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TIIROCMORTON, SIR NICHOLAS. 



THUCYDIDES. 



and brother of Hioro the Elder, who ruled over Syracuse till the year 

 B.C. 460. Hiero was succeeded by his brother Tlirasybulus, who was 

 a bloodthirsty tyrant, and oppressed the people still more than Hiero : 

 great numbers of citizens were put to death and others sent into 

 exile, and their property filled the private coffers of the tyrant. In 

 order to protect himself against the exasperated citizens, he got 

 together a large force of mercenaries, and relying on this new support, 

 he carried his reckless cruelties so far that at last the Syracusans 

 determined to rid themselves of their tyrant. They chose leaders to 

 give them a military organisation, that they might be enabled to resist 

 the mercenaries of Thrasybulus. The tyrant at first endeavoured to 

 stop the insurrection by persuasion, but this attempt failing, he drew 

 reinforcements from Catana and other places, and also engaged new 

 mercenaries. With this army, consisting of about 15,000 men, he 

 occupied that part of the city which was called Achradina, and the 

 fortified island, and harassed by frequent sallies the citizens, who 

 fortified themselves in a quarter of their city called Ityce. The Syra- 

 cusaus sent envoys to several Greek towns in the interior of Sicily, 

 soliciting their aid. The request was readily complied with, and they 

 soon had an army and a fleet at their disposal. Thrasybulus attacked 

 them both by sea and land, but his fleet was compelled to sail back to 

 the island after the loss of several triremes, and his army was obliged 

 to retreat to Achradina. Seeing no possibility of maintaining himself, 

 he sent ambassadors to the Syracusaus with offers of terms of peace, 

 which was granted on condition of his quitting Syracuse. Thrasy- 

 bulus submitted to these terms, after having scarcely reigned one year, 

 and went to Locri iu Southern Italy, in B.C. 466, in exile. After the 

 Syracusans had thus delivered themselves of the tyrant, they granted 

 to his mercenaries free departure, and also assisted other Greek towns 

 in Sicily in recovering their freedom. (Diodorus Sic., xi. 67 and 68.) 



THROCMORTON, SIR NICHOLAS, was descended from an 

 ancient family in Warwickshire, and his ancestors had been employed 

 in the higher offices of state for some centuries. His father, Sir 

 George Throcuiorton, had been in favour with Henry VIII., but being 

 a zealous papist, he incurred the king's displeasure by refusing to take 

 the oath of supremacy, and about 1538 was imprisoned in the Tower 

 of London, where he remained several years. 



Nicholas, who was Sir George's fourth son, was born about the year 

 1513. Having been appointed page to the Duke of Richmond, the 

 king's natural son, he accompanied his master to France, and remained 

 in his service till the duke's death in 1536. Sir George Throcmorton 

 was released from the Tower in 1543. His son Nicholas was then 

 appointed sewer to the king. In 1544 he headed a troop in the arma- 

 ment against France which Henry VIII. commanded in person ; lie 

 assisted at the siege of Boulogne, and after his return received a 

 pension from the king as a reward for his services. After the king's 

 death he attached himself to the queen-dowager Catherine Parr, and 

 to the Princess Elizabeth. In 1547 he distinguished himself in the 

 campaign in Scotland under the Protector Somerset ; he was present 

 at the battle of Pinkey (or Musselburgh), and Somerset sent him to 

 London with the news of the victory. He was soon afterwards created 

 a knight, appointed to a place ia the privy-chamber, and admitted to 

 great intimacy with Edward VI. The king bestowed upon him some 

 valuable manors, and made him under-treasurer of the Mint. He sat 

 in parliament during Edward's reign as member for Northampton. 



A short time before the king's death, Sir Nicholas married the 

 daughter of Sir Nicholas Carew, and on taking his wife to visit his 

 father at Coughton in Warwickshire, he was received with coldness by 

 the old knight ; partly perhaps on account of his Protestant principles, 

 but chiefly because he had been knighted before his eldest brother. 

 To remove this cause of offence, he took his brother back with him to 

 court, and, at the request of Sir Nicholas, the king raised him to the 

 dignity of a knight. 



Sir Nicholas Throcmorton was present when Edward VI. died at 

 Greenwich in 1553. He was aware of the designs of the partisans of 

 Lady Jane Grey, but, though a Protestant, he was too much attached 

 to law and legitimacy to give any sanction to them. He therefore came 

 immediately to London, and despatched Mary's goldsmith to announce 

 to her the king's demise. On the 2nd of February 1554, Sir Nicholas 

 Throcmortou was arrested and committed to the Tower on a charge 

 of being concerned in the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt. On the 

 17th of April he was brought to trial at Guildhall, London. This 

 trial is the most important and interesting event in his life. It is 

 certain that he was acquainted with Wyatt's intentions, and there is 

 little doubt that he was to some extent implicated in the rebellion. 

 He was tried before commissioners, some of whom were bitterly inimi- 

 cal to him, and who seemed to regard his trial as merely a form neces- 

 sary to be gone through previous to his execution. Sir Nicholas how- 

 ever conducted his own defence; and this he did with such admirable 

 adroitness, such promptness of reply and coolness of argument, inter- 

 mixed with retorts spirited, fearless, and reiterated, in answer to the 

 partial remarks of the lord chief justice and other commissioners, an^l 

 followed up by an impassioned earnestness of appeal to the jury, that, 

 in defiance of the threats of the chief justice and the attorney-general, 

 he obtained a verdict of acquittal. Sir Nicholas was directed to be 

 discharged, but was remanded, and kept in prison till the 18th of 

 January 1555. The jury were made to suffer severely for their inde- 

 pendent verdict. Two were fined 2000J. each, six were fined 1000 



marks each, and four, who expressed contiition, were not fined. All 

 were remanded to prison, where they remained till the 12th of Decem- 

 ber, when five were discharged on payment of the reduced fine of 2202. 

 each, three on payment of 601. each, and four without fine. 



Sir Nicholas Throcmorton, after his release, avoided the approaching 

 storm of persecution by going to France, where he remained till 1556. 

 Though he afterwards served in Queen Mary's army under the Earl of 

 Pembroke, he devoted himself chiefly to the Princess Elizabeth, whom 

 he visited privately at Hatfield. When Queen Mary died, he was 

 admitted to see her corpse, and, as Elizabeth had requested, took from 

 her finger the wedding-ring which had been given to her by Philip, 

 and delivered it to Elizabeth. Elizabeth gave him the office of chief 

 butler of England, a situation of some dignity, but inconsiderable 

 emolument, and afterwards made him chamberlain of the exchequer. 

 In 1559 he was sent on an embassy to France, and remained at the 

 French court as resident ambassador till the beginning of 1563. Dr. 

 Forbes has published the greater part of Throcmorton's correspondence 

 with his own government while he was in this confidential situation. 

 It displays great diplomatic skill and management, but perhaps rather 

 too much tendency to intrigue ; and he supported the cautious and 

 somewhat doubtful policy of Cecil with zeal and discretion. Indeed 

 he was on the most confidential terms with Cecil during the whole of 

 this period, but after his return a coolness arose between the two 

 statesmen, which increased till it became a strong personal animosity. 



In 1565 Throcmorton was sent on a special embassy to Scotland, to 

 remonstrate with Mary Queen of Scots against her intended marriage 

 with Darnley ; and when Mary was imprisoned at Lochleven in 1567, 

 Throcmorton was commissioned by Elizabeth to uegociate with the 

 rebel lords for her release. 



In 1569 Throcmorton was sent to the Tower on a charge, which 

 indeed appears to have been well founded, of having been engaged in 

 the intrigue for a marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and the 

 Duke of Norfolk. Though he was not kept long in confinement, he 

 never afterwards regained the confidence of Elizabeth, and the distress 

 of mind occasioned by the loss of her favour has been thought to have 

 hastened his death, which took place at the house of the Earl of 

 Leicester, February 12, 1571, in his fifty-eighth year. 



Sir Francis Walsingham, in a letter to the Earl of Leicester on the 

 occasion of Throcmortou's death, says of him that ' for counsel in 

 peace and for conduct in war he hath not left of like sufficiency that 

 I know." Caruden says he was " a mau of large experience, piercing 

 judgment, and singular prudence ; but he died very luckily for himself 

 and his family, his life and estate being in great danger by reason of 

 his turbulent spirit." 



THUA'NUS, J. A. [Tnou, DE.] 



THUCY'DIDES (owKi/Sffijy), the son of Olorus, or Orolus, and 

 Hegesipyle, was a native of the demus of Alimus iu Attica. He was 

 connected by his mother's side with the family of the great Miltiades, 

 and the name of his father was a common one among the Thracian 

 princes. If he was forty years old at the commencement of the Pelo- 

 ponnesian war, according to the statement of Pamphila (Gellius, xv. 

 23), he was born in B.C. 471. In his own work he nowhere mentions 

 his age or the time of his birth, but he says that he lived through the 

 whole of the Peloponnesian war, and that he was of the proper age 

 for observing its progress (v. 26). 



Our principal information respecting the life of Thucydides is a 

 biography of him written by Marcellinus, which is however full of 

 contradictions and doubtful stories. There is also an anonymous 

 biography of him prefixed to many editions of his works, which is 

 still worse than that of Marcelliuus. Thucydides mentions inci- 

 dentally a few facts concerning himself, which is almost all that we 

 know with certainty about his life. 



There is a well-known story that when a boy he heard Herodotus 

 read his History at Olympia, and was so much moved that he burst 

 into tears. But there is good reason for believing that this recitation 

 of the History of Herodotus never took place at the Olympic games 

 [HERODOTUS] ; and if there is any foundation for the story of Thucy- 

 dides having heard him read it, we would rather refer it to a later 

 recitation at Athens, which is mentioned by Plutarch and Eusebius. 

 Suidas is the only writer who says that Thucydides heard Herodotus 

 at Olympia; Marcellinus and Photius relate the same tale without 

 mentioning where the recitation took place. 



There seems nothing improbable in the accounts of the ancient 

 biographers that Thucydides was taught philosophy by Anaxagoras 

 and rhetoric by Antiphon ; but their statement that he accompanied 

 the Athenian colony to Thurii is probably a mistake arising from their 

 confounding him with Herodotus, who, we know, was of the colonists. 

 But whether he went to Thurii or not, it h certain that he was in 

 Athens iu the second year of the Peloponnesian war, B.C. 430, when 

 he wa one of those who had the plague. (Thucyd., ii. 48.) In the 

 eighth year of the war, B.C. 424, he was in command of an Athenian 

 fleet of seven ships, which lay off Thasos. Brasidas, the Lacedaemo- 

 nian commander, made an attempt to obtain possession of Amphipolis 

 on the Strymon, which then belonged to Athens ; and Thucydides, aa 

 soon as he heard of it, sailed to protect Amphipolis, but was only in 

 sufficient time to save Eion, a seaport at the mouth of the Strymon. 

 Amphipolis had fallen before he could arrive there. (Thucyd., iv. 

 102, &c.) For this he was either condemned to death or banished by 



