Part 90

"With the death of Maximilian Joseph, of Bavaria (30 December, 1777), the younger branch of the house of Wittelsbach became extinct, and the electorate of Bavaria … came to an end. By virtue of the original partition in 1310, the duchy of Bavaria ought to pass to the elder branch of the family, represented by Charles Theodore, the Elector Palatine. But Joseph [the Second, the Emperor], saw the possibility of securing valuable additions to Austria which would round off the frontier on the west. The Austrian claims were legally worthless. They were based chiefly upon a gift of the Straubingen territory which Sigismund was said to have made in 1426 to his son-in-law, Albert of Austria, but which had never taken effect and had since been utterly forgotten. It would be impossible to induce the diet to recognise such claims, but it might be possible to come to an understanding with the aged Charles Theodore, who had no legitimate children and was not likely to feel any very keen interest in his new inheritance. Without much difficulty the elector was half frightened, half induced to sign a treaty (3 January, 1778), by which he recognised the claims put forward by Austria, while the rest of Bavaria was guaranteed to him and his successors. Austrian troops were at once despatched to occupy the ceded districts. The condition of Europe seemed to assure the success of Joseph's bold venture. … There was only one quarter from which opposition was to be expected, Prussia. Frederick promptly appealed to the fundamental laws of the Empire, and declared his intention of upholding them with arms. But he could find no supporters except those who were immediately interested, the elector of Saxony, whose mother, as a sister of the late elector of Bavaria, had a legal claim to his allodial property, and Charles of Zweibrücken, the heir apparent of the childless Charles Theodore. … Frederick, left to himself, despatched an army into Bohemia, where the Austrian troops had been joined by the emperor in person. But nothing came of the threatened hostilities. Frederick was unable to force on a battle, and the so-called war was little more than an armed negotiation. … France and Russia undertook to mediate, and negotiations were opened in 1779 at Teschen, where peace was signed on the 13th of May. Austria withdrew the claims which had been recognised in the treaty with the Elector Palatine, and received the 'quarter of the Inn,' i. e., the district from Passau to Wildshut. Frederick's eventual claims to the succession in the Franconian principalities of Anspach and Baireuth, which Austria had every interest in opposing, were recognised by the treaty. The claims of Saxony were bought off by a payment of 4,000,000 thalers. The most unsatisfactory part of the treaty was that it was guaranteed by France and Russia. … On the whole, it was a great triumph for Frederick and an equal humiliation for Joseph II. His schemes of aggrandisement had been foiled."

_R. Lodge, History of Modern Europe, chapter 20, section 3,_

ALSO IN: _T. H. Dyer, History of Modern Europe, book 6, chapter 8 (volume 3)._

BAVARIA: A. D. 1801-1803. Acquisition of territory under the Treaty of Luneville.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1801-1803.

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BAVARIA: A. D. 1805-1806. Aggrandized by Napoleon. Created a Kingdom. Joined to the Confederation of the Rhine.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1805-1806, and 1806 (JANUARY-AUGUST).

BAVARIA: A. D. 1809. The revolt in the Tyrol. Heroic struggle of Hofer and his countrymen.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1809-1810 (APRIL-FEBRUARY).

BAVARIA: A. D. 1813. Abandonment of Napoleon and the Rhenish Confederation. Union with the Allies.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1813 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER), and (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).

BAVARIA: A. D. 1814-1815. Restoration of the Tyrol to Austria. Territorial compensations.

See VIENNA, THE CONGRESS OF, and FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (APRIL-JUNE).

BAVARIA: A. D. 1848 (March). Revolutionary outbreak. Expulsion of Lola Montez. Abdication of the King.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1848 (MARCH).

BAVARIA: A. D. 1866. The Seven Weeks War. Indemnity and territorial cession to Prussia.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1866.

BAVARIA: A. D. 1870-1871. Treaty of Union with the Germanic Confederation, soon transformed into the German Empire.

See GERMANY: A. D. 1870 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER), and 1871.

BAVARIA: End----------

BAVAY, Origin of.

See NERVII.

BAXAR, OR BAKSAR, OR BUXAR, Battle of (1764).

See INDIA: A. D. 1757-1772.

BAYARD, The Chevalier: His knightly deeds and his death.

See ITALY: A. D. 1501-1504, and FRANCE: A. D. 1523-1525.

BAYEUX TAPESTRY.

A remarkable roll of mediæval tapestry, 214 feet long and 20 inches wide, preserved for centuries in the cathedral at Bayeux, Normandy, on which a pictorial history of the Norman invasion and conquest of England is represented, with more or less of names and explanatory inscriptions. _Mr. E. A. Freeman (Norman Conquest, volume 3, note A)_ says: "It will be seen that, throughout this volume, I accept the witness of the Bayeux Tapestry as one of my highest authorities. I do not hesitate to say that I look on it as holding the first place among the authorities on the Norman side. That it is a contemporary work I entertain no doubt whatever, and I entertain just as little doubt as to its being a work fully entitled to our general confidence. I believe the tapestry to have been made for Bishop Odo, and to have been most probably designed by him as an ornament for his newly rebuilt cathedral church of Bayeux." The precious tapestry is now preserved in the public library at Bayeux, carefully stretched round the room under glass.

BAYEUX, The Saxons of.

See SAXONS OF BAYEUX

BAYLEN, Battle of (1808).

See SPAIN: A. D. 1808 (MAY-SEPTEMBER).

BAYOGOULAS, The.

See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.

BAYONNE: Conference of Catharine de'Medici and the Duke of Alva (1565).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1563-1570.

BAZAINE'S SURRENDER AT METZ.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (JULY-AUGUST), (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER), and (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER).

BEACONSFIELD (Disraeli) Ministries.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1851-1852; 1858-1859; 1868-1870, and 1873-1880.

BEAR FLAG, The.

See CALIFORNIA: A. D. 1846-1847.

BEARN: The rise of the Counts.

See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1032.

BEARN: A. D. 1620. Absorbed and incorporated in the Kingdom of France.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1620-1622.

BEARN: A. D. 1685. The Dragonnade. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1681-1698.

BEARN: End----------

BEATOUN, Cardinal, The assassination of.

See SCOTLAND: A. D. 1546.

BEAUFORT, N. C., Capture of, by the National forces (1862).

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (JANUARY-APRIL: NORTH CAROLINA).

BEAUGÉ, Battle of.

The English commanded by the Duke of Clarence, defeated in Anjou by an army of French and Scots, under the Dauphin of France; the Duke of Clarence slain.

BEAUMARCHAIS'S TRANSACTIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1778.

BEAUMONT, Battle of.

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870 (AUGUST-SEPTEMBER).

BEAUREGARD, General G. T. Bombardment of Fort Sumter.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (MARCH-APRIL).

At the first Battle of Bull Run.

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

Command in the Potomac district.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861-1862 (DECEMBER-APRIL: VIRGINIA).

Command in the West.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE), and (APRIL-MAY: TENNESSEE-MISSISSIPPI).

The Defence of Charleston.

See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (AUGUST-DECEMBER: SOUTH CAROLINA).

BEAUVAIS, Origin of.

See BELGÆ.

BEBRYKIANS, The.

See BITHYNIANS.

BEC, Abbey of.

One of the most famous abbeys and ecclesiastical schools of the middle ages. Its name was derived from the little beck or rivulet of a valley in Normandy, on the banks of which a pious knight, Herlouin, retiring from the world, had fixed his hermitage. The renown of the piety of Herlouin drew others around him and resulted in the formation of a religious community with himself at its head. Among those attracted to Herlouin's retreat were a noble Lombard scholar, Lanfranc of Pavia, who afterwards became the great Norman archbishop of Canterbury, and Anselm of Aosta, another Italian, who succeeded Lanfranc at Canterbury with still more fame. The teaching of Lanfranc at Bec raised it, says _Mr. Green in his Short History of the English People,_ into the most famous school of Christendom; it was, in fact, the first wave of the intellectual movement which was spreading from Italy to the ruder countries of the West. The fabric of the canon law and of mediaeval scholasticism, with the philosophical skepticism which first awoke under its influence, all trace their origin to Bec. "The glory of Bec would have been as transitory as that of other monastic houses, but for the appearance of one illustrious man [Lanfranc] who came to be enrolled as a private member of the brotherhood, and who gave Bec for a while a special and honorable character with which hardly any other monastery in Christendom could compare."

_E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest, chapter 8._

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BECHUANAS, The.

See SOUTH AFRICA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS; and AFRICA: THE INHABITING RACES.

BECKET, Thomas, and King Henry II.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1162-1170.

BED-CHAMBER QUESTION, The.

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1837-1839.

BED OF JUSTICE.

"The ceremony by which the French kings compelled the registration of their edicts by the Parliament was called a 'lit de justice' [bed of justice]. The monarch proceeded in state to the Grand Chambre, and the chancellor, having taken his pleasure, announced that the king required such and such a decree to be entered on their records in his presence. It was held that this personal interference of the sovereign suspended for the time being the functions of all inferior magistrates, and the edict was accordingly registered without a word of objection. The form of registration was as follows: 'Le roi séant en son lit de justice a ordonné et ordonne que les présents édits seront enregistrés;' and at the end of the decree, 'Fait en Parlement, le roi y séant en son lit de justice.'"

_Students' History of France, note to chapter 19._

See, also, PARLIAMENT OF PARIS.

"The origin of this term ['bed of justice'] has been much discussed. The wits complained it was so styled because there justice was put to sleep. The term was probably derived from the arrangement of the throne on which the king sat. The back and sides were made of bolsters and it was called a bed."

_J. B. Perkins, France under Mazarin, volume 1, page 388, foot-note._

An elaborate and entertaining account of a notable Bed of Justice held under the Regency, in the early part of the reign of Louis XV., will be found in the

_Memoirs of the Duke de Saint Simon, abridged translation of St. John, volume 4, chapter 5-7._

BEDR, Battle of.

See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 609-632.

BEDRIACUM, Battles of.

See ROME: A. D. 69.

BEECHY HEAD, Battle of (A. D. 1690).

See ENGLAND: A. D. 1690 (JUNE).

BEEF-EATERS, The.

See YEOMEN OF THE GUARD.

BEEF STEAK CLUB, The.

See CLUBS: THE BEEF STEAK.

BEER-ZATH, Battle of.

The field on which the great Jewish soldier and patriot, Judas Maccabæus, having but 800 men with him, was beset by an army of the Syrians and slain, B. C. 161.

_Josephus, Antiquity of the Jews, book 12, chapter 11._

ALSO IN: _H. Ewald, History of Israel, book 5, section 2._

BEG.

A Turkish title, signifying prince or lord; whence, also, Bey.

See BEY.

BEGGARS (Gueux) of the Netherland Revolt.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1562-1566.

BEGGARS OF THE SEA.

See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1572.

BEGUINES. BEGHINES. BEGHARDS. Weaving Brothers. Lollards. Brethren of the Free Spirit. Fratricelli. Bizochi. Turlupins.

"In the year 1180 there lived in Liege a certain kindly, stammering priest, known from his infirmity as Lambert le Bègue. This man took pity on the destitute widows of the town. Despite the impediment in his speech, he was, as often happens, a man of a certain power and eloquence in preaching. … This Lambert so moved the hearts of his hearers that gold and silver poured in on him, given to relieve such of the destitute women of Liege as were still of good and pious life. With the moneys thus collected, Lambert built a little square of cottages, with a church in the middle and a hospital, and at the side a cemetery. Here he housed these homeless widows, one or two in each little house, and then he drew up a half monastic rule which was to guide their lives. The rule was very simple, quite informal: no vows, no great renunciation bound the 'Swestrones Brod durch Got.' A certain time of the day was set apart for prayer and pious meditation; the other hours they spent in spinning or sewing, in keeping their houses clean, or they went as nurses in time of sickness into the homes of the townspeople. … Thus these women, though pious and sequestered, were still in the world and of the world. … Soon we find the name' Swestrones Brod durch Got' set aside for the more usual title of Beguines or Beghines. Different authorities give different origins of this word. … Some have thought it was taken in memory of the founder, the charitable Lambert le Bègut. Others think that, even as the Mystics or Mutterers, the Lollards or Hummers, the Popelhards or Babblers, so the Beguines or Stammerers were thus nicknamed from their continual murmuring in prayer. This is plausible; but not so plausible as the suggestion of Dr. Mosheim and M. Auguste Jundt, who derive the word Beguine from the Flemish word 'beggen,' to beg. For we know that these pious women had been veritable beggars; and beggars should they again become. With surprising swiftness the new order spread through the Netherlands and into France and Germany. … Lambert may have lived to see a beguinage in every great town within his ken; but we hear no more of him. The Beguines are no longer for Liege, but for all the world. Each city possessed its quiet congregation; and at any sick-bed you might meet a woman clad in a simple smock and a great veil-like mantle, who lived only to pray and do deeds of mercy. … The success of the Beguines had made them an example. … Before St. Francis and St. Dominic instituted the mendicant orders, there had silently grown up in every town of the Netherlands a spirit of fraternity, not imposed by any rule, but the natural impulse of a people. The weavers seated all day long alone at their rattling looms, the armourers beating out their thoughts in iron, the cross-legged tailors and busy cobblers thinking and stitching together—these men silent, pious, thoughtful, joined themselves in a fraternity modelled on that of the Beguines. They were called the Weaving Brothers. Bound by no vows and fettered by no rule, they still lived the worldly life and plied their trade for hire. Only in their leisure they met together and prayed and dreamed and thought. … Such were the founders of the great fraternity of 'Fratres Textores,' or Beghards as in later years the people more generally called them."

_A. M. F. Robinson, The End of the Middle Ages, 1._

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"The Lollards differed from the Beghards less in reality than in name. We are informed respecting them that, at their origin in Antwerp, shortly after 1300, they associated together for the purpose of waiting upon patients dangerously sick, and burying the dead. … Very early, however, an element of a different kind began to work in those fellowships. Even about the close of the 13th century irregularities and extravagances are laid to their charge. …. The charges brought against the later Beghards and Lollards, in connection, on the one hand, with the fanatical Franciscans, who were violently contending with the Church, and on the other, with the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit, relate to three particulars, viz., an a version to all useful industry, conjoined with a propensity to mendicancy and idleness, an intemperate spirit of opposition to the Church, and a skeptical and more or less pantheistical mysticism. … They … declared that the time of Antichrist was come, and on all hands endeavoured to embroil the people with their spiritual guides. Their own professed object was to restore the pure primeval state, the divine life of freedom, innocence, and nature. The idea they formed of that state was, that man, being in and of himself one with God, requires only to act in the consciousness of this unity, and to follow unrestrained the divinely implanted impulses and inclinations of his nature, in order to be good and godly."

_C. Ullmann, Reformers before the Reformation, volume 2, pages 14-16._

"The names of beghards and beguines came not unnaturally to be used for devotees who, without being members of any regular monastic society, made a profession of religious strictness; and thus the applications of the names to some kinds of sectaries was easy—more especially as many of these found it convenient to assume the outward appearance of beghards, in the hope of disguising their differences from the church. But on the other hand, this drew on the orthodox beghards frequent persecutions, and many of them, for the sake of safety, were glad to connect themselves as tertiaries with the great mendicant orders. … In the 14th century, the popes dealt hardly with the beghards; yet orthodox societies under this name still remained in Germany; and in Belgium, the country of their origin, sisterhoods of beguines flourish to the present day. … Matthias of Janow, the Bohemian reformer, in the end of the 14th century, says that all who act differently from the profane vulgar are called beghardi or turlupini, or by other blasphemous names. … Among those who were confounded with the beghards—partly because, like them, they abounded along the Rhine—were the brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit. These appear in various places under various names. They wore a peculiarly simple dress, professed to give themselves to contemplation, and, holding that labour is a hindrance to contemplation and to the elevation of the soul to God, they lived by beggary. Their doctrines were mystical and almost pantheistic. … The brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit were much persecuted, and probably formed a large proportion of those who were burnt under the name of beghards."

_J. C. Robertson, History of Christian Church, book 7, chapter 7 (volume 6)_.

"Near the close of this century [the 13th] originated in Italy the Fratricelli and Bizochi, parties that in Germany and France were denominated Beguards; and which, first Boniface VIII., and afterwards other pontiffs condemned, and wished to see persecuted by the Inquisition and exterminated in every possible way. The Fratricelli, who also called themselves in Latin 'Fratres parvi' (Little Brethren), or 'Fraterculi de paupere vita' (Little Brothers of the Poor Life), were Franciscan monks, but detached from the great family of Franciscans; who wished to observe the regulations prescribed by their founder St. Francis more perfectly than the others, and therefore possessed no property, either individually or collectively, but obtained their necessary food from day to day by begging. … They predicted a reformation and purification of the church. … They extolled Celestine V. as the legal founder of their sect; but Boniface and the succeeding pontiffs, who opposed the Fratricelli, they denied to be true pontiffs. As the great Franciscan family had its associates and dependents, who observed the third rule prescribed by St. Francis [which required only certain pious observances, such as fasts, prayers, continence, a coarse, cheap dress, gravity of manners, &c., but did not prohibit private property, marriage, public offices, and worldly occupations], and who were usually called Tertiarii, so also the sect of the Fratricelli … had numerous Tertiarii of its own. These were called, in Italy, Bizochi and Bocasoti; in France Beguini; and in Germany Beghardi, by which name all the Tertiarii were commonly designated. These differed from the Fratricelli … only in their mode of life. The Fratricelli were real monks, living under the rule of St. Francis; but the Bizochi or Beguini lived in the manner of other people. … Totally different from these austere Beguini and Beguinæ, were the German and Belgic Beguinæ, who did not indeed originate in this century, but now first came into notice. … Concerning the Turlupins, many have written; but none accurately. … The origin of the name, I know not; but I am able to prove from substantial documents, that the Turlupins who were burned at Paris, and in other parts of France were no other than the Brethren of the Free Spirit whom the pontiffs and councils condemned."

_J. L. Von Mosheim, Inst's of Ecclesiastical History, book 3, century 13, part 2, chapter 2, section 39-41, and chapter 5, section 9, foot-note._

ALSO IN: _L. Mariotti (A. Gallenga), Fra Dolcino and his Times._

See, also, PICARDS.

BEGUMS OF OUDE, Warren Hastings and the.

See INDIA: A. D. 1773-1785.

BEHISTUN, Rock of.

"This remarkable spot, lying on the direct route between Babylon and Ecbatana, and presenting the unusual combination of a copious fountain, a rich plain and a rock suitable for sculpture, must have early attracted the attention of the great monarchs who marched their armies through the Zagros range, as a place where they might conveniently set up memorials of their exploits. … The tablet and inscriptions of Darius, which have made Behistun famous in modern times, are in a recess to the right of the scarped face of the rock, and at a considerable elevation."

_G. Rawlinson, Five Great Monarchies: Media, chapter 1._

The mountain or rock of Behistun fixes the location of the district known to the Greeks as Bagistana. "It lies southwest of Elvend, between that mountain and the Zagrus in the valley of the Choaspes, and is the district now known as Kirmenshah."

_M. Duncker, History of Antiquity, book 8, chapter 1._

BEHRING SEA CONTROVERSY, and Arbitration.

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

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BEIRUT, Origin of.

See BERYTUS.

BELA I., King of Hungary, A. D. 1060-1063. Bela II., A. D. 1131-1141. Bela III., A. D. 1173-1196. Bela IV., A. D. 1235-1270.

BELCHITE, Battle of.

See SPAIN: A. D. 1809 (FEBRUARY-JUNE).

BELERION, OR BOLERIUM.

The Roman name of Land's End, England.

See BRITAIN: CELTIC TRIBES.

BELFORT. Siege by the Germans (1870-1871).

See FRANCE: A. D. 1870-1871.

BELGÆ, The.