Chapter IX: Part 9
DENIS GODEFROY (Dionysius Gothofredus) (1549-1622), jurist, son of Leon Godefroy, lord of Guignecourt, was born in Paris on the 17th of October 1549. He was educated at the College de Navarre, and studied law at Louvain, Cologne and Heidelberg, returning to Paris in 1573. He embraced the reformed religion, and in 1579 left Paris, where his abilities and connexions promised a brilliant career, to establish himself at Geneva. He became professor of law there, received the freedom of the city in 1580; and in 1587 became a member of the Council of the Two Hundred. Henry IV. induced him to return to France by making him _grand bailli_ of Gex, but no sooner had he installed himself than the town was sacked and his library burnt by the troops of the duke of Savoy. In 1591 he became professor of Roman law at Strassburg, where he remained until April 1600, when in response to an invitation from Frederick IV., elector palatine, he removed to Heidelberg. The difficulties of his position led to his return to Strassburg for a short time, but in November 1604 he definitely settled at Heidelberg. He was made head of the faculty of law in the university, and was from time to time employed on missions to the French court. His repeated refusal of offers of advancement in his own country was due to his Calvinism. He died at Strassburg on the 7th of September 1622, having left Heidelberg before the city was sacked by the imperial troops in 1621. His most important work was the _Corpus juris civilis_, originally published at Geneva in 1583, which went through some twenty editions, the most valuable of them being that printed by the Elzevirs at Amsterdam in 1633 and the Leipzig edition of 1740.
Lists of his other learned works may be found in Senebier's _Hist.
litt. de Geneve_, vol. ii., and in Niceron's _Memoires_, vol. xvii.
Some of his correspondence with his learned friends, with his kinsman
President de Thou, Isaac Casaubon, Jean Jacques Grynaeus and others,
is preserved in the libraries of the British Museum, of Basel and
Paris.
His eldest son, THEODORE GODEFROY (1580-1649), was born at Geneva on the 14th of July 1580. He abjured Calvinism, and was called to the bar in Paris. He became historiographer of France in 1613, and was employed from time to time on diplomatic missions. He was employed at the congress of Munster, where he remained after the signing of peace in 1648 as charge d'affaires until his death on the 5th of October of the next year. His most important work is _Le Ceremonial de France ..._ (1619), a work which became a classic on the subject of royal ceremonial, and was re-edited by his son in an enlarged edition in 1649.
Besides his printed works he made vast collections of historical
material which remains in MS. and fills the greater part of the
Godefroy collection of over five hundred portfolios in the Library of
the Institute in Paris. These were catalogued by Ludovic Lalanne in
the _Annuaire Bulletin_ (1865-1866 and 1892) of the _Societe de
l'histoire de France_.
The second son of Denis, JACQUES GODEFROY (1587-1652), jurist, was born at Geneva on the 13th of September 1587. He was sent to France in 1611, and studied law and history at Bourges and Paris. He remained faithful to the Calvinist persuasion, and soon returned to Geneva, where he became active in public affairs. He was secretary of state from 1632 to 1636, and syndic or chief magistrate in 1637, 1641, 1645 and 1649. He died on the 23rd of June 1652. In addition to his civic and political work he lectured on law, and produced, after thirty years of labour, his edition of the _Codex Theodosianus_. This code formed the principal, though not the only, source of the legal systems of the countries formed from the Western Empire. Godefroy's edition was enriched with a multitude of important notes and historical comments, and became a standard authority on the decadent period of the Western Empire. It was only printed thirteen years after his death under the care of his friend Antoine Marville at Lyons (4 vols. 1665), and was reprinted at Leipzig (6 vols.) in 1736-1745. Of his numerous other works the most important was the reconstruction of the twelve tables of early Roman law.
See also the dictionary of Moreri, Niceron's _Memoires_ (vol. 17) and
a notice in the _Bibliotheque universelle de Geneve_ (Dec. 1837).
DENIS GODEFROY (1615-1681), eldest son of Theodore, succeeded his father as historiographer of France, and re-edited various chronicles which had been published by him. He was entrusted by Colbert with the care and investigation of the records concerning the Low Countries preserved at Lille, where great part of his life was spent. He was also the historian of the reigns of Charles VII. and Charles VIII.
Other members of the family who attained distinction in the same branch of learning were the two sons of Denis Godefroy--Denis (1653-1719), also an historian, and Jean, sieur d'Aumont (1656-1732), who edited the letters of Louis XII., the memoirs of Marguerite de Valois, of Castelnau and Pierre de l'Estoile, and left some useful material for the history of the Low Countries; Jean Baptiste Achille Godefroy, sieur de Maillart (1697-1759), and Denis Joseph Godefroy, sieur de Maillart (1740-1819), son and grandson of Jean Godefroy, who were both officials at Lille, and left valuable historical documents which have remained in MS.
For further details see _Les Savants Godefroy_ (Paris, 1873) by the
marquis de Godefroy-Menilglaise, son of Denis Joseph Godefroy.
GODESBERG, a spa of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province, on the left bank of the Rhine, almost opposite Konigswinter, and 4 m. S. of Bonn, on the railway to Coblenz. It is a fashionable summer resort, and contains numerous pretty villas, the residences of merchants from Cologne, Elberfeld, Crefeld and other Rhenish manufacturing centres. It has an Evangelical and three Roman Catholic churches, a synagogue and several educational establishments. Its chalybeate springs annually attract a large number of visitors, and the pump-room, baths and public grounds are arranged on a sumptuous scale. On a conical basalt hill, close by, are the ruins, surmounted by a picturesque round tower, of Godesberg castle. Built by Archbishop Dietrich I. of Cologne in the 13th century, it was destroyed by the Bavarians in 1583.
See Dennert, _Godesberg, eine Perle des Rheins_ (Godesberg, 1900).
GODET, FREDERIC LOUIS (1812-1900), Swiss Protestant theologian, was born at Neuchatel on the 25th of October 1812. After studying theology at Neuchatel, Bonn and Berlin, he was in 1850 appointed professor of theology at Neuchatel. From 1851 to 1866 he also held a pastorate. In 1873 he became one of the founders of the free Evangelical Church of Neuchatel, and professor in its theological faculty. He died there on the 29th of October 1900. A conservative scholar, Godet was the author of some of the most noteworthy French commentaries published in recent times.
His commentaries are on the Gospel of St John (2 vols., 1863-1865; 3rd
ed., 1881-1888; Eng. trans. 1886, &c.); St Luke (2 vols., 1871; 3rd
ed., 1888; Eng. trans. 1875, &c.); the Epistle to the Romans (2 vols.,
1879-1880; 2nd ed., 1883-1890; Eng. trans., 1880, &c.); Corinthians (2
vols., 1886-1887; Eng. trans. 1886, &c.). His other works include
_Etudes bibliques_ (2 vols., 1873-1874; 4th ed., 1889; Eng. trans.
1875 f.), and _Introduction au Nouveau Testament_ (1893 f.; Eng.
trans., 1894, &c.); _Lectures in Defence of the Christian Faith_ (Eng.
trans. 4th ed., 1900).
GODFREY, SIR EDMUND BERRY (1621-1678), English magistrate and politician, younger son of Thomas Godfrey (1586-1664), a member of an old Kentish family, was born on the 23rd of December 1621. He was educated at Westminster school and at Christ Church, Oxford, and after entering Gray's Inn became a dealer in wood. His business prospered. He was made a justice of the peace for the city of Westminster, and in September 1666 was knighted as a reward for his services as magistrate and citizen during the great plague in London; but in 1669 he was imprisoned for a few days for instituting the arrest of the king's physician, Sir Alexander Fraizer (d. 1681), who owed him money. The tragic events in Godfrey's life began in September 1678 when Titus Oates and two other men appeared before him with written information about the _Popish Plot_, and swore to the truth of their statements. During the intense excitement which followed the magistrate expressed a fear that his life was in danger, but took no extra precautions for safety. On the 12th of October he did not return home as usual, and on the 17th his body was found on Primrose Hill, Hampstead. Medical and other evidence made it certain that he had been murdered, and the excited populace regarded the deed as the work of the Roman Catholics. Two committees investigated the occurrence without definite result, but in December 1678 a certain Miles Prance, who had been arrested for conspiracy, confessed that he had shared in the murder. According to Prance the deed was instigated by some Roman Catholic priests, three of whom witnessed the murder, and was committed in the courtyard of Somerset House, where Godfrey was strangled by Robert Green, Lawrence Hill and Henry Berry, the body being afterwards taken to Hampstead. The three men were promptly arrested; the evidence of the informer William Bedloe, although contradictory, was similar on a few points to that of Prance, and in February 1679 they were hanged. Soon afterwards, however, some doubt was cast upon this story; a war of words ensued between Prance and others, and it was freely asserted that Godfrey had committed suicide. Later the falsehood of Prance's confession was proved and Prance pleaded guilty to perjury; but the fact remains that Godfrey was murdered. Godfrey was an excellent magistrate, and was very charitable both in public and in private life. Mr John Pollock, in the _Popish Plot_ (London, 1903), confirms the view that the three men, Green, Hill and Berry, were wrongfully executed, and thinks the murder was committed by some Jesuits aided by Prance. Godfrey was feared by the Jesuits because he knew, through Oates, that on the 24th of April 1678 a Jesuit congregation had met at the residence of the duke of York to concert plans for the king's murder. He concludes thus: "The success of Godfrey's murder as a political move is indubitable. The duke of York was the pivot of the Roman Catholic scheme in England, and Godfrey's death saved both from utter ruin." On the other hand Mr Alfred Marks in his _Who killed Sir E. B. Godfrey?_ (1905) maintains that suicide was the cause of Godfrey's death.
See the article OATES, TITUS, also R. Tuke, _Memoirs of the Life and
Death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey_ (London, 1682); and G. Burnet,
_History of my Own Time; The Reign of Charles II._, edited by O. Airy
(Oxford, 1900).
GODFREY OF BOUILLON (c. 1060-1100), a leader in the First Crusade, was the second son of Eustace II., count of Boulogne, by his marriage with Ida, daughter of Duke Godfrey II. of Lower Lorraine. He was designated by Duke Godfrey as his successor; but the emperor Henry IV. gave him only the mark of Antwerp, in which the lordship of Bouillon was included (1076). He fought for Henry, however, both on the Elster and in the siege of Rome; and he was invested in 1082 with the duchy of Lower Lorraine. Lorraine had been penetrated by Cluniac influences, and Godfrey would seem to have been a man of notable piety. Accordingly, though he had himself served as an imperialist, and though the Germans in general had little sympathy with the Crusaders (_subsannabant ... quasi delirantes_), Godfrey, nevertheless, when the call came "to follow Christ," almost literally sold all that he had, and followed. Along with his brothers Eustace and Baldwin (the future Baldwin I. of Jerusalem) he led a German contingent, some 40,000 strong, along "Charlemagne's road," through Hungary to Constantinople, starting in August 1096, and arriving at Constantinople, after some difficulties in Hungary, in November. He was the first of the crusading princes to arrive, and on him fell the duty of deciding what the relations of the princes to the eastern emperor Alexius were to be. Eventually, after several disputes and some fighting, he did homage to Alexius in January 1097; and his example was followed by the other princes. From this time until the beginning of 1099 Godfrey appears as one of the minor princes, plodding onwards, and steadily fighting, while men like Bohemund and Raymund, Baldwin and Tancred were determining the course of events.
In 1099 he came once more to the front. The mass of the crusaders became weary of the political factions which divided some of their leaders; and Godfrey, who was more of a pilgrim than a politician, becomes the natural representative of this feeling. He was thus able to force the reluctant Raymund to march southward to Jerusalem; and he took a prominent part in the siege, his division being the first to enter when the city was captured. It was natural therefore that, when Raymund of Provence refused the offered dignity, Godfrey should be elected ruler of Jerusalem (July 22, 1099). He assumed the title not of king, but of "advocate"[1] of the Holy Sepulchre. The new dignity proved still more onerous than honourable; and during his short reign of a year Godfrey had to combat the Arabs of Egypt, and the opposition of Raymund and the patriarch Dagobert. He was successful In repelling the Egyptian attack at the battle of Ascalon (August 1099); but he failed, owing to Raymund's obstinacy and greed, to acquire the town of Ascalon after the battle. Left alone, at the end of the autumn, with an army of some 2000 men, Godfrey was yet able, in the spring of 1100, probably with the aid of new pilgrims, to exact tribute from towns like Acre, Ascalon, Arsuf and Caesarea. But already, at the end of 1099 Dagobert, archbishop of Pisa, had been substituted as patriarch for Arnulf (who had been acting as vicar) by the influence of Bohemund; and Dagobert, whose vassal Godfrey had at once piously acknowledged himself, seems to have forced him to an agreement in April 1100, by which he promised Jerusalem and Jaffa to the patriarch, in case he should acquire in their place Cairo or some other town, or should die without issue. Thus were the foundations of a theocracy laid in Jerusalem; and when Godfrey died (July 1100) he left the question to be decided, whether a theocracy or a monarchy should be the government of the Holy Land.
Because he had been the first ruler in Jerusalem Godfrey was idolized in later saga. He was depicted as the leader of the crusades, the king of Jerusalem, the legislator who laid down the assizes of Jerusalem. He was none of these things. Bohemund was the leader of the crusades; Baldwin was first king; the assizes were the result of a gradual development. In still other ways was the figure of Godfrey idealized by the grateful tradition of later days; but in reality he would seem to have been a quiet, pious, hard-fighting knight, who was chosen to rule in Jerusalem because he had no dangerous qualities, and no obvious defects.
LITERATURE.--The narrative of Albert of Aix may be regarded as
presenting the Lotharingian point of view, as the _Gesta_ presents the
Norman, and Raymund of Agiles the Provencal. The career of Godfrey has
been discussed in modern times by R. Rohricht, _Die Deutschen im
heiligen Lande_, Band ii., and _Geschichte des ersten Kreuzzuges,
passim_ (Innsbruck, 1901). (E. Br.)
_Romances._--Godfrey was the principal hero of two French _chansons de geste_ dealing with the Crusade, the _Chanson d'Antioche_ (ed. P. Paris, 2 vols., 1848) and the _Chanson de Jerusalem_ (ed. C. Hippeau, 1868), and other poems, containing less historical material, were subsequently added. In addition the parentage and early exploits of Godfrey were made the subject of legend. His grandfather was said to be Helias, knight of the Swan, one of the brothers whose adventures are well known, though with some variation, in the familiar fairy tale of "The Seven Swans." Helias, drawn by the swan, one day disembarked at Nijmwegen, and reconquered her territory for the duchess of Bouillon. Marrying her daughter he exacted a promise that his wife should not inquire into his origin. The tale, which is almost identical with the Lohengrin legend, belongs to the class of the Cupid and Psyche narratives. See LOHENGRIN.
See also C. Hippeau, _Le Chevalier au cygne_ (Paris, 2 vols.,
1874-1877); H. Pigeonneau, _Le Cycle de la croisade et de la famille
de Bouillon_ (1877); W. Golther, "Lohengrin," in _Roman. Forsch._
(vol. v., 1889); _Hist. litt. de la France_, vol. xxii. pp. 350-402;
the English romance of _Helyas, Knyghte of the Swanne_ was printed by
W. Copland about 1550.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] An "advocate" was a layman who had been invested with part of an
ecclesiastic estate, on condition that he defended the rest, and
exercised the blood-ban in lieu of the ecclesiastical owner (see
ADVOCATE, sec. _Advocatus ecclesiae_).
GODFREY OF VITERBO (c. 1120-c. 1196), chronicler, was probably an Italian by birth, although some authorities assert that he was a Saxon. He evidently passed some of his early life at Viterbo, where also he spent his concluding days, but he was educated at Bamberg, gaining a good knowledge of Latin. About 1140 he became chaplain to the German king, Conrad III.; but the greater part of his life was spent as secretary (_notarius_) in the service of the emperor Frederick I., who appears to have thoroughly trusted him, and who employed him on many diplomatic errands. Incessantly occupied, he visited Sicily, France and Spain, in addition to many of the German cities, in the emperor's interests, and was by his side during several of the Italian campaigns. Both before and after Frederick's death in 1190 he enjoyed the favour of his son, the emperor Henry VI., for whom he wrote his _Speculum regum_, a work of very little value. Godfrey also wrote _Memoria seculorum_, or _Liber memorialis_, a chronicle dedicated to Henry VI., which professes to record the history of the world from the creation until 1185. It is written partly in prose and partly in verse. A revision of this work was drawn up by Godfrey himself as _Pantheon_, or _Universitatis libri qui chronici appellantur_. The author borrowed from Otto of Freising, but the earlier part of his chronicle is full of imaginary occurrences. _Pantheon_ was first printed in 1559, and extracts from it are published by L. A. Muratori in the _Rerum Italicarum scriptores_, tome vii. (Milan, 1725). The only part of Godfrey's work which is valuable is the _Gesta Friderici I._, verses relating events in the emperor's career from 1155 to 1180. Concerned mainly with affairs in Italy, the poem tells of the sieges of Milan, of Frederick's flight to Pavia in 1167, of the treaty with Pope Alexander III. at Venice, and of other stirring episodes with which the author was intimately acquainted, and many of which he had witnessed. Attached to the _Gesta Friderici_ is the _Gesta Heinrici VI._, a shorter poem which is often attributed to Godfrey, although W. Wattenbach and other authorities think it was not written by him. The _Memoria seculorum_ was very popular during the middle ages, and has been continued by several writers.
Godfrey's works are found in the _Monumenta Germaniae historica_, Band
xxii. (Hanover, 1872). The _Gesta Friderici I. et Heinrici VI._ is
published separately with an introduction by G. Waitz (Hanover, 1872).
See also H. Ulmann, _Gotfried von Viterbo_ (Gottingen, 1863), and W.
Wattenbach, _Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen_, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894).
(A. W. H.*)
GODHRA, a town of British India, administrative headquarters of the Panch Mahals district of Bombay, and also of the Rewa Kantha political agency; situated 52 m. N.E. of Baroda on the railway from Anand to Ratlam. Pop. (1901) 20,915. It has a trade in timber from the neighbouring forests.
GODIN, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRE (1817-1888), French socialist, was born on the 26th of January 1817 at Esqueheries (Aisne). The son of an artisan, he entered an iron-works at an early age, and at seventeen made a tour of France as journeyman. Returning to Esqueheries in 1837, he started a small factory for the manufacture of castings for heating-stoves. The business increased rapidly, and for the purpose of railway facilities was transferred to Guise in 1846. At the time of Godin's death in 1888 the annual output was over four millions of francs (L160,000), and in 1908 the employees numbered over 2000 and the output was over L280,000. An ardent disciple of Fourier, he advanced a considerable sum of money towards the disastrous Fourierist experiment of V. P. Considerant (q.v.) in Texas. He profited, however, by its failure, and in 1859 started the _familistere_ or community settlement of Guise on more carefully laid plans. It comprises, in addition to the workshops, three large buildings, four storeys high, capable of housing all the work-people, each family having two or three rooms. Attached to each building is a vast central court, covered with a glass roof, under which the children can play in all weathers. There are also creches, nurseries, hospital, refreshment rooms and recreation rooms of various kinds, stores for the purchase of groceries, drapery and every necessity, and a large theatre for concerts and dramatic entertainments. In 1880 the whole was turned into a co-operative society, with provision by which it eventually became the property of the workers. In 1871 Godin was elected deputy for Aisne, but retired in 1876 to devote himself to the management of the _familistere_. In 1882 he was created a knight of the legion of honour.
Godin was the author of _Solutions sociales_ (1871); _Les Socialistes
et les droits du travail_ (1874); _Mutualite sociale_ (1880); _La
Republique du travail et la reforme parlementaire_ (1889). See
Bernardot, _Le Familistere de Guise et son fondateur_ (Paris, 1887);
Fischer, _Die Familistere Godin's_ (Berlin, 1890); Lestelle, _Etude
sur le familistere de Guise_ (Paris, 1904); D. F. P., _Le Familistere
illustre, resultats de vingt ans d'association_, 1880-1900 (Eng.
trans., _Twenty-eight years of co-partnership at Guise_, by A.
Williams, 1908).
GODIVA, a Saxon lady, who, according to the legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry to gain from her husband a remission of the oppressive toll imposed on his tenants. The story is that she was the beautiful wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia and lord of Coventry. The people of that city suffering grievously under the earl's oppressive taxation, Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a proclamation that all persons should keep within doors or shut their windows, she rode through, clothed only in her long hair. One person disobeyed her proclamation, a tailor, ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom. He bored a hole in his shutters that he might see Godiva pass, and is said to have been struck blind. Her husband kept his word and abolished the obnoxious taxes.
The oldest form of the legend makes Godiva pass through Coventry market from one end to the other when the people were assembled, attended only by two soldiers, her long hair down so that none saw her, "apparentibus cruribus tamen candidissimis." This version is given in _Flores historiarum_ by Roger of Wendover, who quoted from an earlier writer. The later story, with its episode of Peeping Tom, has been evolved by later chroniclers. Whether the lady Godiva of this story is the Godiva or Godgifu of history is undecided. That a lady of this name existed in the early part of the 11th century is certain, as evidenced by several ancient documents, such as the Stow charter, the Spalding charter and the Domesday survey, though the spelling of the name varies considerably. It would appear from _Liber Eliensis_ (end of 12th century) that she was a widow when Leofric married her in 1040. In or about that year she aided in the founding of a monastery at Stow, Lincolnshire. In 1043 she persuaded her husband to build and endow a Benedictine monastery at Coventry. Her mark, "[cross] Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi," was found on the charter given by her brother, Thorold of Bucknall--sheriff of Lincolnshire--to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding in 1051; and she is commemorated as benefactress of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Wenlock, Worcester and Evesham. She probably died a few years before the Domesday survey (1085-1086), and was buried in one of the porches of the abbey church. Dugdale (1656) says that a window, with representations of Leofric and Godiva, was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II. The Godiva procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride instituted on the 31st of May 1678 as part of Coventry fair, was celebrated at intervals until 1826. From 1848 to 1887 it was revived, and recently further attempts have been made to popularize the pageant. The wooden effigy of Peeping Tom which, since 1812, has looked out on the world from a house at the north-west corner of Hertford Street, Coventry, represents a man in armour, and was probably an image of St George. It was removed from another part of the town to its present position.
GODKIN, EDWIN LAWRENCE (1831-1902), American publicist, was born in Moyne, county Wicklow, Ireland, on the 2nd of October 1831. His father, James Godkin, was a Presbyterian minister and a journalist, and the son, after graduating in 1851 at Queen's College, Belfast, and studying law in London, was in 1853-1855 war correspondent for the London _Daily News_ in Turkey and Russia, being present at the capture of Sevastopol, and late in 1856 went to America and wrote letters to the same journal, giving his impressions of a tour of the southern states of the American Union. He studied law in New York City, was admitted to the bar in 1859, travelled in Europe in 1860-1862, wrote for the London _News_ and the New York _Times_ in 1862-1865, and in 1865 founded in New York City the _Nation_, a weekly projected by him long before, for which Charles Eliot Norton gained friends in Boston and James Miller McKim (1810-1874) in Philadelphia, and which Godkin edited until the end of the year 1899. In 1881 he sold the _Nation_ to the New York _Evening Post_, and became an associate editor of the _Post_, of which he was editor-in-chief in 1883-1899, succeeding Carl Schurz. In the 'eighties he engaged in a controversy with Goldwin Smith over the Irish question. Under his leadership the _Post_ broke with the Republican party in the presidential campaign of 1884, when Godkin's opposition to Blaine did much to create the so-called Mugwump party (see MUGWUMP), and his organ became thoroughly independent, as was seen when it attacked the Venezuelan policy of President Cleveland, who had in so many ways approximated the ideal of the _Post_ and _Nation_. He consistently advocated currency reform, the gold basis, a tariff for revenue only, and civil service reform, rendering the greatest aid to the last cause. His attacks on Tammany Hall were so frequent and so virulent that in 1894 he was sued for libel because of biographical sketches of certain leaders in that organization--cases which never came up for trial. His opposition to the war with Spain and to imperialism was able and forcible. He retired from his editorial duties on the 30th of December 1899, and sketched his career in the _Evening Post_ of that date. Although he recovered from a severe apoplectic stroke early in 1900, his health was shattered, and he died in Greenway, Devonshire, England, on the 21st of May 1902. Godkin shaped the lofty and independent policy of the _Post_ and the _Nation_, which had a small but influential and intellectual class of readers. But as editor he had none of the personal magnetism of Greeley, for instance, and his superiority to the influence of popular feeling made Charles Dudley Warner style the Nation the "weekly judgment day." He was an economist of the school of Mill, urged the necessity of the abstraction called "economic man," and insisted that socialism put in practice would not improve social and economic conditions in general. In politics he was an enemy of sentimentalism and loose theories in government. He published _A History of Hungary, A.D. 300-1850_ (1856), _Government_ (1871, in the American Science Series), _Reflections and Comments_ (1895), _Problems of Modern Democracy_ (1896) and _Unforeseen Tendencies of Democracy_ (1898).
See _Life and Letters of E. L. Godkin_, edited by Rollo Ogden (2
vols., New York, 1907).
GODMANCHESTER, a municipal borough in the southern, parliamentary division of Huntingdonshire, England, on the right bank of the Ouse, 1 m. S.S.E. of Huntingdon, on a branch of the Great Eastern railway. Pop. (1901) 2017. It has a beautiful Perpendicular church (St Mary's) and an agricultural trade, with flour mills. The town is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 4907 acres.
A Romano-British village occupied the site of Godmanchester. The town (_Gumencestre, Gomecestre_) belonged to the king before the Conquest and at the time of the Domesday survey. In 1213 King John granted the manor to the men of the town at a fee-farm of L120 yearly, and confirmation charters were granted by several succeeding kings, Richard II. in 1391-1392 adding exemption from toll, pannage, &c. James I. granted an incorporation charter in 1605 under the title of bailiffs, assistants and commonalty, but under the Municipal Reform Act of 1835 the corporation was changed to a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Godmanchester was formerly included for parliamentary purposes in the borough of Huntingdon, which has ceased to be separately represented since 1885. The incorporation charter of 1605 recites that the burgesses are chiefly engaged in agriculture, and grants them a fair, which still continues every year on Tuesday in Easter week.
See _Victoria County History, Huntingdon_; Robert Fox, _The History of
Godmanchester_ (1831).
GODOLLO, a market town of Hungary, in the county of Pest-Pilis-Solt-Kiskun, 23 m. N.E. of Budapest by rail. Pop. (1900) 5875. Godollo is the summer residence of the Hungarian royal family, and the royal castle, built in the second half of the 18th century by Prince Anton Grassalkovich, was, with the beautiful domain, presented by the Hungarian nation to King Francis Joseph I. after the coronation in 1867. In its park there are a great number of stags and wild boars. Godollo is a favourite summer resort of the inhabitants of Budapest. In its vicinity is the famous place of pilgrimage Maria-Besnyo, with a fine Franciscan monastery, which contains the tombs of the Grassalkovich family.
GODOLPHIN, SIDNEY GODOLPHIN, EARL OF (c. 1645-1712), was a cadet of an ancient family of Cornwall. At the Restoration he was introduced into the royal household by Charles II., with whom he had previously become a favourite, and he also at the same period entered the House of Commons as member for Helston. Although he very seldom addressed the House, and, when he did so, only in the briefest manner, he gradually acquired a reputation as its chief if not its only financial authority. In March 1679 he was appointed a member of the privy council, and in the September following he was promoted, along with Viscount Hyde (afterwards earl of Rochester) and the earl of Sunderland, to the chief management of affairs. Though he voted for the Exclusion Bill in 1680, he was continued in office after the dismissal of Sunderland, and in September 1684 he was created Baron Godolphin of Rialton, and succeeded Rochester as first lord of the treasury. After the accession of James II. he was made chamberlain to the queen, and, along with Rochester and Sunderland, enjoyed the king's special confidence. In 1687 he was named commissioner of the treasury. He was one of the council of five appointed by King James to represent him in London, when he went to join the army after the landing of William, prince of Orange, in England, and, along with Halifax and Nottingham, he was afterwards appointed a commissioner to treat with the prince. On the accession of William, though he only obtained the third seat at the treasury board, he had virtually the chief control of affairs. He retired in March 1690, but was recalled on the November following and appointed first lord. While holding this office he for several years continued, in conjunction with Marlborough, a treacherous intercourse with James II., and is said even to have anticipated Marlborough in disclosing to James intelligence regarding the intended expedition against Brest. Godolphin was not only a Tory by inheritance, but had a romantic admiration for the wife of James II. He also wished to be safe whatever happened, and his treachery in this case was mostly due to caution. After Fenwick's confession in 1696 regarding the attempted assassination of William III., Godolphin, who was compromised, was induced to tender his resignation; but when the Tories came into power in 1700, he was again appointed lord treasurer and retained office for about a year. Though not a favourite with Queen Anne, he was, after her accession, appointed to his old office, on the strong recommendation of Marlborough. He also in 1704 received the honour of knighthood, and in December 1706 he was created Viscount Rialton and earl of Godolphin. Though a Tory he had an active share in the intrigues which gradually led to the predominance of the Whigs in alliance with Marlborough. The influence of the Marlboroughs with the queen was, however, gradually supplanted by that of Mrs Masham and Harley, earl of Oxford, and with the fortunes of the Marlboroughs those of Godolphin were indissolubly united. The services of both were so appreciated by the nation that they were able for a time to regard the loss of the queen's favour with indifference, and even in 1708 to procure the expulsion of Harley from office; but after the Tory reaction which followed the impeachment of Dr Sacheverel, who abused Godolphin under the name of Volpone, the queen made use of the opportunity to take the initiatory step towards delivering herself from the irksome thraldom of Marlborough by abruptly dismissing Godolphin from office on the 7th of August 1710. He died on the 15th of September 1712.
Godolphin owed his rise to power and his continuance in it under four sovereigns chiefly to his exceptional mastery of financial matters; for if latterly he was in some degree indebted for his promotion to the support of Marlborough, he received that support mainly because Marlborough recognized that for the prosecution of England's foreign wars his financial abilities were an indispensable necessity. He was cool, reserved and cautious, but his prudence was less associated with high sagacity than traceable to the weakness of his personal antipathies and prejudices, and his freedom from political predilections. Perhaps it was his unlikeness to Marlborough in that moral characteristic which so tainted Marlborough's greatness that rendered possible between them a friendship so intimate and undisturbed: he was, it would appear, exceptionally devoid of the passion of avarice; and so little advantage did he take of his opportunities of aggrandizement that, though his style of living was unostentatious,--and in connexion with his favourite pastimes of horse-racing, card-playing and cock-fighting he gained perhaps more than he lost,--all that he left behind him did not, according to the duchess of Marlborough, amount to more than L12,000.
Godolphin married Margaret Blagge, the pious lady whose life was written by Evelyn, on the 16th of May 1675, and married again after her death in 1678. His son and successor, Francis (1678-1766), held various offices at court, and was lord privy seal from 1735 to 1740. He married Henrietta Churchill (d. 1733), daughter of the duke of Marlborough, who in 1722 became in her own right duchess of Marlborough. He died without male issue in January 1766, when the earldom became extinct, and the estates passed to Thomas Osborne, 4th duke of Leeds, the husband of the earl's daughter Mary, whose descendant is the present representative of the Godolphins.
A life of Godolphin was published in 1888 in London by the Hon. H.
Elliot.
GODOY, ALVAREZ DE FARIA, RIOS SANCHEZ Y ZARZOSA, MANUEL DE (1767-1851), duke of El Alcudia and prince of the Peace, Spanish royal favourite and minister, was born at Badajoz on the 12th of May 1767. His father, Don Jose de Godoy, was the head of a very ancient but impoverished family of nobles in Estremadura. His mother, whose maiden name was Maria Antonia Alvarez de Faria, belonged to a Portuguese noble family. Manuel boasts in his memoirs that he had the best masters, but it is certain that he received only the very slight education usually given at that time to the sons of provincial nobles. In 1784 he entered the Guardia de Corps, a body of gentlemen who acted as the immediate body-guard of the king. His well-built and stalwart person, his handsome foolish face, together with a certain geniality of character which he must have possessed, earned him the favour of Maria Luisa of Parma, the princess of Asturias, a coarse, passionate woman who was much neglected by her husband, who on his part cared for nothing but hunting.
When King Charles III. died in 1788, Godoy's fortune was soon made. The princess of Asturias, now queen, understood how to manage her husband Charles IV. Godoy says in his memoirs that the king, who had been carefully kept apart from affairs during his father's life, and who disliked his father's favourite minister Floridablanca, wished to have a creature of his own. This statement is no doubt true as far as it goes. But it requires to be completed by the further detail that the queen put her lover in her husband's way, and that the king was guided by them, when he thought he was ruling for himself through a subservient minister. In some respects King Charles was obstinate, and Godoy is probably right in saying that he never was an absolute "viceroy," and that he could not always secure the removal of colleagues whom he knew to be his enemies. He could only rule by obeying. Godoy adopted without scruple this method of pushing his fortunes. When the king was set on a particular course, he followed it; the execution was left to him and the queen. His pliability endeared him to his master, whose lasting affection he earned. In practice he commonly succeeded in inspiring the wishes which he then proceeded to gratify. From the very beginning of the new reign he was promoted in the army with scandalous rapidity, made duke of El Alcudia, and in 1792 minister under the premiership of Aranda, whom he succeeded in displacing by the close of the year.
His official life is fairly divided by himself into three periods. From 1792 to 1798 he was premier. In the latter year his unpopularity and the intrigues of the French government, which had taken a dislike to him, led to his temporary retirement, without, however, any diminution of the king's personal favour. He asserts that he had no wish to return to office, but letters sent by him to the queen show that he begged for employment. They are written in a very unpleasant mixture of gush and vulgar familiarity. In 1801 he returned to office, and until 1807 he was the executant of the disastrous policy of the court. The third period of his public life is the last year, 1807-1808, when he was desperately striving for his place between the aggressive intervention of Napoleon on the one hand, and the growing hatred of the nation, organized behind, and about, the prince of Asturias, Ferdinand. On the 17th of March 1808 a popular outbreak at Aranjuez drove him into hiding. When driven out by hunger and thirst he was recognized and arrested. By Ferdinand's order he was kept in prison, till Napoleon demanded that he should be sent to Bayonne. Here he rejoined his master and mistress. He remained with them till Charles IV. died at Rome in 1819, having survived his queen. The rest of Godoy's life was spent in poverty and obscurity. After the death of Ferdinand VII., in 1833, he returned to Madrid, and endeavoured to secure the restoration of his property confiscated in 1808. Part of it was the estate of the Soto de Roma, granted by the cortes to the duke of Wellington. He failed, and during his last years lived on a small pension granted him by Louis Philippe. He died in Paris on the 4th of October 1851.
As a favourite Godoy is remarkable for the length of his hold on the affection of his sovereigns, and for its completeness. Latterly he was supported rather by the husband than by the wife. He got rid of Aranda by adopting, in order to please the king, a policy which tended to bring on war with France. When the war proved disastrous, he made the peace of Basel, and was created prince of the Peace for his services. Then he helped to make war with England, and the disasters which followed only made him dearer to the king. Indeed it became a main object with Charles IV. to protect "Manuelito" from popular hatred, and if possible secure him a principality. The queen endured his infidelities to her, which were flagrant. The king arranged a marriage for him with Dona Teresa de Bourbon, daughter of the infante Don Luis by a morganatic marriage, though he was probably already married to Dona Josefa Tudo, and certainly continued to live with her. Godoy, in his memoirs, lays claim to have done much for Spanish agriculture and industry, but he did little more than issue proclamations and appoint officers. His intentions may have been good, but the policy of his government was financially ruinous. In his private life he was not only profligate and profuse, but childishly ostentatious. The best that can be said for him is that he was good-natured, and did his best to restrain the Inquisition and the purely reactionary parties.
AUTHORITIES.--Godoy's _Memoirs_ were published in Spanish, English and
French in 1836. A general account of his career will be found in the
_Memoires sur la Revolution d'Espagne_, by the Abbe de Pradt (1816).
GODROON, or GADROON (Fr. _godron_, of unknown etymology), in architecture, a convex decoration (said to be derived from raised work on linen) applied in France to varieties of the bead and reel, in which the bead is often carved with ornament. In England the term is constantly used by auctioneers to describe the raised convex decorations under the bowl of stone or terra-cotta vases. The godroons radiate from the vertical support of the vase and rise half-way up the bowl.
GODWIN, FRANCIS (1562-1633), English divine, son of Thomas Godwin, bishop of Bath and Wells, was born at Hannington, Northamptonshire, in 1562. He was elected student of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1578, took his bachelor's degree in 1580, and that of master in 1583. After holding two Somersetshire livings he was in 1587 appointed subdean of Exeter. In 1590 he accompanied William Camden on an antiquarian tour through Wales. He was created bachelor of divinity in 1593, and doctor in 1595. In 1601 he published his _Catalogue of the Bishops of England since the first planting of the Christian Religion in this Island_, a work which procured him in the same year the bishopric of Llandaff. A second edition appeared in 1615, and in 1616 he published an edition in Latin with a dedication to King James, who in the following year conferred upon him the bishopric of Hereford. The work was republished, with a continuation by William Richardson, in 1743. In 1616 Godwin published _Rerum Anglicarum, Henrico VIII., Edwardo VI. et Maria regnantibus, Annales_, which was afterwards translated and published by his son Morgan under the title _Annales of England_ (1630). He is also the author of a somewhat remarkable story, published posthumously in 1638, and entitled _The Man in the Moone, or a Discourse of a Voyage thither, by Domingo Gonsales_, written apparently some time between the years 1599 and 1603. In this production Godwin not only declares himself a believer in the Copernican system, but adopts so far the principles of the law of gravitation as to suppose that the earth's attraction diminishes with the distance. The work, which displays considerable fancy and wit, was translated into French, and was imitated in several important particulars by Cyrano de Bergerac, from whom (if not from Godwin direct) Swift obtained valuable hints in writing of Gulliver's voyage to Laputa. Another work of Godwin's, _Nuncius inanimatus Utopiae_, originally published in 1629 and again in 1657, seems to have been the prototype of John Wilkins's _Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger_, which appeared in 1641. He died, after a lingering illness, in April 1633.
GODWIN, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT (1759-1797), English miscellaneous writer, was born at Hoxton, on the 27th of April 1759. Her family was of Irish extraction, and Mary's grandfather, who was a respectable manufacturer in Spitalfields, realized the property which his son squandered. Her mother, Elizabeth Dixon, was Irish, and of good family. Her father, Edward John Wollstonecraft, after dissipating the greater part of his patrimony, tried to earn a living by farming, which only plunged him into deeper difficulties, and he led a wandering, shifty life. The family roamed from Hoxton to Edmonton, to Essex, to Beverley in Yorkshire, to Laugharne, Pembrokeshire, and back to London again.
After Mrs Wollstonecraft's death in 1780, soon followed by her husband's second marriage, the three daughters, Mary, Everina and Eliza, sought to earn their own livelihood. The sisters were all clever women--Mary and Eliza far above the average--but their opportunities of culture had been few. Mary, the eldest, went in the first instance to live with her friend Fanny Blood, a girl of her own age, whose father, like Wollstonecraft, was addicted to drink and dissipation. As long as she lived with the Bloods, Mary helped Mrs Blood to earn money by taking in needlework, while Fanny painted in watercolours. Everina went to live with her brother Edward, and Eliza made a hasty and, as it proved, unhappy marriage with a Mr Bishop. A legal separation was afterwards obtained, and the sisters, together with Fanny Blood, took a house, first at Islington, afterwards at Newington Green, and opened a school, which was carried on with indifferent success for nearly two years. During their residence at Newington Green, Mary was introduced to Dr Johnson, who, as Godwin tells us, "treated her with particular kindness and attention."
In 1785 Fanny Blood married Hugh Skeys, a merchant, and went with him to Lisbon, where she died in childbed after sending for Mary to nurse her. "The loss of Fanny," as she said in a letter to Mrs Skeys's brother, George Blood, "was sufficient of itself to have cast a cloud over my brightest days.... I have lost all relish for pleasure, and life seems a burden almost too heavy to be endured." Her first novel, _Mary, a Fiction_ (1788), was intended to commemorate her friendship with Fanny. After closing the school at Newington Green, Mary became governess in the family of Lord Kingsborough, in Ireland. Her pupils were much attached to her, especially Margaret King, afterwards Lady Mountcashel; and indeed, Lady Kingsborough gave the reason for dismissing her after one year's service that the children loved their governess better than their mother. Mary now resolved to devote herself to literary work, and she was encouraged by Johnson, the publisher in St Paul's churchyard, for whom she acted as literary adviser. She also undertook translations, chiefly from the French. _The Elements of Morality_ (1790) from the German of Salzmann, illustrated by Blake, an old-fashioned book for children, and Lavater's _Physiognomy_ were among her translations. Her _Original Stories from Real Life_ were published in 1791, and, with illustrations by Blake, in 1796. In 1792 appeared _A Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, the work with which her name is always associated.
It is not among the least oddities of this book that it is dedicated to M. Talleyrand Perigord, late bishop of Autun. Mary Wollstonecraft still believed him to be sincere, and working in the same direction as herself. In the dedication she states the "main argument" of the work, "built on this simple principle that, if woman be not prepared by education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious with respect to its influence or general practice." In carrying out this argument she used great plainness of speech, and it was this that caused all, or nearly all, the outcry. For she did not attack the institution of marriage, nor assail orthodox religion; her book was really a plea for equality of education, passing into one for state education and for the joint education of the sexes. It was a protest against the assumption that woman was only the plaything of man, and she asserted that intellectual companionship was the chief, as it is the lasting, happiness of marriage. She thus directly opposed the teaching of Rousseau, of whom she was in other respects an ardent disciple.
Mrs Wollstonecraft, as she now styled herself, desired to watch the progress of the Revolution in France, and went to Paris in 1792. Godwin, in his memoir of his wife, considers that the change of residence may have been prompted by the discovery that she was becoming attached to Henry Fuseli, but there is little to confirm this surmise; indeed, it was first proposed that she should go to Paris in company with him and his wife, nor was there any subsequent breach in their friendship. She remained in Paris during the Reign of Terror, when communication with England was difficult or almost impossible. Some time in the spring or summer of 1793 Captain Gilbert Imlay, an American, became acquainted with Mary--an acquaintance which ended in a more intimate connexion. There was no legal ceremony of marriage, and it is doubtful whether such a marriage would have been valid at the time; but she passed as Imlay's wife, and Imlay himself terms her in a legal document, "Mary Imlay, my best friend and wife." In August 1793 Imlay was called to Havre on business, and was absent for some months, during which time most of the letters published after her death by Godwin were written. Towards the end of the year she joined Imlay at Havre, and there in the spring of 1794 she gave birth to a girl, who received the name of Fanny, in memory of the dear friend of her youth. In this year she published the first volume of a never completed _Historical and Moral View of the French Revolution_. Imlay became involved in a multitude of speculations, and his affection for Mary and their child was already waning. He left Mary for some months at Havre. In June 1795, after joining him in England, Mary left for Norway on business for Imlay. Her letters from Norway, divested of all personal details, were afterwards published. She returned to England late in 1795, and found letters awaiting her from Imlay, intimating his intention to separate from her, and offering to settle an annuity on her and her child. For herself she rejected this offer with scorn: "From you," she wrote, "I will not receive anything more. I am not sufficiently humbled to depend on your beneficence." They met again, and for a short time lived together, until the discovery that he was carrying on an intrigue under her own roof drove her to despair, and she attempted to drown herself by leaping from Putney bridge, but was rescued by watermen. Imlay now completely deserted her, although she continued to bear his name.
In 1796, when Mary Wollstonecraft was living in London, supporting herself and her child by working, as before, for Mr Johnson, she met William Godwin. A friendship sprang up between them,--a friendship, as he himself says, which "melted into love." Godwin states that "ideas which he is now willing to denominate prejudices made him by no means willing to conform to the ceremony of marriage"; but these prejudices were overcome, and they were married at St Pancras church on the 29th of March 1797. And now Mary had a season of real calm in her stormy existence. Godwin, for once only in his life, was stirred by passion, and his admiration for his wife equalled his affection. But their happiness was of short duration. The birth of her daughter Mary, afterwards the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley, on the 30th of August 1797, proved fatal, and Mrs Godwin died on the 10th of September following. She was buried in the churchyard of Old St Pancras, but her remains were afterwards removed by Sir Percy Shelley to the churchyard of St Peter's, Bournemouth.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Gloss" to "Gordon, Charles George"Chapter IX: Part 9
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