PETER III. 



PETER8EN, NIELS MATTHIAS. 



M 



,lth of Catharine, to virtm of a will procured by Menschikov her 

 miliittii. who hoped to pnsrm man influence with the yoiin;: prince 

 than if the sceptre pawed to the Princess Anna of Holstcin. H bad 

 abo o*n*sd to be inserted in the will that the prince should marry 

 on at hi* daughter*, while hi* ton waa to marry the emperor* dster. 

 The plan however wholly failed. Prter had taken a dislike to hi* 

 proroeed eoMott, and be bad a young favourite named Dolgoronki. 

 With his itairtamt, and that of ome older and abler heada among 

 the minitten of the deed emprt**, Mennchikov was aeized, alt 

 hi* property confiscated, and ho was banished to Siberia, where he 

 died in poverty in 1729. Peter showed that he had some good 

 qualities for a governor, bat he wai yonng and easily misled by his 

 favourite*, who had no desire that he should govern for himself, but 

 by them, and tought to bring about a marriage with Dolgorouki's 

 sister. He was encouraged in dissipations that told upon a frame 

 not naturally strong. He fell sick, and being attacked with small pox 

 did oo January 29, 1TSO, and was succeeded by Anna Ivanovna. 

 Peter waa the last male representative of the family of Romanov. 



PETER III., FKODOROV1CH, the grandson of Peter the Great by his 

 daughter Anna Petrovna, who had married the Duke of Holstein 

 Qottorp, was born in 1726. In 1742 he was named heir to the throne, 

 and went to Russia, where Oranienbaum was assigned him for a 

 residence, but he was carefully excluded from nil participation in 

 public affairs. He had been ill educated, and while grumbling at his 

 position, abandoned himself to drunkenness and licentiousness. In 

 1745 he waa married to the Princess Sophia Augusta of Anbalt Zerbst. 

 who on her re baptism in the Greek Church took the name of 

 Catharine. Herself an abandoned and intriguing woman, she certainly 

 effected no reformation in her huband. On January 5, 1762, Kli/a- 

 beth died, and Peter succeeded. His wife's intrigues against him 

 immediately commenced, and Peter laid himself too open to them, 

 even by his best qualities. He concluded a peace with Prussia, and 

 soon afterwards joined that state against Austria ; this was made use 

 of to spread discontent among the officers ; he reduced the revenues 

 of the Church, and this displeased the ecclesiastics ; he pardoned nil 

 the political criminals of the late reign and r< called them, but without 

 receiving much gratitude. At length the conspiracy was fully organised, 

 Catharine was proclaimed empress in St. Petersburg on July 9, 17C2. 

 ]'< t> r was then at Oranienbaum, and old Marshal Munich, the only one 

 of the exiles that showed any disposition to serve him, advised him 

 either to advance to St. Petersburg with the troops he had, or to 

 retreat to his Beet at Cronstadt. Peter hesitated till it was too late. 

 He waa forced to surrender himself, waa removed to Ropscho, where, 

 poison failing, he waa finally strangled by Count Orlov, and Catharine 

 was empress. [CATIIAIUNA II.; ORLOV.J 



1'KTKRBOROUGH, LOUD. [MORDABHT.] 



PETEKMANN. AUGDST HEINRICH, was born April 18,1822, 

 at Itleicherode, near Nordhauscn in the Prussian province of Saxony. 

 He was educated at Nordhausen with the view of entering the Church, 

 but showing a decided preference for the study of geography, he 

 was transferred in 1 839 to Potsdam, where Professor Bergbaus had 

 established an academy. For six years he remained here, and became 

 Berghans* private secretary and librarian. While here he became 

 acquainted with many of the most eminent men of Germany, and in 

 1841 drew the map to illustrate I!oron Humboldt's Central Asia.' 

 In 1845 he went to Edinburgh toasist Mr. A. K. Johnston in preparing 

 his ' Phy.-ical Atlas,' based upon llerghnns's ' Physical Geography,' on 

 which Mr. Pctermann bad been previously occupied. In 1847 he 

 came to London, where he published, in conjunction with the Rev. 

 Thoir.as Milner, an ' Atlas of Physical Geography.' He also wrote an 

 ' Account of the Expedition to Central Africa,' in which subject he 

 ha* ever taken a great interest. He promoted with much success the 

 missions of Drs. earth, Overweg, and Vogel, and wrote frequent com- 

 munications of their progress in the Athenaeum.' His published 

 views respecting the existence of a Polar Sea, have received much 

 confirn ation from the discoveries of Dr. Kane. He also contributed 

 to the new edition of the ' Knoyclop:rdia Britannic*,' and to the 

 Geographical Division of the ' English Cyclopaedia.' In 1854 the Duke 

 of Saxe-Coburg-Uotho created him professor of geography atQotba; 

 and the University of Oiittingcn bestowed the degree of Doctor of 

 Philosophy on him hi 1855. At Gotha he is now employed in superin- 

 tending the Urge establishment of Justus Pel-then for preparing maps, 

 and he edits for the same publisher a monthly journal, consisting of 

 communication.! of maps, charts, and narratives, relating to all import- 

 ant modern discoveries in geography. 



PETKKS, BONAVKNf URA, one of the most eminent marine 

 painters of the Low Countries, was born at Antwerp in 1614. The 

 subjects which he in general preferred were storms at sea, which he 

 represented with gnat truth and feeling. Especially was he skilful in 

 depicting storms and wreck* with their accompanying circumstances 

 of terror or pathos. Sometimes however he painted calms and views 

 of outlet, or towns on the sea-thore, with equal merit. There is the 

 same light and spirited touch, the same transparency in his colouring, 

 and his water, whether agitated or still, baa equal truth and delicacy. 

 Tb figure* are extremely well designed and exquisitely finished. In a 

 fcwof bis works (which perhaps are erroneously ascribed to him) the 

 eolOBrins; is too coarse, and the draperies of the figures mingled with 

 UnU that do cot harmonise with the whole. Hi* best work, are very 



valuable and scarce, for ha died, In 1652, at the early age of thirty- 

 eight years. 



PKTCKS, JOHN, brother of Bonaventura, was born at Antwerp, in 

 1625. He painted the same subjects aa his brother, and his picture* 

 are nearly as finely touched, as well coloured, and as transparent ; they 

 are also like those of Bonaventura enriched with excellent figures. 

 His sea-fights were much admired ; and he also painted views of 

 villages, towns, and fortresses on the banks of rivers, which he designed 

 after nature. 



PETERSEN, NIELS MATTHIAS, an eminent Danish antiquarian 

 and historical writer, bears one of the commonest names in Denmark, 

 the list of the Petersen* occupying no less than twenty pages in the 

 last edition of the Copenhagen directory. He was born towards the 

 end of October 1791 at the country town of Sanderum, in the island of 

 Funen, and adopted at the age of two by bis uncle, a burgher < f 

 Odensee, the chief town of the island. In 1801, at the ago of ten, he 

 wo* sent to the cathedral school of Odensee, where he was joined in 

 the same year by another scholar, whose company and conversation 

 decided the future course of Petersen's life. This was Rasmus Kaak 

 [RASK], afterwards the great philologist, at that time a boy of fourteen, 

 very small for his age. Rak, who noon received the name of the 

 ' little professor,' exercised so strong an influence over his fellow- 

 scholars, that when a few years after hu obtained a copy of the Icelandic 

 ' Heimskringla ' for a school-prize, and by the aid of the annexed 

 translation compiled from it an Icelandic dictionary in two tolerably 

 thick octavos, three other boys took copies of it for their own use, one 

 of whom was Petersen. Many interesting particulars of Petersen's 

 school-days are contained in his Life of Rask, prefixed to Rank's 

 'Samlede Afhandlinger,' or 'Collected Es=ays,' published after his 

 death in 18S4 ; and also in his life of Krejdal, another school-fellow, 

 who became an eminent mathematician, prefixed to Krejdal's ' Omrids 

 of Pananalysis,' or ' Outline of Pananalysis,' in 1883. Though Petersen 

 as led by Rask's example to acquire a knowledge of Icelandic, his 

 inclinations led him to historical rather than philological studies. 

 After taking a degree at the University of Copenhagen, he became 

 teacher at the normal school of Brahetrolleborg in Funen ; but on 

 that school being broken up in 1826 he was left without a position, 

 and in unfavourable circumstances. A prize was ottered by the Society 

 for the Promotion of Danish Literature for the best essay on the 

 history of the Scandinavian languages, and he obtained it by what has 

 now become a standard work, ' Det Danske, Norske og Svenske Sprogs 

 Historic,' 2 vols., 1829-30. Rask, who had returned from a long 

 journey of philological exploration to Russia, India, and Ceylon, was 

 one of the judges who awarded him the prize; aud on the 2 1st of 

 November 1829, when Rask was appointed librarian to the University 

 of Copenhagen, Petersen obtained the post of assistant-librarian. The 

 next year he was appointed registrar to the Secret Archives; in 1841 

 he received the title of professor; in 1845 he was made professor- 

 extniordinary of the northern languages at Copenhagen ; and by the 

 Danish calendar we observe that he now holds the office of professor- 

 in -ordinary, which is a step in promotion. He is a member of the 

 Danish Academy of Sciences, and other learned societies of Copenhagen. 



His works ore numerous and important His ' Danmarks Hi*torie i 

 Hedenold,' 8 vols. 1834-38, 'History of Denmark in Heathen Times," 

 is a lucid compendium of the present state of knowledge on a subject 

 with many interesting points. The sketch of the political, religious, 

 and domestic condition of the ancient Danes, which occupies the third 

 volume, is considered of high value. His 'Handbook of Ancient 

 Northern Geography,' 1834, has unfortunately never advanced beyond 

 the first volume. The index to the names of places mentioned in the 

 collection of Icelandic Sagas, called the 'Fornmanna Sogur,' pub- 

 lished in twelve volumes by the Northern Antiquarian Society, and 

 finished in 1837, was compiled by Professor Petersen as an assistance 

 in these studies. Both the index and the handbook have an interest 

 for English antiquarians. The index shows, for instance, that 

 London Bridge is mentioned four times in the ' Fornmanna Sogur.' 

 In the learned aud entertaining 'Chronicles of London Bridge,' by 

 Mr. Richard Thomson of the London Institution, we find that almost 

 the earliest mention of the bridge in history is an account in one of 

 these Sagas of its destruction by a Norwegian sea-king named Olave, 

 the very man who, already a Christian, afterwards became a saint, 

 and whose church now stands at one end of the bridge, while a church 

 dedicated to hi* son St. Magnus stands at the other. Professor 

 Petersen translated seven volumes of these Sagos into Danish, and 

 published a work in four volumes on the ' Voyages and Travels of 

 the Icelanders at Home and Abroad,' 1839. A 'Danish Mythology' 

 from hU pen appeared in 1849. Ho edited, in conjunction with 

 Professor Molbecb [MoLBEcn], a 'Selection of hitherto unpublished 

 Danish Documents and Letters of the 14th, 15th, and 10th centuries.' 

 A very important work from his pen is now in progress his ' Contri- 

 butions to the History of Danish Literature' (' Bid rag til den Dansko 

 Literatun Historie'), of which the first volume, comprising the middle 

 ages, appiarrd in 185!!, and the second, comprising the time of the 

 Reformation, in 1854. He purposes to continue it to the death of 

 Oeblcnschliiger in 1850. The contributions of Professor Peterson 

 to the ' Athene,' the ' Danske Magozin," and other periodicals are 

 numerous ; one in the ' Athene ' is a poem in honour of Shokspere. 

 He is one of the supporter* of the new system of Danish orthography 



