The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 16

AL'DERSHOT, a permanent camp, established in 1855, for instruction in military manoeuvres, on a moorland 35 m. SW. of London.

ALDINE EDITIONS, editions, chiefly of the cla.s.sics, issued from the press of Aldus Manutius in Venice in the 16th century, and remarkable for the correctness of the text and the beauty and clearness of the printing.

ALDINGAR, SIR, legendary character, the steward of Eleanor, wife of Henry II., who accused her of infidelity, and offered to substantiate the charge by combat, when an angel in the form of a child appeared and certified her innocence.

ALDOBRANDINI, a Florentine jurisconsult (1500-1558).

AL'DRED, bishop of Worcester in the reign of Edward the Confessor, made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, became archbishop of York, and crowned the last of the Saxon and the first of the Norman kings of England; _d_.

1063.

AL'DRICH, dean of Oxford, an accomplished ecclesiastic; was a skilful musician, and composed many services for the Church; wrote a system of logic, long in use in Oxford University (1647-1710).

ALDROVAN'DI, ULYSSES, a famous Italian naturalist of Bologna, who collected an immense body of interesting facts in natural history, published partly in his lifetime and partly after his death (1522-1607).

ALDUS MANUTIUS, or ALDO MANUZIO, an Italian printer, born at Ba.s.sano, established a printing-office in Venice in 1488, issued the celebrated Aldine Editions of the cla.s.sics, and invented the italic type, for the exclusive use of which for many years he obtained a patent, though the honour of the invention is more probably due to his typefounder, Franciso de Bologna, than to him (1447-1515).

ALEC'TO, one of the three Eumenides or Furies.

ALEMAN', a Spanish novelist, author of the celebrated romance _Guzman de Alfarache_, which in 6 years ran through 26 editions, was translated several times into French; died in Mexico in 1610.

ALEMAN'NI, a confederacy of tribes which appeared on the banks of the Rhine in the 3rd cent., and for long gave no small trouble to Rome, but whose incursions were arrested, first by Maximinus, and finally by Clovis in 496, who made them subject to the Franks, hence the modern names in French for Germany and the Germans.

ALEMTE'JO (369), a southern province of Portugal; soil fertile to the east.

ALENcON (17), a town in the dep. of Orne, 105 m. W. of Paris, once famous for its lace.

ALENcON, COUNTS AND DUKES OF, a t.i.tle borne by several members of the house of Valois--e. g. CHARLES OF VALOIS, who fell at Crecy (1346); JEAN IV., who fell at Agincourt (1415).

ALEP'PO (130), a city in Northern Syria, one of the finest in the East, once one of the greatest trading centres in the world.

ALE'SIA, a strong place in the E. of Gaul, which, as situated on a hill and garrisoned by 80,000 Gauls, cost Caesar no small trouble to take.

ALESIUS, or ALANE, a noted Reformer, born in Edinburgh, converted to Protestantism by Patrick Hamilton; was driven first from Scotland and then from England, till he settled as a theological professor in Germany, and took an active part in the Reformation there (1500-1563).

ALESSANDRIA (78), a strongly fortified and stirring town on the Tenaro, in Northern Italy, the centre of 8 railways, 55 m. SE. of Turin.

ALESSI, architect, born at Perugia, architect of the monastery and church of the ESCURIAL, q. v. (1500-1572).

ALETSCH GLACIER, THE, the largest of the glaciers of the Alps, which descends round the south of the Jungfrau into the valley of the Upper Rhone.

ALEU'TIAN ISLANDS (2) a chain of volcanic islands, 150 in number, stretching over the N. Pacific from Alaska in N. America, to Kamchatka, in Asia.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT, the king of Macedonia, son of Philip by Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus; born at Pella, 356 B.C.; had the philosopher Aristotle for tutor, and being instructed by him in all kinds of serviceable knowledge, ascended the throne on the death of his father, at the age of 20; after subduing Greece, had himself proclaimed generalissimo of the Greeks against the Persians, and in 2 years after his accession crossed the h.e.l.lespont, followed by 30,000 foot and 5000 horse; with these conquered the army of Darius the Persian at Granicus in 334 and at Issus in 333; subdued the princ.i.p.al cities of Syria, overran Egypt, and crossing the Euphrates and Tigris, routed the Persians at Arbela; hurrying on farther, he swept everything before him, till the Macedonians refusing to advance, he returned to Babylon, when he suddenly fell ill of fever, and in eleven days died at the early age of 32. He is said to have slept every night with his Homer and his sword under his pillow, and the inspiring idea of his life, all unconsciously to himself belike, is defined to have been the right of Greek intelligence to override and rule the merely glittering barbarity of the East.

ALEXANDER, ST., patriarch of Alexandria from 311 to 326, contributed to bring about the condemnation of Arius at the Council of Nice; festival, Feb 26.

ALEXANDER, SOLOMON, first Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, of Jewish birth, cut off during a journey to Cairo (1799-1845).

ALEXANDER III., pope, successor to Adrian IV., an able man, whose election Barbarossa at first opposed, but finally a.s.sented to; took the part of Thomas a Becket against Henry II. and canonised him, as also St.

Bernard. Pope from 1159 to 1181.

ALEXANDER VI., called Borgia from his mother, a Spaniard by birth, obtained the popehood by bribery in 1492 in succession to Innocent VIII., lived a licentious life and had several children, among others the celebrated Lucretia and the infamous Caesar Borgia; _d_. in 1503, after a career of crime, not without suspicion of poison. In addition to Alexanders III. and VI., six of the name were popes: Alexander I., pope from 108 to 117; Alexander II., pope from 1061 to 1073; Alexander IV., pope from 1254 to 1261; Alexander V., pope from 1409 to 1410; Alexander VII., pope from 1653 to 1667, who was forced to kiss his hand to Louis XIV.; Alexander VIII., pope from 1689 to 1691.

ALEXANDER I., king of Scotland, son of Malcolm Canmore and Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, a vigorous prince, surnamed on that account _The Fierce_; subdued a rising in the North, and stood stoutly in defence of the independent rights of both Crown and Church against the claim of supremacy over both on the part of England; _d_. 1124.

ALEXANDER II., of Scotland, successor of William the Lion, his father, a just and wise ruler, aided the English barons against John, and married Joan, the sister of Henry III.; _d_. 1249.

ALEXANDER III., son of the preceding, married a daughter of Henry III., sided with him against the barons, successfully resisted the invasion of Haco, king of Norway, and on the conclusion of peace gave his daughter in marriage to Haco's successor Eric; accidentally killed by falling over a cliff near Kinghorn when hunting in 1285.

ALEXANDER I., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Paul I., took part in the European strife against the encroachments of Napoleon, was present at the battle of Austerlitz, fought the French at Pultusk and Eylau, was defeated at Friedland, had an interview with Napoleon at Tilsit in 1813, entered into a coalition with the other Powers against France, which ended in the capture of Paris and the abdication of Napoleon in 1814. Under his reign Russia rose into political importance in Europe (1777-1825).

ALEXANDER II., emperor of Russia, son and successor of Nicholas I., fell heir to the throne while the siege of Sebastopol was going on; on the conclusion of a peace applied himself to reforms in the state and the consolidation and extension of the empire. His reign is distinguished by a ukase decreeing in 1861 the emanc.i.p.ation of the serfs numbering 23 millions, by the extension of the empire in the Caucasus and Central Asia, and by the war with Turkey in the interest of the Slavs in 1877-78, which was ended by the peace of San Stephano, revised by the treaty of Berlin. His later years were clouded with great anxiety, owing to the spread of Nihilism, and he was killed by a bomb thrown at him by a Nihilist (1818-1881).

ALEXANDER III., emperor of Russia, son of the preceding, followed in the footsteps of his father, and showed a marked disposition to live on terms of peace with the other Powers; his reign not distinguished by any very remarkable event. The present Czar is his son and successor (1845-1894).

ALEXANDER I., king of Servia, _b_. 1876.