HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. 



237 



BLESSINGTON, Margaret, Countess of (ne'e 

 Power), 1789-1849, beautiful and accomplished 

 Irish lady. 



BLOOMFIELD, Robert, 1766-1823, Eng. poet. 



BLUCHER, Gebhard Lebrecht von (Marschall 

 Vorwarts), 1742-1819, Prussian field-marshal; 

 decided battle of Waterloo. 



BOABDIL, .... -1536?, last Moorish king of 

 Granada. 



BOCCACCIO, Giovanni, 1313-75, It. novelist. 



BOERHAAVE, Herman, 1688-1738, Dutch 

 physician and philosopher. 



BOGARDUS, James, 1800-74, Am. inventor. 



BOLEYN, Anne, 1507 ?-36, second queen of 

 Henry VIII. of England ; beheaded. 



BOLINGBROKE, Henry St. John, Viscount, 

 1678-1751, Eng. author, orator, and politician. 



BOLIVAR, Simon, 1783-1830, liberator of the 

 South American colonies. 



BONAPARTE, Charles Louis Napoleon (Napo- 

 leon III.), 1808-73, son of Louis Bonaparte ; 

 emperor of the French ; as claimant to the 

 throne of France, attempted in 1836 to take 

 Strasburg, but was banished ; imprisoned in 

 Havre, 1840, for an attempted insurrection at 

 Boulogne, but escaped to England, 1846 ; re- 

 turning to France after revolution of 1848, he 

 was elected president, gained support of the 

 army, and, abolishing popular representation 

 by the coup d'etat of 1851, was declared em- 

 peror; in 1853 he married Eugenie, Countess 

 de Teba. Having surrendered at Sedan, after 

 the decisive battle of the Franco-German war, 

 he was deposed and retired to Chiselhurst, in 

 England. 



BONAPARTE, Joseph, 1768-1844, king of 

 Spain, eldest brother of Napoleon I. 



BONAPARTE, Louis, 1778-1846, king of Hol- 

 land, brother of Napoleon I. 



BONAPARTE, Napoleon (Napoleon I.), 1769- 

 1821, emperor of the French and greatest of 

 modern generals. Born, at Ajaccio, Corsica. 

 Attended military school, 1779 to 1784. En- 

 tered army as sub-lieutenant in 1785, and in 

 1792 had risen to the rank of captain of artil- 

 lery. In 1793 he submitted a plan for the re- 

 duction of Toulon, held by the English and 

 Spaniards, and was intrusted with its execu- 

 tion. His success won for him a commission 

 as brigadier-general. In the spring of 1795, 

 on the remodeling of the army, he was sus- 

 pended and placed upon half-pay, the reason 

 given by the authorities being that he was too 

 young to command the artillery of an army. 

 In the fall, on the breaking out of an insurrec- 

 tion led by the National Guard, the convention 

 recalled Napoleon, who gained a brilliant vic- 

 tory after a brief but bloody engagement. 

 This virtually made him commander-in-chief 

 of the army of the interior. In 1796 he was ap- 



pointed to the command-in-chief of the army of 

 Italy, and in the same year he married Josephine 

 de Beauharnais. In his very first campaign 

 Napoleon appeared a consummate general. In 

 a few weeks he gained four victories, conquered 

 Lombardy and captured Mantua, almost annihi- 

 lating three Austrian armies. He then turned 

 his arms against the Pope, compelling him to 

 pay 30,000,000 lire and surrender many valu- 

 able works of art. After defeating another 

 Austrian army sent to Italy, Napoleon concluded 

 a treaty securing his success. In 1798 he was 

 given command of a powerful expedition into 

 Egypt, the intention being to strike at the power 

 of Great Britain, and gained decisive victories 

 over the Mamelukes and Turkish auxiliaries. 

 Returning to France he overthrew the Directory 

 andwas elected first consul. In 1800 he gained 

 the great victory of Marengo, Made peace with 

 England, 1802, granted general amnesty, es- 

 tablished public order, reestablished the Cath- 

 olic faith, and produced his Civil Code. Napo- 

 leon became emperor in 1804, and engaged in 

 war with England, Russia, Sweden, and Prus- 

 sia. Divorced from Josephine in 1809, he mar- 

 ried Maria Louise, daughter of the emperor of 

 Austria, in 1810. In 1812 occurred the ill- 

 fated Russian campaign, Napoleon's loss be- 

 ing estimated at 450,000 men. Beaten at 

 Leipzig, 1813, he made a disastrous retreat. 

 In 1814 the allies entered Paris, compelled 

 Napoleon to abdicate, and sent him to Elba, 

 granting him the sovereignty of that island, 

 with a yearly pension of 6,000,000 francs. 

 Returning again to France, he was enthusias- 

 tically received and raised an army of about 

 125,000, but was completely defeated at Water- 

 loo, 1815. He abdicated again, and, unable 

 to carry out his intention of embarking for 

 America, surrendered to the captain of a 

 British man-of-war. Carried to the island of 

 St. Helena, he died there in 1821. 



BONAVENTURA, Saint, 1221-74, It. theolo- 

 gian. 



BONHEUR, Rosa (or Rosalie), 1822-1899, Fr. 

 painter of animals. 



BONIFACE L, pope, ruling 419-22 ; II., 

 530-2; III., elected 607 and died same year ; 

 IV., 608-15 ; V., 619-24, distinguished for his 

 efforts to convert the Britons. 



BONIFACE, Winifred, Saint, apostle of Ger- 

 many, 680-755? 



BONNER, Edmund (Bloody Bonner), 1490?- 

 1569, bishop of London, noted for persecution 

 of Protestants. 



BONNIVARD, Francois de, 1496-1570, hero 

 of Byron's " Prisoner of Chillon." 



BOONE, Daniel, 1735-1820?, Am. pioneer; 

 born in Pennsylvania, but removed in boyhood 

 to North Carolina ; visited Kentucky, hitherto 



