Chapter 3: , page 89 (37)

"Among the most important and dearly-prized privileges of the
church was that which conferred on its members immunity from
the operation of secular law, and relieved them from the
jurisdiction of secular tribunals. … So priceless a
prerogative was not obtained without a long and resolute
struggle. … To ask that a monk or priest guilty of crime
should not be subject to the ordinary tribunals, and that
civil suits between laymen and ecclesiastics should be
referred exclusively to courts composed of the latter, was a
claim too repugnant to the common sense of mankind to be
lightly accorded. … The persistence of the church, backed up
by the unfailing resource of excommunication, finally
triumphed, and the sacred immunity of the priesthood was
acknowledged, sooner or later, in the laws of every nation of
Europe." In England, when Henry II. in 1164, "endeavored, in
the Constitutions of Clarendon, to set bounds to the
privileges of the church, he therefore especially attacked the
benefit of clergy. … The disastrous result of the quarrel
between the King and the archbishop [Becket] rendered it
necessary to abandon all such schemes of reform. … As time
passed on, the benefit of clergy gradually extended itself.
That the laity were illiterate and the clergy educated was
taken for granted, and the test of churchmanship came to be
the ability to read, so that the privilege became in fact a
free pardon on a first offence for all who knew their letters.
… Under Elizabeth, certain heinous offences were declared
felonies without benefit of clergy. … Much legislation
ensued from time to time, effecting the limitation of the
privilege in various offences. … Early in the reign of Anne
the benefit of clergy was extended to all malefactors by
abrogating the reading test, thus placing the unlettered felon
on a par with his better educated fellows, and it was not
until the present century was well advanced that this remnant
of mediæval ecclesiastical prerogative was abolished by 7 and
8 Geo. iv. c. 28."

_H. C. Lea,
Studies in Church History,
part 2._

ALSO IN:
_William Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
sections 722-725 (chapter 19, page 3)_.

See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

BENEVENTO, OR GRANDELLA, Battle of (1266).

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 1250-1268.

BENEVENTUM:
The Lombard Duchy.

The Duchy of Beneventum was a Lombard fief of the 8th and 9th
centuries, in southern Italy, which survived the fall of the
Lombard kingdom in northern Italy. It covered nearly the
territory' of the modern kingdom of Naples. Charlemagne
reduced the Duchy to submission with considerable difficulty,
after he had extinguished the Lombard kingdom. It was
afterwards divided into the minor principalities of Benevento,
Salerno and Capua, and became part of the Norman conquest.

See ITALY (SOUTHERN): A. D. 800-1016; and 1000-1090;
also, LOMBARDS: A. D. 573-774,
and AMALFI.

BENEVENTUM, Battle of (B. C. 275).

See ROME: B. C. 282-275.

BENEVOLENCES.

"The collection of benevolences, regarded even at the time
[England, reign of Edward IV.] as an innovation, was perhaps a
resuscitated form of some of the worst measures of Edward II.
and Richard II., but the attention which it aroused under
Edward IV. shows how strange it had become under the
intervening kings. … Such evidence as exists shows us Edward
IV. canvassing by word of mouth or by letter for direct gifts
of money from his subjects. Henry III. had thus begged for new
year's gifts. Edward IV. requested and extorted 'free-will
offerings' from everyone who could not say no to the pleadings
of such a king. He had a wonderful memory, too, and knew the
name and the particular property of every man in the country
who was worth taxing in this way. He had no excuse for such
meanness; for the estates had shown themselves liberal."

_William Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 18, section 696._

See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1471-1485.

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BENGAL, The English acquisition of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1755-1757; 1757; and 1757-1772.

BENGAL: "Permanent Settlement."

See INDIA: A. D. 1785-1793.

BENNINGTON, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JULY-OCTOBER).

BENTINCK, Lord William, The Indian Administration of.

See INDIA: A. D. 1823-1833.

BENTONSVILLE, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1865
(FEBRUARY-MARCH: THE CAROLINAS).

BEOTHUK, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: BEOTHUKAN FAMILY.

BERBERS, The.

See LIBYANS; NUMIDIANS; EGYPT, ORIGIN OF THE ANCIENT
PEOPLE; and MAROCCO.

BERENICE, Cities of.

Ptolemy Philadelphus, the second of the Ptolemies, founded a
city on the Egyptian shore of the Red Sea, to which he gave
the name of his mother, Berenice. It became an important port
of trade. Subsequently two other cities of the same name were
founded at points further south on the same coast, while a
fourth Berenice came into existence on the border of the Great
Syrtis, in Cyrenaica.

_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 15, section 1._

BERESINA, Passage of the.

See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

BERESTECZKO, Battle of (1651).

See POLAND: A. D. 1648-1654.

BERGEN, Battles of (1759 and 1799).

See GERMANY: A. D. 1759 (APRIL-AUGUST);
and FRANCE: A. D. 1799 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

BERGEN-OP-ZOOM, A. D. 1588.
The siege raised.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1588-1593.

BERGEN A. D. 1622.
Unsuccessful siege by the Spaniards.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1621-1633.

BERGEN: A. D. 1747-1748.
Taken by the French and restored to Holland.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1746-1747,
and AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, THE CONGRESS.

----------BERGEN: End----------

BERGER.

See BIRGER.

BERGERAC, Peace of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1577-1578.

BERING SEA CONTROVERSY AND ARBITRATION.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1886-1893.

BERKELEY, Lord, The Jersey Grant to.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1664.-1667, to 1688-1738.

BERKELEY, Sir William, Government of Virginia.

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1642-1649, to 1660-1677.

BERLIN: A. D. 1631.
Forcible entry of Gustavus Adolphus.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1631.

BERLIN: A. D. 1675.
Threatened by the Swedes.

See BRANDENBURG: A. D. 1640-1688.

BERLIN: A. D. 1757.
Dashing Austrian attack.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1757 (JULY-DECEMBER).

BERLIN: A. D. 1760.
Taken and plundered by the Austrians and Russians.

See GERMANY: A.D. 1760.

BERLIN: A. D. 1806.
Napoleon in possession.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1806 (OCTOBER).

BERLIN: A. D. 1848.
Mistaken battle of soldiers and citizens.
Continued disorder.
State of siege.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1848 (MARCH), and 1848-1850.

----------BERLIN: End----------

BERLIN CONFERENCE (1884-5), The.

See AFRICA: A. D. 1884-1889;
and CONGO FREE STATE.

BERLIN, Congress and Treaty of.

See TURKS: A. D. 1878.

BERLIN DECREE, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1806-1810;
and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.

BERMUDA HUNDRED.

See HUNDRED, THE.

BERMUDA HUNDRED, Butler's Army at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864
(MAY: VIRGINIA), THE ARMY OF THE JAMES.

BERMUDAS, The.
English Discovery of the islands (1609).

See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1609-1616.

BERMUDO,
King of Leon and the Asturias, or Oviedo, A. D. 788-791.
Bermudo II., A. D. 982-999.
Bermudo III., A. D. 1027-1037.

BERN, Dietrich of.

See VERONA: A. D. 493-525.

BERNADOTTE, Career of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (AUGUST-APRIL);
1799 (NOVEMBER); 1806 (JANUARY-OCTOBER);
1814(JANUARY-MARCH); 1806-1807;
SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1810;
GERMANY: A. D. 1812-1813; 1813 (AUGUST),
(SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

BERNARD, St., and the Second Crusade.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1147-1149.

BERNE, A. D. 1353.
Joined to the original Swiss Confederation, or Old League of
High Germany.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1332-1460.

BERNE: A. D. 1798.
Occupation by the French.
The plundering of the Treasury.

See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1792-1798.

----------BERNE: End----------

BERNICIA, The Kingdom of.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 547-633;
and SCOTLAND: 7th CENTURY.

BERSERKER. BÆRSÆRK.

"The word Bærsærk is variously spelt, and stated to be derived
from 'bar' and 'særk,' or 'bareshirt.' The men to whom the
title was applied [among the Northmen] … were stated to be
in the habit of fighting without armour, and wearing only a
shirt of skins, or at times naked. In Iceland they were
sometimes called Ulfrhedin, i. e., wolfskin. The derivation of
Bærsærk has been questioned, as in philology is not uncommon.
The habit of their wearing bear (björn) skins, is said to
afford the meaning of the word. In philology, to agree to
differ is best. The Bærsærks, according to the sagas, appear
to have been men of unusual physical development and savagery.
They were, moreover, liable to what was called Bærsærkegang,
or a state of excitement in which they exhibited superhuman
strength, and then spared neither friend nor foe. … After an
attack of Bærsærk frenzy, it was believed that the superhuman
influence or spirit left the Bærsærk's body as a 'ham,' or
cast-off shape or form, with the result that the Bærsærk
suffered great exhaustion, his natural forces being used up."

_J. F. Vicary,
Saga Time,
chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_P. B. Du Chaillu,
The Viking Age,
volume 2, chapter 26._

{282}

BERWICK-UPON-TWEED: A. D. 1293-1333.
Conquest by the English.

At the beginning, in 1293, of the struggle of the Scottish
nation to cast off the feudal yoke which Edward I. had laid
upon it, the English king, marching angrily northwards, made
his first assault upon Berwick. The citizens, whose only
rampart was a wooden stockade, foolishly aggravated his wrath
by gibes and taunts. "The stockade was stormed with the loss
of a single knight, and nearly 8,000 of the citizens were mown
down in a ruthless carnage, while a handful of Flemish traders
who held the town-hall stoutly against all assailants were
burned alive in it. … The town was ruined forever, and the
great merchant city of the North sank from that time into a
petty seaport." Subsequently recovered by the Scotch, Berwick
was held by them in 1333 when Edward III. attempted to seat
Edward Balliol, as his vassal, on the Scottish throne. The
English laid siege to the place, and an army under the regent
Douglas came to its relief. The battle of Halidon Hill, in
which the Scotch were utterly routed, decided the fate of
Berwick. "From that time the town remained the one part of
Edward's conquests which was preserved by the English crown.
Fragment as it was, it was viewed as legally representing the
realm of which it had once formed a part. As Scotland, it had
its chancellor, chamberlain, and other officers of state: and
the peculiar heading of acts of Parliament enacted for England
'and the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed' still preserves the memory
of its peculiar position."-

_J. R. Green,
Short History of the English People,
chapter 4, sections 3 and 6._

ALSO IN:
_J. H. Burton,
History of Scotland,
chapter 17._

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1290-1305.

BERWICK, Pacification of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1638-1640.

BERWICK, Treaty of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1558-1560.

BERYTUS.

The colony of Berytus (modern Beirut) was founded by Agrippa,
B. C. 15, and made a station for two legions.

BERYTUS: A. D. 551.
Its Schools.
Its Destruction by Earthquake.

The city of Berytus, modern Beirut, was destroyed by
earthquake on the 9th of July, A. D. 551. "That city, on the
coast of Phœnicia, was illustrated by the study of the civil
law, which opened the surest road to wealth and dignity: the
schools of Berytus were filled with the rising spirits of the
age, and many a youth was lost in the earthquake who might
have lived to be the scourge or the guardian of his country."

_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 43.
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25717_

BERYTUS: A. D. 1111.
Taken by the Crusaders.

See CRUSADES: A. D. 1104-1111.

----------BERYTUS: End----------

BESANÇON: Origin.

See VESONTIO.

BESANÇON: A. D. 1152-1648.
A Free City of the Empire.

See FRANCHE COMTÉ.

BESANÇON: A. D. 1674.
Siege and capture by Vauban.

See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674-1678.

BESSI, The.

The Bessi were an ancient Thracian tribe who occupied the
mountain range of Hæmus (the Balkan) and the upper valley of
the Hebrus. They were subdued by Lucullus, brother of the
conqueror of Mithridates.

_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 18, section 6._

BESSIN, The.
The district of Bayeux.

See SAXONS OF BAYEUX.

BETH-HORON, Battles of.

The victory of Joshua over "the five kings of the Amorites"
who laid siege to Gibeon; the decisive battle of the Jewish
conquest of Canaan. "The battle of Beth-horon or Gibeon is one
of the most important in the history of the world; and yet so
profound has been the indifference, first of the religious
world, and then (through their example or influence) of the
common world, to the historical study of the Hebrew annals,
that the very name of this great battle is far less known to
most of us than that of Marathon or Cannæ."

_Dean Stanley,
Lectures on the History of the Jewish Church,
lecture 11._

In the Maccabean war, Beth-horon was the scene of two of the
brilliant victories of Judas Maccabeus, in B. C. 167 and
162.

_Josephus,
Antiquity of the Jews,
book 12._

Later, at the time of the Jewish revolt against the Romans, it
witnessed the disastrous retreat of the Roman general Cestius.

BETHSHEMESH, Battle of.

Fought by Joash, king of Israel, with Amaziah, king of Judah,
defeating the latter and causing part of the walls of
Jerusalem to be thrown down.

_2 Chronicles, xxv._

BETH-ZACHARIAH, Battle of.

A defeat suffered (B. C. 163) by the Jewish patriot, Judas·
Maccabæus, at the hands of the Syrian monarch Antiochus
Eupator: the youngest of the Maccabees being slain.

_Josephus,
Antiquity of the Jews,
book 12, chapter 9._

BETHZUR, Battle of.

Defeat of an army sent by Antiochus, against Judas Maccabæus,
the Jewish patriot, B. C. 165.

_Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, book 12, chapter 7._

BEVERHOLT, Battle of (1381).

See FLANDERS: A. D. 1379-1381.

BEY. BEYLERBEY. PACHA. PADISCHAH.

"The administration of the [Turkish] provinces was in the time
of Mahomet II. [the Sultan, A. D. 1451-1481, whose legislation
organized the Ottoman government] principally intrusted to the
Beys and Beylerbeys. These were the natural chiefs of the
class of feudatories [Spahis], whom their tenure of office
obliged to serve on horseback in time of war. They mustered
under the Sanjak, the banner of the chief of their district,
and the districts themselves were thence called Sanjaks, and
their rulers Sanjak-beys. The title of Pacha, so familiar to
us when speaking of a 'Turkish provincial ruler, is not
strictly a term implying territorial jurisdiction, or even
military authority. It is a title of honour, meaning literally
the Shah's or sovereign's foot, and implying that the person
to whom that title was given was one whom the sovereign
employed. … The title of Pacha was not at first applied
among the Ottomans exclusively to those officers who commanded
armies or ruled provinces or cities. Of the five first Pachas,
that are mentioned by Ottoman writers, three were literary
men. By degrees this honorary title was appropriated to those
whom the Sultan employed in war and set over districts and
important towns; so that the word Pacha became almost
synonymous with the word governor. The title Padischah, which
the Sultan himself bears, and which the Turkish diplomatists
have been very jealous in allowing to Christian Sovereigns, is
an entirely different word, and means the great, the imperial
Schah or Sovereign. In the time of Mahomet II. the Ottoman
Empire contained in Europe alone thirty-six Sanjaks, or
banners, around each of which assembled about 400 cavaliers."

_Sir E. S. Creasy,
History of the Ottoman Turks,
chapter 6._

{283}

BEYLAN, Battle of (1832).

See TURKS: A. D. 1831-1840.

BEYROUT, Origin of.

See BERYTUS.

BEZANT, The.

The bezant was a Byzantine gold coin (whence its name), worth
a little less than ten English shillings—$2.50.

BEZIERES, The Massacre at.

See ALBIGENSES: A. D. 1209.

BHARADARS.

See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.

BHONSLA RAJA, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

BHURTPORE, Siege of(1805).

See INDIA: A. D. 1798-1805.

BIANCHI AND NERI (The Whites and Blacks).

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.

BIANCHI, or White Penitents.

See WHITE PENITENTS.

BIBERACH, Battles of (1796 and 1800).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER);
and A. D. 1800-1801 (MAY-FEBRUARY).

BIBRACTE.

See GAULS.

BIBROCI, The.

A tribe of ancient Britons who dwelt near the Thames. It is
suspected, but not known, that they gave their name to Berks
County.

BICAMERAL SYSTEM, The.

This term was applied by Jeremy Bentham to the division of a
legislative body into two chambers—such as the House of Lords
and House of Commons in England, and the Senate and House of
Representatives in the United States of America.

BICOQUE OR BICOCCA, La, Battle of (1522).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1520-1523.

BIG BETHEL, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JUNE: VIRGINIA).

BIG BLACK, Battle of the.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863
(APRIL-JULY: ON THE MISSISSIPPI).

BIGERRIONES, The.

See AQUITAINE, THE ANCIENT TRIBES.

BIGI, OR GREYS, The.

One of the three factions which divided Florence in the time
of Savonarola, and after. The Bigi, or Greys, were the
partisans of the Medici; their opponents were the Piagnoni, or
Weepers, and the Arrabiati, or Madmen.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1490-1498.

BILL OF RIGHTS.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1689 (OCTOBER).

BILLAUD-VARENNES and the French Revolutionary Committee of Public Safety.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JUNE-OCTOBER),
(SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER), to 1794-1795 (JULY-APRIL).

BILOXIS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SIOUAN FAMILY.

BIMINI, The island of.

See AMERICA: A. D. 1512.

BIRAPARACH, Fortress of.

See JUROIPACH.

BIRGER, King of Sweden, A. D. 1290-1319.
Birger, or Berger Jarl, Regent of Sweden, A. D. 1250-1266.

BISHOPS' WAR, The First and Second.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1638-1640;
and ENGLAND: A. D. 1640.

BISMARCK'S MINISTRY.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1861-1866, to 1888;
and FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JUNE-JULY); 1870-1871;
and 1871 (JANUARY-MAY).

BISSEXTILE YEAR.

See CALENDAR, JULIAN.

BITHYNIANS, THYNIANS.

"Along the coast of the Euxine, from the Thracian Bosphorus.
eastward to the river Halys, dwelt Bithynians or Thynians,
Mariandynians and Paphlagonians,—all recognized branches of
the widely extended 'l'hracian race. The Bithynians
especially, in the northwestern portion of this territory, and
reaching from the Euxine to the Propontis, are often spoken of
as Asiatic Thracians,—while on the other hand various tribes
among the Thracians of Europe are denominated Thyni or
Thynians,—so little difference was there in the population on
the two sides of the Bosphorus, alike brave, predatory, and
sanguinary. The Bithynians of Asia are also sometimes called
Bebrykians, under which denomination they extend as far
southward as the gulf of Kios in the Propontis."

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 16._

The Bithynians were among the people in Asia Minor subjugated
by Crœsus, king of Lydia, and fell, with his fall, under the
Persian rule. But, in some way not clearly understood, an
independent kingdom of Bithynia was formed, about the middle
of the 5th century B. C. which resisted the Persians,
successfully resisted Alexander the Great and his successors
in Asia Minor, resisted Mithridates of Pontus, and existed
until B. C. 74, when its last king Nicomedes III. bequeathed
his kingdom to Rome and it was made a Roman province.

BITONTO, Battle of (1734).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735.

BITURIGES, The.

See ÆEDUI;
also BOURGES, ORIGIN OF.

BIZOCHI, The.

See BEGUINES, ETC.

BIZYE.

See THRACIANS.

BLACK ACTS, The.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1584.

BLACK DEATH, The.

"The Black Death appears to have had its origin in the centre
of China, in or about the year 1333. It is said that it was
accompanied at its outbreak by various terrestrial and
atmospheric phænomena of a novel and most destructive
character, phænomena similar to those which characterized the
first appearance of the Asiatic Cholera, of the Influenza, and
even in more remote times of the Athenian Plague. It is a
singular fact that all epidemics of an unusually destructive
character have had their homes in the farthest East, and have
travelled slowly from those regions towards Europe. It
appears, too, that the disease exhausted itself in the place
of its origin at about the same time in which it made its
appearance in Europe. … The disease still exists under the
name of the Levant or Oriental Plague, and is endemic in Asia
Minor, in parts of Turkey, and in Egypt. It is specifically a
disease in which the blood is poisoned, in which the system
seeks to relieve itself by suppuration of the glands, and in
which, the tissues becoming disorganized, and the blood
thereupon being infiltrated into them, dark blotches appear on
the skin.
{284}
Hence the earliest name by which the Plague was described. The
storm burst on the Island of Cyprus at the end of the year
1347, and was accompanied, we are told, by remarkable physical
phænomena, as convulsions of the earth, and a total change in
the atmosphere. Many persons affected died instantly. The
Black Death seemed, not only to the frightened imagination of
the people, but even to the more sober observation of the few
men of science of the time, to move forward with measured
steps from the desolated East, under the form of a dark and
fetid mist. It is very likely that consequent upon the great
physical convulsions which had rent the earth and preceded the
disease, foreign substances of a deleterious character had
been projected into the atmosphere. … The Black Death
appeared at Avignon in January 1348, visited Florence by the
middle of April, and had thoroughly penetrated France and
Germany by August. It entered Poland in 1349, reached Sweden
in the winter of that year, and Norway by infection from
England at about the same time. It spread even to Iceland and
Greenland. … It made its appearance in Russia in 1351, after
it had well-nigh exhausted itself in Europe. It thus took the
circuit of the Mediterranean, and unlike most plagues which
have penetrated from the Eastern to the Western world, was
checked, it would seem, by the barrier of the Caucasus. …
Hecker calculates the loss to Europe as amounting to
25,000,000."

_J. E. T. Rogers,
History of Agriculture and Prices,
volume 1, chapter 15._

ALSO IN:
_J. F. C. Hecker,
Epidemics of the Middle Ages._

See, also, ENGLAND: A. D. 1348-1349;
FRANCE: A. D. 1347-1348;
FLORENCE: A. D. 1348;
JEWS: A: D. 1348-1349.

BLACK EAGLE, Order of the.

A Prussian order of knighthood instituted by Frederick III.,
elector of Brandenburg, in 1701.

BLACK FLAGS, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1875-1889.

BLACK FRIARS.

See MENDICANT ORDERS.

BLACK GUELFS (NERI).

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.

BLACK HAWK WAR, The.

See ILLINOIS: A. D. 1832.

BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA, The.

See INDIA: A. D. 1755-1757:

BLACK PRINCE, The wars of the.

See POITIERS; FRANCE: A. D. 1360-1380;
and SPAIN (CASTILE): A. D. 1366-1369.

BLACK ROBE, Counsellors of the.

See VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.

BLACK ROD.

"The gentleman whose duty it is to preserve decorum in the
House of Lords, just as it is the duty of the Sergeant-at-Arms
to maintain order in the House of Commons. These officials are
bound to execute the commands of their respective chambers,
even though the task involves the forcible ejection of an
obstreperous member. … His [Black Rod's] most disturbing
occupation, now-a-days, is when he conveys a message from the
Lords to the Commons. … No sooner do the policemen herald
his approach from the lobbies than the doors of the Lower
Chamber are closed against him, and he is compelled to ask for
admission with becoming humility and humbleness. After this
has been granted, he advances to the bar, bows to the chair,
and then—with repeated acts of obeisance—walks slowly to the
table, where his request is made for the Speaker's attendance
in the Upper House. The object may be to listen to the Queen's
speech, or it may simply be to hear the Royal assent given to
various bills. … The consequence is nearly always the same.
The Sergeant-at-Arms shoulders the mace, the Speaker joins
Black Rod, the members fall in behind, and a more or less
orderly procession then starts on its way to the Peer's
Chamber. … No matter what the subject under consideration,
Black Rod's appearance necessitates a check … till the
journey to the Lords has been completed, The annoyance thus
caused has often found expression during recent sessions. So
great was the grumbling last year [1890], indeed, that the
Speaker undertook to devise a better system."-

_Popular Account of Parliamentary Procedure,
page 11._

BLACK ROOD, of Scotland.

See HOLY ROOD OF SCOTLAND.

BLACKBURN'S FORD, Engagement at.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (JULY: VIRGINIA).

BLACKFEET.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: BLACKFEET.

BLADENSBURG, Battle of.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1814 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

BLAIR, Francis P., Sr., in the "Kitchen Cabinet" of President Jackson.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1829.

BLAIR, General Francis P., Jr.
Difficulties with General Fremont.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1861 (AUGUST-OCTOBER: MISSOURI).

BLANCHE, Queen of Aragon, A. D. 1425-1441.

BLANCO, General Guzman, The dictatorship of.

See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1869-1892.

BLAND SILVER BILL, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1878.

BLANII, The.

See IRELAND, TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.

BLANKETEERS, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1816-1820.

BLENEAU, Battle of (1652).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1651-1653.

BLENHEIM, Battle of.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1704.

BLENNERHASSET, Harman, and Aaron Burr.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1807.

BLENNERHASSETT'S ISLAND.

An island in the Ohio, near Marietta, on which Harman
Blennerhassett, a gentleman from Ireland, had created a
charming home, at the beginning of the present century. He was
drawn into Aaron Burr's mysterious scheme (see UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA: A. D. 1806-1807); his island became the rendezvous
of the expedition, and he was involved in the ruin of the
treasonable project.

BLOCK BOOKS.

See PRINTING: A. D. 1430-1456.

BLOCK ISLAND, The name.

See NEW YORK A. D. 1610-1614.

BLOCKADE, Paper.

This term has been applied to the assumption by a belligerent
power, in war, of the right to declare a given coast or
certain enumerated ports, to be in the state of blockade,
without actual presence of blockading squadrons to enforce the
declaration; as by the British "Orders in Council" and the
"Berlin" and "Milan Decrees" of Napoleon, in 1806-1807.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1804-1809.

{285}

BLOIS, Treaties of.

See ITALY: A. D. 1504-1506.

BLOOD COUNCIL, The.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1567.

BLOOD, or Kenai Indians.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: BLACKFEET.

BLOODY ANGLE, The.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1864 (MAY: VIRGINIA).

BLOODY ASSIZE, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1685 (SEPTEMBER).

BLOODY BRIDGE, Ambuscade at (A. D. 1763).

See PONTIAC'S WAR.

BLOODY BROOK, Battle of.

See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1675.

BLOODY MARSH, The Battle of the.

See GEORGIA: A. D. 1738-1743.

BLOREHEATH, Battle of (A. D. 1459).

Fought on a plain called Bloreheath, near Drayton, in
Staffordshire, England, Sept. 23, 1459, between 10,000
Lancastrians, commanded by Lord Audley, and about half that
number of Yorkists under the Earl of Salisbury. The latter won
a victory by superior strategy. The battle was the second that
occurred in the Wars of the Roses.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1455-1471.

BLUCHER'S CAMPAIGNS.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1806 (OCTOBER); 1812-1813; 1813
(APRIL-MAY) to (OCTOBER-DECEMBER);
FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH), and 1815.

BLUE, Boys in.

See BOYS IN BLUE.

BLUE LICKS, Battle of (A. D. 1782).

See KENTUCKY: A. D. 1775-1784.

BLUE-LIGHT FEDERALISTS.

"An incident, real or imaginary, which had lately [in 1813]
occurred at New London [Connecticut] was seized upon as
additional proof of collusion between the Federalists and the
enemy. [See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1812.] As the
winter approached, Decatur had expected to get to sea with his
two frigates. Vexed to find himself thwarted in every attempt
by the watchfulness of the enemy, he wrote to the Navy
Department in a fit of disgust, that, beyond all doubt, the
British had, by signals or otherwise, instantaneous
information of all his movements; and as proof of it, he
stated that, after several nights of favorable weather, the
report circulating in the town that an attempt was to be made
to get out, 'in the course of the evening two blue lights were
burned on both points of the harbor's mouth.' These 'signals
to the enemy,' for such he unhesitatingly pronounced them, had
been repeated, so he wrote, and had been seen by twenty
persons at least of the squadron, though it does not appear
that Decatur himself was one of the number. … Such a clamor
was raised about it, that one of the Connecticut members of
Congress moved for a committee of investigation. … The
inquiry was … quashed; but the story spread and grew, and
the more vehement opponents of the war began to be stigmatized
as 'blue-light Federalists.'"

_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
volume 6, page 467._

BLUE PARTY (of Venezuela), The.

See VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.

BLUE RIBBON, The Order of the.

See SERAPHIM.

BLUES, Roman Faction of the.

See CIRCUS, FACTIONS OF THE ROMAN.

BOABDIL, The last Moorish King in Spain.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1476-1492.

BOADICEA, Revolt of.

See BRITAIN: A. D. 61.

BOAIRE, The.
A "Cow-lord," having certain wealth in cattle, among the
ancient Irish.

BOARIAN TRIBUTE, The.

Also called the Boruwa, or Cow-tribute. An humiliating
exaction said to have been levied on the province of Leinster
by a King Tuathal of Erin, in the second century, and which
was maintained for five hundred years.

BOCAGE, The.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (MARCH-APRIL).

BOCASOTI, The.

See BEGUINES, &c.

BOCLAND. BOOKLAND.

See ALOD.

BŒOTARCHS.

See BŒOTIAN LEAGUE.

BŒOTIA. BŒOTIANS.

"Between Phokis and Lokris on one side, and Attica (from which
it is divided by the mountains Kithærôn and Parnes) on the
other, we find the important territory called Bœotia, with its
ten or twelve autonomous cities, forming a sort of confederacy
under the presidency of Thebes, the most powerful among them.
Even of this territory, destined during the second period of
this history to play a part so conspicuous and effective, we
know nothing during the first two centuries after 776 B. C. We
first acquire some insight into it on occasion of the disputes
between Thebes and Platæa, about the year 520 B. C."

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 3._

In the Greek legendary period one part of this territory,
subsequently Bœotian—the Copaic valley in the north—was
occupied by the enterprising people called the Minyi, whose
chief city was Orchomenus. Their neighbors were the Cadmeians
of Thebes, who are "rich," as Grote expresses it, "in
legendary antiquities." The reputed founder of Thebes was
Cadmus, bringer of letters to Hellas, from Phœnicia or from
Egypt, according to different representations. Dionysus
(Bacchus) and Hêraklês were both supposed to recognize the
Cadmeian city as their birth-place. The terrible legends of
Œdipus and his unhappy family connect themselves with the same
place, and the incident wars between Thebes and Argos—the
assaults of the seven Argive chiefs and of their sons, the
Epigoni—were, perhaps, real causes of a real destruction of
the power of some race for whom the Cadmeians stand. They and
their neighbors, the Minyi of Orchomenus, appear to have given
way before another people, from Thessaly, who gave the name
Bœotia to the country of both and who were the inhabitants of
the Thebes of historic times.

_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 1, chapter 14;_

_E. Curtius,
History of Greece,
book 1, chapter 4._

"That the Bœotia of history should never have attained to a
significance corresponding to the natural advantages of the
locality, and to the prosperity of the district in the
pre-Homeric age, is due above all to one principal cause. The
immigration of the Thessalian Bœotians, from which the country
derived its name and the beginnings of its connected history,
destroyed the earlier civilization of the land, without
succeeding in establishing a new civilization capable of
conducting the entire district to a prosperous and harmonious
development. It cannot be said that the ancient germs of
culture were suppressed, or that barbarous times supervened.
The ancient seats of the gods and oracles continued to be
honoured and the ancient festivals of the Muses on Mount
Helicon, and of the Charites at Orchomenus, to be celebrated.
{286}
In Bœotia too the beneficent influence of Delphi was at work,
and the poetic school of Hesiod, connected as it was with
Delphi, long maintained itself here. And a yet stronger
inclination was displayed by the Æolian immigrants towards
music and lyric poetry. The cultivation of the music of the
flute was encouraged by the excellent reeds of the Copaic
morasses. This was the genuinely national species of music in
Bœotia. … And yet the Bœotians lacked the capacity for
attracting to themselves the earlier elements of population in
such a way as to bring about a happy amalgamation. … The
Bœotian lords were not much preferable to the Thessalian; nor
was there any region far or near, inhabited by Greek tribes,
which presented a harsher contrast in culture or manners, than
the district where the road led from the Attic side of Mount
Parnes across to the Bœotian."

_E. Curtius,
History of Greece,
book 6, chapter 1._

See, also, GREECE: THE MIGRATIONS.

BŒOTIAN LEAGUE.

"The old Bœotian League, as far as its outward forms went,
seems to have been fairly entitled to the name of a Federal
Government, but in its whole history we trace little more than
the gradual advance of Thebes to a practical supremacy over
the other cities. … The common government was carried on in
the name of the whole Bœotian nation. Its most important
magistrates bore the title of Bœotarchs: their exact number,
whether eleven or thirteen, is a disputed point of Greek
archæology, or rather of Bœotian geography. … Thebes chose
two Bœotarchs and each of the other cities one."

_E. A. Freeman,
History of Federal Government,
chapter 4, section 2._

BOERS, Boer War.

See SOUTH AFRICA: A. D. 1806-1881.

BOGDANIA.

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES, 14TH-15TH CENTURIES
(ROUMANIA, ETC.)

BOGESUND, Battle of (1520).

See SCANDINAVIAN STATES: A. D. 1397-1527.

BOGOMILIANS, The.

A religious sect which arose among the Sclavonians of Thrace
and Bulgaria, in the eleventh century, and suffered
persecution from the orthodox of the Greek church. They
sympathized with the Iconoclasts of former times, were hostile
to the adoration of the Virgin and saints, and took more or
less from the heretical doctrines of the Paulicians. Their
name is derived by some from the two Sclavonian words, "Bog,"
signifying God, and "milui," "have mercy." Others say that
"Bogumil," meaning "one beloved by God," was the correct
designation. Basilios, the leader of the Bogomilians, was
burned by the Emperor Alexius Comnenos, in the hippodrome, at
Constantinople, A. D. 1118.

_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, 716-1453,
book 3, chapter 2, section 1._

See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES: 9TH-16TH CENTURIES (BOSNIA,
ETC.)

BOGOTA, The founding of the city (1538).

See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1536-1731.

BOHEMIA, Derivation of the name.

See BOIANS.

BOHEMIA:
Its people and their early history.

"Whatever may be the inferences from the fact of Bohemia
having been politically connected with the empire of the
Germanic Marcomanni, whatever may be those from the element
Boioas connecting its population with the Boii of Gaul and
Bavaria (Baiovarii), the doctrine that the present Slavonic
population of that kingdom—Tshekhs [or Czekhs] as they call
themselves—is either recent in origin or secondary to any
German or Keltic aborigines, is wholly unsupported by history.
In other words, at the beginning of the historical period
Bohemia was as Slavonic as it is now. From A. D. 526 to A. D.
550, Bohemia belonged to the great Thuringian Empire. The
notion that it was then Germanic (except in its political
relations) is gratuitous. Nevertheless, Schaffarik's account
is, that the ancestors of the present Tshekhs came, probably,
from White Croatia: which was either north of the Carpathians,
or each side of them. According to other writers, however, the
parts above the river Kulpa in Croatia sent them forth. In
Bohemian the verb 'ceti' = 'to begin,' from which Dobrowsky
derives the name Czekhs = the beginners, the foremost, i. e.,
the first Slavonians who passed westwards. The powerful Samo,
the just Krok, and his daughter, the wise Libussa, the founder
of Prague, begin the uncertain list of Bohemian kings, A. D.
624-700. About A. D. 722, a number of petty chiefs become
united under P'remysl the husband of Libussa. Under his son
Nezamysl occurs the first Constitutional Assembly at Wysegrad;
and in A. D. 845, Christianity was introduced. But it took no
sure footing till about A. D. 966. Till A. D. 1471 the names
of the Bohemian kings and heroes are Tshekh—Wenceslaus,
Ottokar, Ziska, Podiebrad. In A. D. 1564, the Austrian
connexion and the process of Germanizing began. … The
history and ethnology of Moravia is nearly that of Bohemia,
except that the Marcomannic Germans, the Turks, Huns, Avars,
and other less important populations may have effected a
greater amount of intermixture. Both populations are Tshekh,
speaking the Tshekh language—the language, probably, of the
ancient Quadi."

_R. G. Latham,
Ethnology of Europe,
chapter 11._

BOHEMIA: 7th Century.
The Yoke of the Avars broken.
The Kingdom of Samo.

See AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.

BOHEMIA: 9th Century.
Subject to the Moravian Kingdom of Svatopluk.

See MORAVIA: 9TH CENTURY.

BOHEMIA: 13th Century.
The King made a Germanic Elector.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1125-1152.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1276.
War of King Ottocar with the Emperor Rodolph of Hapsburg.
His defeat and death.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1246-1282.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1310.
Acquisition of the crown by John of Luxembourg.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1308-1313.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1347.
Charles IV. elected to the imperial throne.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1347-1493.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1355.
The succession fixed in the Luxemburg dynasty.
Incorporation of Moravia, Silesia, &c.

The diet of the nobles, in 1355, joined Charles IV. in "fixing
the order of succession in the dynasty of Luxemburg, and in
definitely establishing that principle of primogeniture which
had already been the custom in the Premyslide dynasty.
Moravia, Silesia, Upper Lusatia, Brandenburg, which had been
acquired from the margrave Otto, and the county of Glatz
(Kladsko), with the consent of the diets of these provinces,
were declared integral and inalienable portions of the kingdom
of Bohemia."

_L. Leger,
History of Austro-Hungary,
chapter 11._

{287}

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1364.
Reversion of the crown guaranteed to the House of Austria.

See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1330-1364.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1378-1400.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1347-1493.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1405-1415.
John Hus, and the movement of Religious Reformation.

"Some sparks of the fire which Wielif had lighted [see
ENGLAND: A. D. 1360-1414], blown over half Europe, as far as
remote Bohemia, quickened into stronger activity a flame which
for long years burned and scorched and consumed, defying all
efforts to extinguish it. But for all this, it was not Wiclif
who kindled the Bohemian fires. His writing did much to fan
and feed them; while the assumed and in part erroneously
assumed, identity of his teaching with that of Hus contributed
not a little to shape the tragic issues of the Bohemian
reformer's life. But the Bohemian movement was an independent
and eminently a national one. If we look for the proper
forerunners of Hus, his true spiritual ancestors, we shall
find them in his own land, in a succession of earnest and
faithful preachers. … John Hus (b. 1369, d. 1415), the
central figure of the Bohemian Reformation, took in the year
1394 his degree as Bachelor of Theology in that University of
Prague, upon the fortunes of which he was destined to exercise
so lasting an influence; and four years later, in 1398, he
began to deliver lectures there. … He soon signalized
himself by his diligence in breaking the bread of life to
hungering souls, and his boldness in rebuking vice in high
places as in low. So long as he confined himself to reproving
the sins of the laity, leaving those of the Clergy and monks
unassailed, he found little opposition, nay, rather support
and applause from these. But when [1405] he brought them also
within the circle of his condemnation, and began to upbraid
them for their covetousness, their ambition, their luxury,
their sloth, and for other vices, they turned angrily upon
him, and sought to undermine his authority, everywhere
spreading reports of the unsoundness of his teaching. …
While matters were in this strained condition, events took
place at Prague which are too closely connected with the story
that we are telling, exercised too great an influence in
bringing about the issues that lie before us, to allow us to
pass them by. … The University of Prague, though recently
founded—it only dated back to the year 1348—was now, next
after those of Paris and Oxford, the most illustrious in
Europe. … This University, like that of Paris, on the
pattern of which it had been modelled, was divided into four
'nations'—four groups, that is, or families of scholars—each
of these having in academical affairs a single collective
vote. These nations were the Bavarian, the Saxon, the Polish,
and the Bohemian. This does not appear at first an unfair
division—two German and two Slavonic; but in practical
working the Polish was so largely recruited from Silesia, and
other German or half-German lands, that its vote was in fact
German also. The Teutonic votes were thus as three to one, and
the Bohemians in their own land and their own University on
every important matter hopelessly outvoted. When, by, aid of
this preponderance, the University was made to condemn the
teaching of Wiclif … matters came to a crisis. Urged by Hus,
who as a stout patriot, and an earnest lover of the Bohemian
language and literature, had more than a theological interest
in the matter,—by Jerome [of Prague],—by a large number of
the Bohemian nobility,—King Wenzel published an edict whereby
the relations of natives and foreigners were completely
reversed. There should be henceforth three votes for the
Bohemian nation, and only one for the three others. Such a
shifting of the weights certainly appears as a redressing of
one inequality by creating another. At all events it was so
earnestly resented by the Germans, by professors and students
alike, that they quitted the University in a body, some say of
five, and some of thirty thousand, and founded the rival
University of Leipsic, leaving no more than two thousand
students at Prague. Full of indignation against Hus, whom they
regarded as the prime author of this affront and wrong, they
spread throughout all Germany the most unfavourable reports of
him and of his teaching. This exodus of the foreigners had
left Hus, who was now Rector of the University, with a freer
field than before. But Church matters at Prague did not mend;
they became more confused and threatening every day; until
presently the shameful outrage against all Christian morality
which a century later did a still more effectual work, served
to put Hus into open opposition to the corrupt hierarchy of
his time. Pope John XXIII., having a quarrel with the King of
Naples, proclaimed a crusade against him, with what had become
a constant accompaniment of this,—Indulgences to match. But
to denounce Indulgences, as Hus with fierce and righteous
indignation did now, was to wound Rome in her most sensitive
part. He was excommunicated at once, and every place which
should harbour him stricken with an interdict. While matters
were in this frame the Council of Constance [see PAPACY: A. D.
1414-1418] was opened, which should appease all the troubles
of Christendom, and correct whatever was amiss. The Bohemian
difficulty could not be omitted, and Hus was summoned to make
answer at Constance for himself. He had not been there four
weeks when he was required to appear before the Pope and
Cardinals (Nov. 18, 1414). After a brief informal hearing he
was committed to harsh durance from which he never issued as a
free man again. Sigismund, the German King and Emperor Elect,
who had furnished Hus with a safe-conduct which should protect
him, 'going to the Council, tarrying at the Council, returning
from the Council,' was absent from Constance at the time, and
heard with real displeasure how lightly regarded this promise
and pledge of his had been. Some big words too he spoke,
threatening to come himself and release the prisoner by force;
but, being waited on by a deputation from the Council, who
represented to him that he, as a layman, in giving such a
safe conduct had exceeded his powers, and intruded into a
region which was not his, Sigismund was convinced, or affected
to be convinced. … More than seven months elapsed before Hus
could obtain a hearing before the Council. This was granted to
him at last. Thrice heard (June 5, 7, 8, 1415),—if indeed
such tumultuary sittings, where the man speaking for his life,
and for much more than his life, was continually interrupted
and overborne by hostile voices, by loud cries of 'Recant,'
'Recant,' may be reckoned as hearings at all,—he bore
himself, by the confession of all, with courage, meekness and
dignity." He refused to recant. Some of the articles brought
against him, he said, "charged him with teaching things which
he had never taught, and he could not, by this formal act of
retraction, admit that he had taught them." He was condemned,
sentenced to the stake, and burned, on the 6th of July, 1415.
His friend, Jerome, of Prague, suffered the same fate in the
following May.

_R. C. Trench,
Lectures on Mediaeval Church History,
lecture 22._

ALSO IN:
_E. H. Gillett,
Life and times of John Hus._

_A. H. Wratislaw,
John Hus._

_A. Neander,
General History of Christian Religion,
volume 9, part 2._

{288}

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1410.
Election of King Sigismund to the imperial throne.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1347-1493.

BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434.
The Hussite Wars.
The Reformation checked.