l 



ARLAUD, JACQUES ANTOINE. 



ARMFEI.T, OUSTAF MAURITZ. 



extraordinary m*- Even without claiming for him the honour of 

 bavin*- been an original inventor, an honour which, upon the best 

 oonsiflsration we can give to the conflicting evidence brought forward, 

 we an still inclined to award him, we may certainly ascribe to him 

 the possession of a clear and comprehensive mind, as well ai the most 

 unrrring judgment. His plans wen laid with skill, and pursued with 

 energy; be displayed the most unwearied perseverance in pursuit of 

 his objrct undsr difficulties which would have borne down most men ; 

 and he form* one among the bright instances afforded by the annals of 

 thi* country, that talent, when allied with patient energy and pene- 

 Teriog industry, will not fail to ensure ultimate success to its possessor. 



Our information concerning Arkwright's private or personal 

 history is of limited extent. In early life he married Patience 

 Holt, of Bolton, who, in December, 1755, became the mother of hi* 

 only son Richard. After her death he married again, either in 1760 

 or 1761, hi* second wife being Margaret Biggins, of Pennington, in 

 the pariah of Leigh ; and from this wife, who U the only one men- 

 tioned by most biographer*, he separated, but when or under what 

 circumstances, is not very certain, although according to some accounts 

 it would appear to have been in consequence of some disagreement 

 arising from his adventurous scheming disposition. By his second 

 wife he had one daughter, who married Charles Hurt, Esq., and 

 inherited part of his property. He left directions to his son, the late 

 Richard Arkwright, Esq., for the completion of a church which he 

 was erecting at Cromford, and also of Willersley Castle, which he was 

 building as a family mansion. That gentleman inherited his father's 

 sagacity and aptitude for business, and became, it has been asserted, 

 the wealthiest commoner in England. He died on the 23rd of April, 

 1844, in his eighty-eighth year, leaving a Urge family ; and his property 

 was sworn, on the proving of hi* will, to exceed 1,000,000*., that being 

 however merely a nominal ram, taken because the scale of stamp 

 duties goes no higher. The probate bore a stamp of 15,750*. Further 

 information respecting the controverted points in the history of Ark- 

 wright and his inventions, may be found in the work* of Baines, 

 Guest, and Dr. Ure, on the ' History of the Cotton-Manufacture,' and 

 in a copious memoir in the ' Biographical Dictionary of the Society 

 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.' 



ARLAUD, JACQUES ANTOINE,a distinguished miniature painter, 

 born at Geneva in 1688, acquired a great reputation at Paris and at 

 London. In Paris he was the instructor of the Regent Duke of 

 Orleans, and bad apartment* in the palace of St Cloud. He came to 

 England in 1721 with letters of introduction to the Prince of Wales, 

 afterwards George II., and returned in 1729 to his own country with 

 a fortune of 200,000 francs : he died at Geneva, in 1743, and be- 

 queathed many book*, work* of art, medals, and various curiosities 

 to the library of that place. Part of his bequest were some pieces of 

 a drawing of a Leda, which he made in Paris, said to have been 

 copied from a basso-riUevo by Michelangelo. Arlaud was originally 

 educated for the church ; he was a man of general acquirement*, and 

 was well versed in language*. While in England he formed a friend- 

 ship with Sir Isaac Newton, who corresponded with him after hi* 

 retirement to Geneva. 



(Descamps, La Vie <Ut fnnlret Flamand, Ac. ; Walpole, AnccJota 

 of fainting in England.) 



ARMAGNAC, COUNTS OF, were descended from the ancient 

 dukes of Aquitaine and Gaacony, and took their title from the county 

 of Annagnac. John L increased the importance of his family by 

 marrying a daughter of the House of Bourbon. He was one of the 

 powerful chiefs, in the south-west of France, strongly opposed to the 

 claims of the English, and for this reason highly trusted by the 

 French king, by whom be was made governor of Languedoc. Al- 

 though we find him accompanying the Black Prince in his Spanish 

 expedition against Peter the Cruel, he was (till the prince'* enemy 

 when France and England renewed the contest. He died in 1373. 

 His grandson, John III., who married the heiress of the House of 

 Comminges, led an army of adventurer* into Italy, where he hud 

 sisge to Alessandria, and fell under its walls in 1391. Bernard, 

 younger brother of John III., succeeded him : he became the most 

 celebrated of hi* family, and gave hi* name to the great party which 

 he headed in opposition to the Burgundians. His aunt married the 

 Duke of Berry, one of the French princes; and Bernard, in 1410, 

 gave his daughter in marriage to the Duke of Orleans, then too young 

 to head bis party, and the task consequently fell to the Count of 

 Annagnac. T:m cruelty with which his rude Gascon bands treated 

 the court and tue people round Paris, inspired them with horror for 

 Ui cans* of Orleans, and contributed in no small degree to give that 

 character of atrocity to the civil wan of tha time in which they stand 

 unequalled. The Armagnao* wen composed of a rustic or pastoral 



population : the Burgundian cans* was chiefly supported by the bur- 

 gess** of the north of Francs sad Flanden ; and thus the mutual 

 hatred of citizen and peasant increased the animosity between the 



In 1412 both Armagnacs and Burgundians courted the alliance of 

 England. The former mad* the higher offers, and stipulated to 

 restore AquiUine to Henry IV. of England, in return for his support. 

 la the following s yar, however, the excesses of the llurgundiana 



first 

 om. 



having disrated tit* Parisian*, the Armagnaoa obtained for the t 

 time superiority in the capital ,and indeed throughout the kingdon 



The accession of Henry V. to the throne of England, his alliance 

 with Burgundy, hi* invasion of France, and the victory at Aginoourt, 

 changed the face of affair*. The Count d'Armagnac, who hurried 

 from the south with a small army to defend the capital, was now the 

 sole reliance of the dauphin. He was accordingly created Constable 

 in the last day* of 1415, and he soon showed himself an active and 

 seven leader. Toward* the citizens, especially of Paris, be acted in 

 an extremely tyrannical manner. In the field however be was not 

 successful. The Earl of Dorset, with very inferior forces, put an 

 army of Armagnacs to disgraceful night ; and the count, in his rage, 

 had no other satisfaction but that of hanging some of his own runaway 

 soldiers. His cruelties and his defeat weakened his party, and hia 

 harshness made an enemy of the queen, who meditated on making 

 uso of the authority of the dauphin to shake off the Armagnao yoke. 

 The dauphin, John, son of Charles VI., soon expired, it was said by 

 poison ; and at the game time the death of other foes or rival < directed 

 suspicion against the count. 



Queen Isabel, whom the Count of Annagnac had confined nt Tours, 

 was not however without her revenge. She communicated to the 

 Duke of Burgundy her wish to escape from the bondage in which she 

 was held; and an expedition undertaken by that prince rescued 

 Isabel from the hands of the count. The Burgundians soon drove 

 the soldier* of Armagnac from the open country, and compelled the 

 count to concentrate his force in Paris, where the Burgundians, with 

 the co-operation of the populace, mastered him, but not without a 

 struggle. At first the persons of the count and the chief members of 

 the Armagnac party were respected, but after a few days the popu- 

 lace, being exasperated by past struggles, and excited by recollection 

 of the tyranny of the Armagnacs, burst open the prisons, and massa- 

 cred all within, their proceedings being characterised by great bar- 

 barity. This took place on the 12th of June, 1418. More than 3000 

 persons are said to have perished in this revolution. 



John, count of Armagnao, grandson of the preceding count, though 

 less powerful as a party chief, was equally notorious for hia crimes 

 and his turbulence. An incestuous intercourse with his sister, which 

 he avowed, and sought to cover by a marriage, first drew upon him 

 the indignation of the Pope Pius II., and of his sovereign, Charles VII. 

 He was excommunicated, and forced by the royal troop* to take 

 refuge in exile. A prosecution was commenced against him before 

 the parliament of Paris : he first appeared to answer the charges, but 

 upon his again taking to flight, he was condemned, and his domains 

 confiscated. The count, by repairing to Rome, contrived to soften 

 the pope's anger, and procured the reversal of hia sentence of excom- 

 munication. Under Louis XL, in 1461, the Count of Armagnac 

 obtained possession of his fiefs, but noon joined in the revolt againat 

 that prince, which the Burgundians abetted. Louis XI. purchased the 

 cessation of bis enmity at the price of 10,000 crowns a sum bestowed 

 in vain. For several years Armagnac seemed an enemy in every 

 sense worthy of Louis XI., revolting, defending himself bravely, when 

 overcome at last vowing submission once more, and again acting the 

 traitor. Cardinal d'Albi, who was sent against him by the king, 

 entered into negociations with him, and concluded terms of peace. 

 lielying on the cardinal's good faith, Armagnac relaxed in the vigilance 

 of his guard ; and the soldiers of the cardinal found means to intro- 

 duce themselves into the fortress of Lectoure, and to massacre the 

 count and hia followers in 1473. The king's commands required the 

 total extermination of the Armagnac race. Jeanne de Foix, the 

 legitimate wife of the count, who was pregnant, was compelled to 

 swallow a draught of poison. His brother Charles was seized, tor- 

 tured, thrust into an unwholesome dungeon, but survived, and was 

 liberated after the death of Louis X I. 



A descendant of the family was created cardinal under Francis I. ; 

 ho was known as an upright administrator and a patron of letters. 

 He died in 1685, at a very advanced age. f NEMOCRS, DUKES or.] 



AKMFELT, GUSTAF MAURITZ, a descendant of Carl Armfelt, 

 and the eldest son of a Finnish nobleman, Baron Armfelt, major- 

 general in the Swedish service, was born at Juva in the government of 

 Abo, on the 1st of April, 1757, and educated in the college of cadets 

 at Carlskrona. In the Memoir* of Armfelt, written by himself, he 

 states that in his youth, when an officer of the guard, he was looked 

 upon so unfavourably by Uustavus, who commanded the regiment in 

 person, that he solicited permission to travel, and went to Paris, where 

 he remained till hearing of the arrival of the King of Sweden nt Spa, 

 travelling incognito under the name of the Count of Haga, he went 

 thither to wait upon him, and so won upon Qustavus's favour that he 

 was invited to return to Sweden. He was soon appointed to a post in 

 the service of the Crown Prince, whose birth three years before hod 

 disappointed the ambitious hope* of Charles, duke of Sudermania, the 

 king's brother, who had till then been looked upon as heir pre- 

 sumptive. By the king's influence he obtained to wife the heiress of 

 the noble family of De la Qordie, one of the first in Sweden, and the 

 numerous letters addressed to him, which are given in the published 

 correspondence of Gustavus III., show that be enjoyed a high place 

 in the favour of the king. When the war with Russia was commenced 

 by Gustavus in 1788, Armfelt was appointed commander of one of the 

 three divisions of the army. At Sutnma, near Fredrikshamn, he 

 defeated a Russian force. The successes of the Swedes were neu- 

 tralised by the confederation of Anjala, a conspiracy of the officers in 



