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 U. S., 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.,