ORIZABA 



ORLEANS 



643 



See ' An Account of the Keligion of the Khonds in 

 Orissa,' in Tram. Asiatic Hoc. ( 1851 ) ; Campbell's Personal 

 ffarratire of Service amamjit the Wild Tribes of Khandii- 

 tan (1864); Calcutta Review, Nos. IX., XI., XV., and 

 XX. ; and Orwa, by W. W. Hunter (1872). 



Ori/.a'ba, capital of the Mexican state of Vera 

 Cruz, 82 miles WSW. of Vera Cruz City, and 181 

 ESE. of Mexico, lies in a fertile garden country, 4030 

 feet above the sea, and contains an extensive cotton- 

 factory, paper and corn mills, and railway-shops. 

 Pop. 12,500. The volcano of Orizaba, 25 miles to 

 the north, is a noble pyramid rising to an elevation 

 of 17,876 feet, or, according to Heilprin's measure- 

 ments (1890), 18,205 feet. Its last severe eniption 

 was in 1566. 



Orkney Islands, a group of ninety Scotch 

 islands, islets, and skerries, of which only twenty- 

 eight are inhabited, and which have an aggregate 

 aren of 376 sq. m., the largest being Pomona or 

 Mainland (207 sq. in.), Hoy (53), Sanday (26), 

 Wrstray, South Konaldshay, Rousay, Stronsay, 

 Edav, Shapinshay, Hurray, Flotta, &c. They ex- 

 tend 50 miles north-north-eastward, and are separ- 

 ated from Caithness by the Pentland Firth, 6J 

 miles wide at the narrowest. With the exception 

 only of Hoy (q.v.), which has fine clilfs, and in the 

 Ward Hill attains 1564 feet, the scenery is gener- 

 ally tame, the surface low and treeless, with many 

 fresh-water lochs. The prevailing formation is the 

 Old Red Sandstone, witn a small granitic district 

 near Stromness ; and the soil is mostly shallow, 

 incumbent on peat or moss. The mean annual 

 temperature is 45, the rainfall 34'3 inches. The 

 area under cultivation has more than doubled since 

 1850, but is still less than one-half of the total area. 

 The live-stock during the same period has trebled. 

 The holdings are small 16J acres on an average ; 

 and agriculture and fishing are the principal 

 industries. Kirkwall and Stromness, the only 

 towns, are noticed separately, as also are the 

 standing-stones of Stennis and the tumulus of 

 Maeshowe. Orkney unites with Shetland to 

 return one memlwr to parliament, but it was dis- 

 severed therefrom as a county by the Local Govern- 

 ment (Scotland) Act, 1889. Pop. (1801) 24,445; 

 (1861) 32,395; (1891) 30,453. The Orkneys 

 (Ptolemy's Orccutes) were gradually wrested by 

 Norse rovers from their Pictish inhabitants ; and 

 in 875 Harold Haarfager conquered lioth them and 

 the Hebrides. They continued subject to the 

 Scandinavian crown under Norse jarls till 1231, 

 and afterwards under the Earls of Angus and 

 Stratherne and the Sinclairs till in 1468 they 

 were given to James III. of Scotland as a security 

 for the dowry of his wife, Margaret of Denmark. 

 They were never redeemed from this pledge; and 

 in 1590, on James VI. 's marriage with the Danish 

 princess Anne, Denmark formally resigned all 

 claims to the sovereignty of the Orkneys. The 

 present landed proprietors are chiefly of Scotch 

 descent, the islanders generally of mixed Scandi- 

 navian and Scotch origin. 



See J. R. Tndor's Orkney* and Shetland (1883); and 

 Wallace's Description of the Isles of Orkney (new ed. 

 1884 ). For map, we SHETLAND. 



Orleans a city f France, the capital now of 

 the department of Loiret, and formerly of the old 

 province of Orleannais, which comprised the best 

 part of the present departments of Loiret, Eure-et- 

 Loir, anil Loir-et-Cher, with portions of four others. 

 It stands in a fertile plain on the right bank of the 

 Loire, here crossed by a nine-arclieu bridge ( 1700), 

 364 yards long, and by rail is 75 miles SSW. of 

 Paris. Close to it is the Forest of Orleans, covering 

 nearly 150 sq. m. , and planted with oaks and other 

 valuable trees. The walls and gates have given 

 place since 1830 to handsome boulevards, but the 

 town as a whole wears a lifeless appearance, and 



its domestic architecture has much more interest 

 than any of the public edifices. These include the 

 cathedral, destroyed by the Huguenots in 1567, and 

 rebuilt from 1601 onwards by Henry IV. and his 

 three successoi-s ; the Mairie ( 1530) ;"and the 15th- 

 century Mustc (till 1853 the hotel-de-ville). Note- 

 worthy are the house of Agnes Sorel, Diane de 

 Poitiers, and Joan of Arc, of whom there are three 

 statues the bronze equestrian one inaugurated in 

 1855. The commerce is far more important than 

 the industries (of which the chief is market-garden- 

 ing), Orleans possessing unusual transit facilities 

 by road and railway, river and canal. Pop. (1872) 

 48,976 ; ( 1891 ) 61,073. The Celtic Genabum, where 

 in 52 B.C. the great Gallic rising broke out against 

 Julius Caesar, Orleans afterwards (about 272 A.D. ) 

 was renamed Civitas Aureltani, of which the present 

 name is only a corruption. It was besieged by 

 Attila (q.v.) in 451 ; passed into the hands of the 

 Franks ; and was twice plundered by the North- 

 men (855 and 865). In 1428-29 it was besieged by 

 the English under the Duke of Bedford, but was 

 delivered by Joan of Arc (q.v.), called therefore the 

 Maid of Orleans. Dnnois (q.v.) was known as the 

 Bastard of Orleans. The town suffered much in the 

 wars of the Huguenots (q.v. ); and in the Franco- 

 German war it again figured prominently, being 

 occupied by the invaders, Octol>ei 1 1 to November 

 9, 1870, and then the headquarters of the great 

 Army of the Loire until its crushing defeat by 

 Prince Frederick-Charles ( December 3-5 ). Orleans 

 was the death-place of the Earl of Salisbury ( 1429), 

 of Francis II., Mary Stewart's husband ( 1500), and 

 of the Duke of Guise (1563). See its history by 

 Bimlienet (3 vols. Orleans, 1884-87). 



Orleans, DUKES OF. This title has belonged 

 to three distinct dynasties of French princes of the 

 blood. The title was first given in 1392 by Charles 

 VI. to his dissolute brother Louis (1371-1407), who 

 became regent on the king's madness, and was 

 murdered in the streets of Paris at the instigation 

 of the Duke of Burgundy in revenge for his father's 

 death (see Jarry's Louis de France, 1890). His 

 successor was his son Charles (1391-1465), the 

 poet. Charles's son Louis succeeded to the throne 

 as Louis XII. in 1498, whereupon the dukedom of 

 Orleans merged in the crown. It was revived in 

 1626, when Louis XIII. created his ambitious and 

 intriguing brother, Jean Baptiste Gaston ( 1608-60), 

 Duke of Orleans and Chartres and Count of Blois. 

 He died without male issue, whereupon Louis XIV. 

 at once revived the title in favour of his brother 

 Philippe (1640-1701), the husband of Henrietta, 

 sister of Charles II., and, after her death, of the 

 Princess Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria. His 

 daughters married Charles II. of Spain, Victor 

 Amadeus II. of Savoy, and Prince Charles of 

 Lorraine ; his son was the regent and debauchee, 

 Philippe (1674-1723), and his great-grandson was 

 the notorious galite, Louis- Philippe Joseph ( 1747- 

 93). Egalite's son, Louis- Philippe (1773-1850), 

 bore the title during his exile, and until he became 

 king of the French in 1830. His eldest son 

 (1810-42) took the title; but it was not borne by 

 his son, the Cointe de Paris (1838-94), who in 1883 

 Iwcame head of the French Bourbons, his son, 

 Louis Philippe Robert (born 1869; travelled in 

 Asia, 1890-95; married an Austrian princess, 1896), 

 assuming the old ducal title. For the Orleanist 

 party, see BOURBON, FRANCE. 



CHARLES, DUKE OF ORLEANS, commonly called 

 Charles d'Orleans, was the eldest son of Louis, 

 Duke of Orleans, and of the high-spirited Valentina 

 Visconti, and was born 26th May 1391. He 

 married in 1406 his cousin Isabella, the widow of 

 Richard II. of England, who brought him scarcely 

 her good-will, but an ample dowry of half a million 

 francs. Three years later she died, leaving him a 



