312 



RANGABE-RANKE. 



PKTTO* RAjrooufi (1723-1775) gndnated at Wil- 

 li.uii nnd Mar>* College, and having studied law ut the 



Temple. I/ondon, wasmad'j king 8 attorney general in 

 1748. Hi* sympathies were with the people during 

 the conflict which soon artme with the British LMVITU 

 nipnt. In the House of I5urgee8 in 17i'.4 lie drew up 

 the address in opposition t the Stamp Act. When 

 elected speaker ut' tin 1 House he resigned the office lie 

 hold from the kin::, Uwt it should interfere with his 

 <lty to tin- |Hii|iU>. Hut his brother John (172.H- 

 was of a different mind and readily accepted the 

 place. Peyton was chairman of the patriots' commit- 

 tee of correspondence in 1773. and when the first 

 Continental Congress aMcmbled in Philadelphia in 



Septcmlx-r. 1771. was chosen its president. In every 

 movement in Virginia for the rights of the pconle he 

 was foremost. While attending Congress in Phila- 

 delphia, he died of apoplexy, Oct. 22, 177. r >. 



His nephew, EDMUND RANDOLPH (1753-1813), 

 suffered lor his patriotism by being disinherited by his 

 loyalist father, who suffered in turn for his loyalty by 

 being compelled to seek refuge in England. Edmund, 

 however, succeeded his father as attorney-general, was 

 delegate to Congress, 1779-82, and governorof Virginia. 

 $8. While holding this office he took part in 

 framing the Constitution of the United States, though 

 the draft which lie had originally prepared was not 

 accepted by the convention. (See CONSTITUTION 

 OF THE UNITED STATES.) He refused to sign the 

 Constitution when completed, but urged its ratifi- 

 c.iiioii in the Virginia Convention. He had been 

 one of Washington s aides during the Revolutionary 

 war, and in 17M9 was appointed by him attorney- 

 general of the United States. When Jefferson retired 

 from the cabinet in 17'.i4. Randolph, who had also 

 countenanced Genet's projects, was appointed secretary 

 of state, but in the next year he was compelled to re- 

 tire in consequence of charges based on a letter from 

 the French minister Fauchet, which was intercepted. 

 translated, and published by the British. Randolph's 

 Viiiiliriitinn (I 795) did not suffice to restore his repu- 

 tation. He died in Frederick county. Va..Sept. 12, 

 1813. Wirt in his Bn'tith Spy gives a sketch of his 

 person and services, and Moncure D. Conway, in his 

 Omitted Chapter* of lltftortl Dinc/wil in the Life and 

 lit/ten of Ki'munil Randolph (188H). makes a strong 

 effort to retrieve and restore his reputation. In this 

 work the original of Fauchct's letter was published for 

 the first time. 



TIIOMA^ MVNN RANDOLPH (1770-1828) was a son- 

 jn-law of Pres. Jefferson, served in Congress dur- 

 ing hi.s administration, and was colonel in the war of 

 I s 1 2- 1 .">. I n 1 s 1 '.( In; was elected governor of Virginia. 

 He died at Monticello. June 211, 1X28. 



His son, GEORCE WYTIIK RANDOLPH (1820-1867). 

 was educated at the University of Virginia and entered 

 the U. S. navy, but was afterwards a lawyer at Rich- 

 mond. He was a brigadier-general in the Confederate 

 army, and in March, 1802, was made secretary of war 

 in the Confederate government. In ISG3 he went to 

 France as ngent of the treasurv. After the war he 

 returned and died in Albcuiarle co., Va., April 4, 



BANOABB, ALEXANDER Rizos, a Greek poet and 

 .state-man, was born at Constantinople in IMO, of a 

 distinguished Fanariote family. His father was noted 

 as a poet and had translated into modern (! reek the 

 .Kneid and some French dramas, and also published 

 an able work on the geography and history of Greece. 

 The son was educated in the military school at Munich 

 and at the end of 182*.) went to Greece, where he 

 served in the artillery. In 1KJJ2 he was appointed to a 

 po->itior. in the department of puMic instruction. In 

 1S4I he WHS madi. dim-tor of (he royal press and in 

 |S(^ he was employed in tin department of the inte- 

 rior. In 1H4. C . he was made professor of aivlirrolotry in 

 the University of Athens, and founded and ediied 

 tome literary and political journals. He was minister , 



of foreign affairs, W5-59. and in 1867 he was sent as 



umliassudor to the Cuiled States Afterwards he was 

 minister to France. Turkey, and linally German- 

 representative of thetircck cvi-rnmeiit he attended the 

 Herlin Congress in I*7S. lie-ides lyrical |>cms he has 

 published a number of dramas relating to various 

 epochs of Greek history, ami translations from the 

 ancient tragedians and Plutarch, as well as from 

 M.inte. Goethe, Shakespeare, and other modern 

 writers. He has also published in French a History f 

 .M'ul-rn (,'nrk /.it, nitnre (1877). 



RANKE, LEOPOLD VON (1795-18SC,), the distin- 

 guished German historian, was born Dec, 21. 17'.i~>, at 

 \Viehc, in Prussian Saxony. He received his univer- 

 sity training at Leipsic, where he studied Thueydidcs 

 under Hermann nnd was attracted by the labors of 

 Niebuhr and Savipny. In 1> IS he became an instruc- 

 tor in the gymnasium at Frankfort, and in !>-'> he 

 was called to the University of Berlin as professor 

 extraordinary of history. He was raised to the pro- 

 fessorship in 1S.')4. He had already entered the wider 

 field in which he won enduring fame, and hud pub- 

 lished one volume of a Hixtnri/ f the Romance and 

 (ii'i-iiniii \iitinnt (ISL'4). He declared his design to 

 show the fundamental unity of modern European 

 civilization, while yet tracing the mixture of the Ro- 

 mance and German elements. This volume covered 

 the period of the Italian wars from 1494 to 1.135. His 

 original plan was then so far modified that the histories 

 of the different states were treated independently. In 

 an appendix to his first volume he had given a critical 

 estimate of the authorities for the period, and had 

 pointed out the importance of careful examination of 

 diplomatic documents. The thorough sifting of' 

 statements previously aeeeplcd nnd the elucidation of 

 what had remained obscure were the features of the 

 new method to which he remained faithful through 

 life. The government of Prussia pave him aid in 

 carrying out his views and authorized him to make re- 

 searches in Vienna. Venice, Florence, and Rome. The 

 first instalment of his new scries appeared in iM'7, 

 giving the history of the Turks and Spain in the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth centuries. His attention to 

 the main work was varied with monographs on Servian 

 and Venetian history and lectures on Italian poetry. 

 For a few years Ranke was associated with Savigny in 

 editing a historical magazine, but from 1835 lie de- 

 voted himself to original work. His labors on the 

 history of the papacy. J>i>- JtHniixrlir /'i/>f>>' ; Hire 

 KircJietinil lltr Sinut (I volg., 1834-37), gave him fame 

 not merely in Germany but throughout Europe. 

 Though not his best work it has been most widely 

 circulated. It reached ite eighth edition in issfi. and 

 had in (he meantime been translated into English by 

 Miss Austin (1840) and into other Innpunpes. Its 

 effect was to reveal to Protestant Christendom the true 

 character and extent of what Ranke named the 

 Counter-Reformation. This effect is graphically pre- 

 sented in Macaulay's admirable review. 



In his subsequent works the historian turned from 

 the South of Europe, dominated by Catholicism, to 

 the North, where the Reformation had prevailed. His 

 work here was even more important, though less 

 widely appreciated. First en me ( iermany, treated in 

 his Dtnttau ii'rsi'liii-litf ini Xrttiiltrr r/.r Rffarmotiem 



(I) vols . ISM'.M"). and then more particularly Prussia 

 in the i'irnf*!*rhf (iffcfiichte (3 vols., 1S47 IK ; sui> 

 <l\iently enlarged, 1H71-74}. Ranke had been appointed 

 historiographer of Prussia in IS4I, and he amply re- 

 paid the tavor which he had ever received from its 

 royal family. Still pursuing his plan of giving elabo- 

 rate histories of the several European states, lie next 

 published the history of France (. r > vols., IS.VJ-fili, 

 and that of England (fi vols., I8.V.I- i'.7 ; afterwards 

 extended to '.I vols. , 1 S77- -7'.1). He. was allowed to 

 retire from duty as professor in 1S7I, nnd ininie'liatcly 

 1 .111 a (Imroujjh revision of his Hoiks, a collet-led 



edition of which had already appeared in 4s vol- 



