Tuscany; Berthold VI., duke of Zähringen, was entrusted with extensive rights in Burgundy; and the king’s nephew, Frederick, received the duchy of Swabia. Abroad Frederick decided a quarrel for the Danish throne in favour of Svend, or Peter as he is sometimes called, who did homage for his kingdom, and negotiations were begun with the East Roman emperor, Manuel Comnenus. It was probably about this time that the king obtained a divorce from his wife Adela, daughter of Dietpold, margrave of Vohburg and Cham, on the ground of consanguinity, and made a vain effort to obtain a bride from the court of Constantinople. On his accession Frederick had communicated the news of his election to Pope Eugenius III., but neglected to ask for the papal confirmation. In spite of this omission, however, and of some trouble arising from a double election to the archbishopric of Magdeburg, a treaty was concluded between king and pope at Constance in March 1153, by which Frederick promised in return for his coronation to make no peace with Roger I. king of Sicily, or with the rebellious Romans, without the consent of Eugenius, and generally to help and defend the papacy.

The journey to Italy made by the king in 1154 was the precursor of five other expeditions which engaged his main energies for thirty years, during which the subjugation of the peninsula was the central and abiding aim of his policy. Meeting the new pope, Adrian IV., near Nepi, Frederick at first refused to hold his stirrup; but after some negotiations he consented and received the kiss of peace, which was followed by his coronation as emperor at Rome on the 18th of June 1155. As his slender forces were inadequate to encounter the fierce hostility which he aroused, he left Italy in the autumn of 1155 to prepare for a new and more formidable campaign. Disorder was again rampant in Germany, especially in Bavaria, but general peace was restored by Frederick’s vigorous measures. Bavaria was transferred from Henry II. Jasomirgott, margrave of Austria, to Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony; and the former was pacified by the erection of his margraviate into a duchy, while Frederick’s step-brother Conrad was invested with the Palatinate of the Rhine. On the 9th of June 1156 the king was married at Würzburg to Beatrix, daughter and heiress of the dead count of Upper Burgundy, Renaud III., when Upper Burgundy or Franche Comté, as it is sometimes called, was added to his possessions. An expedition into Poland reduced Duke Boleslaus IV. to an abject submission, after which Frederick received the homage of the Burgundian nobles at a diet held at Besançon in October 1157, which was marked by a quarrel between pope and emperor. A Swedish archbishop, returning from Rome, had been seized by robbers, and as Frederick had not punished the offenders Adrian sent two legates to remonstrate. The papal letter when translated referred to the imperial crown as a benefice conferred by the pope, and its reading aroused great indignation. The emperor had to protect the legates from the fury of the nobles; and afterwards issued a manifesto to his subjects declaring that he held the Empire from God alone, to which Adrian replied that he had used the ambiguous wordbeneficiaas meaning benefits, and not in its feudal sense.

In June 1158 Frederick set out upon his second Italian expedition, which was signalized by the establishment of imperial officers calledpodestasin the cities of northern Italy, the revolt and capture of Milan, and the beginning of the long struggle with pope Alexander III., who excommunicated the emperor on the 2nd of March 1160. During this visit Frederick summoned the doctors of Bologna to the diet held near Roncaglia in November 1158, and as a result of their inquiries into the rights belonging to the kingdom of Italy he obtained a large amount of wealth. Returning to Germany towards the close of 1162, Frederick prevented a conflict between Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, and a number of neighbouring princes, and severely punished the citizens of Mainz for their rebellion against Archbishop Arnold. A further visit to Italy in 1163 saw his plans for the conquest of Sicily checked by the formation of a powerful league against him, brought together mainly by the exactions of thepodestasand the enforcement of the rights declared by the doctors of Bologna. Frederick had supported an anti-pope Victor IV. against Alexander, and on Victor’s death in 1163 a new anti-pope called Paschal III. was chosen to succeed him. Having tried in vain to secure the general recognition of Victor and Paschal in Europe, the emperor held a diet at Würzburg in May 1165; and by taking an oath, followed by many of the clergy and nobles, to remain true to Paschal and his successors, brought about a schism in the German church. A temporary alliance with Henry II., king of England, the magnificent celebration of the canonization of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, and the restoration of peace in the Rhineland, occupied Frederick’s attention until October 1166, when he made his fourth journey to Italy. Having captured Ancona, he marched to Rome, stormed the Leonine city, and procured the enthronement of Paschal, and the coronation of his wife Beatrix; but his victorious career was stopped by the sudden outbreak of a pestilence which destroyed the German army and drove the emperor as a fugitive to Germany, where he remained for the ensuing six years. Henry the Lion was again saved from a threatening combination; conflicting claims to various bishoprics were decided; and the imperial authority was asserted over Bohemia, Poland and Hungary. Friendly relations were entered into with the emperor Manuel, and attempts made to come to a better understanding with Henry II., king of England, and Louis VII., king of France.

In 1174, when Frederick made his fifth expedition to Italy, the Lombard league had been formed, and the fortress of Alessandria raised to check his progress. The campaign was a complete failure. The refusal of Henry the Lion to bring help into Italy was followed by the defeat of the emperor at Legnano on the 29th of May 1176, when he was wounded and believed to be dead. Reaching Pavia, he began negotiations for peace with Alexander, which ripened into the treaty of Venice in August 1177, and at the same time a truce with the Lombard league was arranged for six years. Frederick, loosed from the papal ban, recognized Alexander as the rightful pope, and in July 1177 knelt before him and kissed his feet. The possession of the vastestates left by Matilda, marchioness of Tuscany, and claimed by both pope and emperor, was to be decided by arbitration, and in October 1178 the emperor was again in Germany. Various small feuds were suppressed; Henry the Lion was deprived of his duchy, which was dismembered, and sent into exile; a treaty was made with the Lombard league at Constance in June 1183; and most important of all, Frederick’s son Henry was betrothed in 1184 to Constance, daughter of Roger I., king of Sicily, and aunt and heiress of the reigning king, William II. This betrothal, which threatened to unite Sicily with the Empire, made it difficult for Frederick, when during his last Italian expedition in 1184 he met Pope Lucius III. at Verona, to establish friendly relations with the papacy. Further causes of trouble arose, moreover, and when the potentates separated the question of Matilda’s estates was undecided; and Lucius had refused to crown Henry or to recognize the German clergy who had been ordained during the schism. Frederick then formed an alliance with Milan, where the citizens witnessed a great festival on the 27th of January 1186. The emperor, who had been crowned king of Burgundy, or Arles, at Arles on the 30th of July 1178, had this ceremony repeated; while his son Henry was crowned king of Italy and married to Constance, who was crowned queen of Germany.

The quarrel with the papacy was continued with the new pope Urban III., and open warfare was begun. But Frederick was soon recalled to Germany by the news of a revolt raised by Philip of Heinsberg, archbishop of Cologne, in alliance with the pope. The German clergy remained loyal to the emperor, and hostilities were checked by the death of Urban and the election of a new pope as Gregory VIII., who adopted a more friendly policy towards the emperor. In 1188 Philip submitted, and immediately afterwards Frederick took the cross in order to stop the victorious career of Saladin, who had just taken Jerusalem. After extensive preparations he left Regensburg in May 1189 at the head of a splendid army, and having overcome the hostility of the East Roman emperor Isaac Angelus, marched into Asia Minor. On the 10th of June 1190 Frederick was either bathing or crossing the river Calycadnus (Geuksu), near Seleucia (Selefke) in Cilicia, when he was carried away by the stream and drowned. The place of his burial is unknown, and the legend which says he still sits in a cavern in the Kyffhäuser mountain in Thuringia waiting until the need of his country shall call him, is now thought to refer, at least in its earlier form, to his grandson, the emperor Frederick II. He left by his wife, Beatrix, five sons, of whom the eldest afterwards became emperor as Henry VI.

Frederick’s reign, on the whole, was a happy and prosperous time for Germany. He encouraged the growth of towns, easily suppressed the few risings against his authority, and took strong and successful measures to establish order. Even after the severe reverses which he experienced in Italy, his position in Germany was never seriously weakened; and in 1181, when, almost without striking a blow, he deprived Henry the Lion of his duchy, he seemed stronger than ever. This power rested upon his earnest and commanding personality, and also upon the support which he received from the German church, the possession of a valuable private domain, and the care with which he exacted feudal dues from his dependents.

Frederick I. is said to have taken Charlemagne as his model; but the contest in which he engaged was entirely different both in character and results from that in which his great predecessor achieved such a wonderful temporary success. Though Frederick failed to subdue the republics, the failure can scarcely be said to reflect either on his prudence as a statesman or his skill as a general, for his ascendancy was finally overthrown rather by the ravages of pestilence than by the might of human arms. In Germany his resolute will and sagacious administration subdued or disarmed all discontent, and he not only succeeded in welding the various rival interests into a unity of devotion to himself against which papal intrigues were comparatively powerless, but won for the empire a prestige such as it had not possessed since the time of Otto the Great. The wide contrast between his German and Italian rule is strikingly exemplified in the fact that, while he endeavoured to overthrow the republics in Italy, he held in check the power of the nobles in Germany, by conferring municipal franchises and independent rights on the principal cities. Even in Italy, though his general course of action was warped by wrong prepossessions, he in many instances manifested exceptional practical sagacity in dealing with immediate difficulties and emergencies. Possessing frank and open manners, untiring and unresting energy, and a prowess which found its native element in difficulty and danger, he seemed the embodiment of the chivalrous and warlike spirit of his age, and was the model of all the qualities which then won highest admiration. Stern and ambitious he certainly was, but his aims can scarcely be said to have exceeded his prerogatives as emperor; and though he had sometimes recourse when in straits to expedients almost diabolically ingenious in their cruelty, yet his general conduct was marked by a clemency which in that age was exceptional. His quarrel with the papacy was an inherited conflict, not reflecting at all on his religious faith, but the inevitable consequence of inconsistent theories of government, which had been created and could be dissipated only by a long series of events. His interference in the quarrels of the republics was not only quite justifiable from the relation in which he stood to them, but seemed absolutely necessary. From the beginning, however, he treated the Italians, as indeed was only natural, less as rebellious subjects than as conquered aliens; and it must be admitted that in regard to them the only effective portion of his procedure was, not his energetic measures of repression nor his brilliant victories, but, after the battle of Legnano, his quiet and cheerful acceptance of the inevitable, and the consequent complete change in his policy, by which if he did not obtain the great object of his ambition, he at least did much to render innoxious for the Empire his previous mistakes.

In appearance Frederick was a man of well-proportioned, medium stature, with flowing yellow hair and a reddish beard. He delighted in hunting and the reading of history, was zealous in his attention to public business, and his private life was unimpeachable. Carlyle’s tribute to him is interesting: “No king so furnished out with apparatus and arena, with personal faculty to rule and scene to do it in, has appeared elsewhere. A magnificent, magnanimous man; holding the reins of the world, not quite in the imaginary sense; scourging anarchy down, and urging noble effort up, really on a grand scale. A terror to evil-doers and a praise to well-doers in this world, probably beyond what was ever seen since.”

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