i.- 



AYTON, SI R ROBERT. 



AZARA, DON JOSfi NICOLAS. 



chronicles of the Carlovingian dynasty. A Count lUinaldui of Aqul- 

 tania, count of Nantm, U mentioned in Dnchesne's ' HUtorue Fran- 

 cos-am Seripturm,' u having fought under Charles the Bald against 

 the Bretons, and being killed in battle, A.D. 84S. Near Anccnia, not 

 far from N antes, U a place called CUirmont, which U the name ascribed 

 to the family of the Regnault of romance. Eginhardt, in his ' Annales 

 Ludoviri Pii,' mention* a ReginaMus, chamberlain to Louis the Pious, 

 who joined in a conspiracy against his sovereign, for which he had hit 

 eyes wared out In the Spanish ballad entitled ' Don Reynaldo*.' ha 

 appear* aa banished from the court of Charlemagne, of whose injustice 

 he bitterly complain*. He then resolves to accompany hi* cousin 

 Roland to fight against the Moor, and they both perform prodigies 

 of valour. A Rainaldu* U mentioned by the historian Ordericus 

 Vitalis, under the year 870, and is called, hjperbolically no doubt, 

 chief, or general, of all France, ' totiu* Francuo Dux.' Dudo of St 

 Quentin, in Dnchesne's collection, speak* of a ReRinoldus, contem- 

 porary with the Rainaldus of Ordericus, a* a celebrated warrior who 

 died in battle against the Norman*, who had invaded France in the 

 reign of Charles the Bald, and aays that his standard-bearer Rotlandus 

 fell with hiui. Ordericus says that both Rainaldus and Rotlandus were 

 kill, d by the Normans of Rollo, the finishing blow to Rainaldus bring 

 given by a fisherman of the Seine, who pierced him with a spear ; and 

 several other Rainaldi are mentioned. All these Rainaldi were pro- 

 bably confounded in one personage by subsequent romance writers, 

 who gathered their material* from old ballads aud traditional legends. 

 In the same manner the weak and credulous character attributed in 

 most romances to Charlemagne belongs more properly to his successors 

 Louis and Charles the Bald, and the wars of Charles Martel against 

 the Saracens who had invaded Franco have been ascribed, through a 

 like anachronism, to the reign of Charlemagne. 



In the romance ' Las quatre fill Aymon,' by Huon de Villeneuve, 

 already mentioned, Aymon, count of Dordone, is represented as 

 having four valiant ions, Alard, Regnault, Guichard, and Richardet 

 The sons bad a cousin named Maugis (the Malsgigi of Italian romance), 

 who equalled them in valour, and who was moreover a sorcerer or 

 enchanter. Beuve d'Aygremont, father of Maugis, had killed one of 

 the ion* of Charlemagne, but had sued and obtained pardon. Some 

 time after Qurnnes (the Gano of the Italian poems), a relative of the 

 emperor, and a man of consummate wickedness, treacherously slew 

 Beuvo with the connivance of Charlemagne. It happened, after this, 

 that Regnault was playing at chess with Bertholet, the emperor's 

 nephew, when the latter insulted and struck him. Regnault, who 

 had Dot forgotten the murder of his uncle, seized the chess-board, 

 which was of solid gold, and struck Bertholet with it, and with such 

 violence that he clove his head in two. In consequence of this, the 

 four brothers, aa well as Maugis, were outlawed, and Aymon himself 

 was ordered by the emperor to march against his own sons. They 

 obtained possession of a cattle called Montensor, in which they 

 defended thems-lves for seven years, and defeated their father's 

 vaesals. Being obliged at l-t to evacuate the castle, they were 

 attacked iu their retreat by the emperor in person, when Regnault 

 slew one of the emperor's squires, and nearly killed the emperor him- 

 self. The brothers then took shelter in a forest, where they lived as 

 banditti. They afterwards found protection from Yon, king of Bor- 

 deaux, who gave bis sister Clarice in marriage to Regnault, whom he 

 allowed to build a strong castle in his dominions, which was called 

 Montauban (the Montalbauo of Italian romance). Yon however, being 

 hard pressed by Charlemagne, consented to betray the Fils Aymon. 

 Ricbardet was seized, and would have been hanged had it not been for 

 the timely assistance of Regnault Mangi* escaped by the help of his 

 swrorry, after which he turned hermit, and Regnault went to the Holy 

 Land, where he performed many exploit* against the Saracen*. On 

 his return home be made peace with the emperor. He then killed 

 Foulques of Morillon, a traitor of the Maganza family, aft< r which a 

 combat took place, in which Regnault's .on* Ivon and Aymonet killed 

 the two sons of Foulque*. Regnault then, being tired of the world, 

 repaired to Cologne to assist in the building of the cathedral of that 

 town, as a common workman, in expiation of his sins, and there he 

 wan killed by bis brother workmen, who were jealous of hi* luperior 

 kill and address. His body afterwards performed miracles, and he 

 was canonUed as a saint 



Such U the substance of this story, which, with many alteration* 

 and addition*, ha* been made the groundwork of subsequent romances, 

 through which the name of Regnault or Rinaldo has acquired a sort 

 of historical fame. 



(Abridged from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the 

 U'/unon of I'i'fiJ KtvufUdyt.) 



AYTON, or AYTOUN, SIR ROBERT, was born of a good family 

 at Kiualdie in Fifeshire, in 1670. He waa a younger son, and was incor- 

 porated a student at St Leonard'* College, iu the university of St 

 Andrew'., with his elder brother, in 1684. He took the degree of 

 Uaator of Arts at St Andrew's in 1588, and afterwards studied in 

 France. In 1603 he addressed an encomiastic Latin poem iu hexame- 

 ter* to King James I., on hi* accession to the throne of England. 

 Ayton swms to have been an accomplished courtier, and he reapec 

 the reward of his adulation in being appointed to the offices of private 

 secretary to th queen, gentleman of the bed-chamber, aud master o 

 request*. He waa employed by King James to convey copies of one 



of his work* to the emperor and the various princes in Germany. He 

 woame tha proprietor of a small mountainous estate called Over 

 >urdie, in I'ertluhire ; but he probably continued to reside at court 

 lubrey savs of him, that "be was acquainted with all the wits of his 

 ime in England," and that "he was a great acquaintance of Mr. 

 Thomas Hobbcs. of Malmosbury, who told me he made use of him 

 together with Ben Jonson) for an Aristarchus. when he drew up his 

 ipUtle dedicatory for bis translation of Thucydide*;" and Jonson, iu 

 lis conversation with Drummond of Hawtbornden, remarks that " Sir 

 tobert Ayton loved him dearly." In his Latin poems there are some 

 epitaphs and epigram* in which the name* of other distinguished men 

 of the clay, who appear to have been his friend*, are commemorated. 

 He died in the palace of Whitehall, in March, 1638. The vernacular 

 x>ems of Ayton, for which alone his personal history is now an object 

 it any curiosity, appear to have never been considered by him worthy 

 of preservation, though many of his Latin poems were twice published 

 during his lifetime. With a trifling exception, such of 1, 

 joeuis as have reached us have come down almost traditionally, an 1 

 Live not retained their origiual orthography. During the lat century 

 some pieces of poetry which found their way into poetical selections 

 were attributed on imperfect testimony to Sir Robert Ayton ; a col- 

 ection of these was printed in the miscellany of the Bannatyno Club. 

 Some years ago a student of St Andrew's purchased at a sale of books 

 a manuscript, which bore the title of ' The Poems of that worthy 

 rentleman Sir Robert Ayton, Knight, Secretary to Anna and Mary, 

 Queens of Great Britain,' &c.; but this version is also of comparatively 

 ate date, and iu modern orthography. It contains some pieces which 

 are not iu the Bannatyue collection, and has been very creditably 

 edited by the discoverer. Burns was a great admirer of some of the 

 woma attributed to Ayton ; and one of them is the original of his 

 ' Auld Lang Syne.' A monument to Ayton' s memory, with an 

 ascription detailing some of the events of his life, stands in the south 

 side of the choir of Westminster Abbey, at the corner of Henry V.'s 

 chapel. (Abridged from the Biographical Dictionary of the Society 

 for the Di/iuion of Useful Knowledge.) 



AZA'RA, DON FELIX DE, was born at Barbunales, near Bal- 

 bastro, in Aragon, on May 18, 1746. He received his early education 

 at Hueaca, and afterwards studied at the military academy of Barce- 

 lona. In 1764 he entered the army, and served as a lieutenant in the 

 expedition against Algiers under O'Reilly, in which he was wounded. 

 In 1780 he was Bent, with tha rank of lieutenant-colonel, as one of the 

 commissioners appointed by Spain to define the limits of its pos- 

 sessions in Paraguay, which had been long a matter of dispute b. 

 Spain and Portugal While there, he undertook the task of making a 

 map of Paraguay, a labour which occupied him for thirteen years. 

 He had to explore vast and wild unknown regions, inhabited by Indian 

 tribes, often hostile, and in the midat of dangers and privations 

 of every kind. He was also exposed to annoyance and persecution 

 from the jealousy and ignorance of the Spanish authorities. Azara's 

 character however withstood these aevere trials, and he rendered some 

 essential nervines to his government, especially in reconnoitring the 

 coast south of the Rio de la Plato, in the country of the Pat igonians. 

 He was recalled to Europe in 1801. He then went to Paris, where 

 his' elder brother, Nicolas do Azara, was ambassador for Spain ; aud 

 ho remained there until his brother's death iu January 1803. After- 

 wards, Charles IV., king of Spain, called him to Madrid, and appointed 

 him a member of the council for Indian affairs. He died at Aragon 

 in 1811. 



Azara's travels in South America were published in French at 

 Madrid in 5 vols., 8vo, 1802. A French version was published at Paris 

 in 1809 ; it was edite.l by C. A. Walekenaar, to whom the author bad 

 intrusted the revision of the work, with notes by O. Cuvier, an atl.n, 

 and a life of Azara, 4 vols. 8vo. They contain a description of Para- 

 guay, and of the various Indian tribes scattered through that vast 

 region, their habits and characteristic varieties; with an account of 

 the Spanish discovery aud conquest, and of the establishment of the 

 missionary colonies by the Jesuits, and of their singular system of 

 government The second part of the work consists of a valuable 

 history of the quadrupeds and reptiles of that country, which hail 

 been previously published separately in 2 voU Svo, Paris, 1801 ; it 

 waa translate into l-'r.-nch from the manuscripts of the author, by 

 Moreau St. Mery. An English translation of the first volume of the 

 Spanish edition of Azara'* ' Natural History,' by Mr. P. Hunter, waa 

 published at Edinburgh in 1830 under the title of ' The Natural 

 History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the River La Plata.' 



AZA'RA, DON JOSE NICOLAS DE, was born at Barbunales in 1731. 

 He studied at Salamanca, where he attracted the attention of Don 

 Ricardo Val, minister of King Ferdinand VI., who gave him a place in 

 the department of foreign affairs. In 1700 he was sent to Rome, as agent 

 for the ecclesiastical affairs <>f Spain. Don Jos6 Moniuo, known after- 

 wards at the Count of Florida Blanco, who was then Spanish ambas- 

 sador at the court of Rome, being soon after appointed prime nr 

 of Charles III., waa succeeded in the embas-y by the Duke Grim:ddi, 

 but Azara performed all the real diplomatic buxincis with the papal 

 court He took an active part in the difficult Deviations concerning 

 the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain. After Urimaldi'n d. .itli, 

 Azara was appointed his imccessor. He enjoyed the fnll confidence 

 of Pope Pius VI., and hod much influence on the Roman politic* of 



