3-.G 



SEYMOUR 



SFOKZA 



49,900 in 1889. Victoria, the chief town on Malic, 

 is an imperial naval coaling station, and is visited 

 liy the Messageries Maritime-, steamer* and by 

 merchant vessels for coal. Pop. of islands (1881) 

 14,081; (1890) 16,162 chiefly French Creoles, 

 Indian coolies, negroes, and British officials. See 

 Home, Report on the Seychelles Island* ( 1875). 



Seymour, a city of Indiana, 88 miles by rail 

 \\ . of Cincinnati, with manufactures of woollens, 

 flour, staves, spokes, &c. Pop. (1890) 5307. 



Seymour, an historic family, originally settled 

 in Normandy at St Maur whence the naiiir. 

 Coming over to England, they obtained lands in 

 Monmouthshire as early as the 13th century, and 

 in the 14th at Hatch Beauchanip, Somersetshire, 

 by marriage with an heiress of the Beauchuinps. 

 In 1497 Sir John Seymour helped to suppress the 

 insurrection of Lord Audley ana the Cornish rebels, 

 and subsequently he accompanied Henry VIII. to 

 his wars in France, and to the Field of the Cloth 

 of Gold. His daughter, Jane Seymour (c. 1509- 

 37), became the wife of Henry VIII. and mother of 

 Edward VI. ; and his second BOH, Thomas, created 

 Lord Seymour of Sndeley, became Lord High Ad- 

 miral of England and the second husband of Henry's 

 widow (Catharine Parr), but ended his life on the 

 scaffold (1549). Sir John's eldest son, Edward, 

 was successively created Viscount Beauchamp, 

 Earl of Hertford, and Duke of Somerset, and as 

 Protector played the leading part in the lirst half 

 of the reign of Edward VI. (q.v.). The Protector's 

 eldest son by his second marriage, being created 

 bv Elizabeth Earl of Hertford, married the Lady 

 Catharine Grey, a grand -niece "f Henry VIII., 

 and sister of the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey a 

 marriage which entailed on him a nine years' 

 imprisonment and a line of 15,000. His grand- 

 son, who in 16*21 succeeded him in the earldom of 

 Hertford, also fell into disgrace for attempting to 

 marry the Lady Arabella Stuart, cousin of James 

 I. ; but subsequently, playing a conspicuous part 

 in the royalist cause in the Great Rebellion, 

 obtained a reversal of the Protector's attainder, 

 and in 1660 took his seat in the House of P< > i - 

 as third Duke of Somerset, although the descend- 

 ants of the first duke, by his first marriage, were 

 then in existence. He died unmarried in 1671, 

 and the ducal title ultimately passed to a cousin, 

 on whose death it was inherited by Charles Sey- 

 mour ( 1661-1748), known in history as the ' Proud 

 Duke of Somerset,' a nolileman whose style of 

 living was ostentatious and haughty in the ex- 

 treme, and who filled several high posts in the 

 courts of Charles II., William III., and Anne. 

 He married the heiress of the Percies, by whom 

 he had a son, Algernon, seventh duke, who in 

 1749 was created Earl of NorthiiiulH>rland, with 

 remainder to his son in-law, Sir Hugh Smithson, 

 the ancestor of the present Percy line. On the 

 death of this duke in 1750 a curious peerage case 

 arose, the title being claimed by the descendants 

 of the lirst duke by his first marriage; and the 



attorney /. ral having reported in favour of the 



claim, Sir Kdward Seymour took his seat in the 

 House of Peers as eighth duke. The earldom of 

 Hertford, which became extinct in 1750, was in 

 that same year conferred on this eighth duke's 

 first cousin, Francis, who in IT'.KI was advanced to 

 the dignity of Marquis, and one of whose great- 

 grandsons. Sir Frederick Beauchamp Paget S.-v 

 iiioiir, admiral K.N., was in 1882 created Haron 

 Aloester for his services at the Immhardment of 

 Alexandria. 



Seyne, LA, a seaport of France (dept. Var), on 

 the Mediterranean, 3 miles S\V. of Toulon. Here 

 are fine shipbuilding-yards, employing 2000 men, 

 and a spacious harlmur. Pop. 9340. 



(anc. Setia), a city of Italy, situated 

 immediately north of the I'oniine marches and 40 

 miles SK. of Koine, has a Gothic catliiilral and 

 ruins of a great temple to Saturn, an amphitheatre, 

 &c. Pop. 6114. 



Sfa\. the second iiort in the regency of Tunis, 

 uated on the Gull of Calies, 150 miles S. 

 by K. of the town of Tunis, and is surrounded 

 by gardens and suluirluin villas. The Mohiim- 

 niedans, the Europeans, ami the Jews each live 

 in separate quarters; the French camp forms a 

 fourth division. There is an active trade in dates, 

 olive-oil, esparto grass, wool, fruits, sponges, &c. , 

 the port l>cing entered by 1100 to 1600 vessels of 

 224,000 to 237,000 tons annually. Large quantities 

 of fruit are grown, and cottons, woollens, and 

 silks are manufactured. Pop. 30,000. The town 

 was bombarded by the French in 1881, the opposi- 

 tion here being fierce and fanatical. 



Sfor/a. a celebrated Italian family during the 

 15th and 16th centuries, the founder of which was 

 a peasant of Cotignola. in the Romagna, by name 

 Muzio Attendolo (1369-1424), who from a wood- 

 cutter became a great i-miilnltifre and received from 

 Count Alberigo de Barliiano the name of Sforza 

 ('Stormer' i.e. of cities). He speedily found him- 

 self the independent leader of a band of condot- 

 tieri, and as constable to Queen Joanna II. was 

 one of the main supports of the kingdom of Naples. 

 His natural son, FRANCESCO SFORZA, then twenty- 

 three, succeeded, and, as was the custom of the 

 time, sold his sword to the highest bidder, lighting 

 without the slightest scruple for or against the 

 pope, Milan, Venice, and Florence. He invented 

 an improved system of tactics, and it soon came to 

 be taken for granted that victory was certain for 

 the party which he sup|>orted. It was thus no 

 great act of condescension in the Duke of Milan, 

 the haughty Visconti, to confer ujmn him the hand 

 of his only child Bianca and the -uc -region to the 

 duchy. Meantime Sforza took the march of 

 A net in a from the pope (1434), added to it Pesaro 

 (1443), and by a judicious combination of force 

 and stratagem obtained his elevation to the duke- 

 dom of Milan (1450) after the decease of his father- 

 in-law. He firmly established his authority over 

 all I.omliardy ana several districts south of the 

 Po, acquired the esteem of Louis XI., who gave up 

 to him Savona and Genoa, and, after gaining the 

 universal love of his subjects, died 8tli March 1466. 

 Though u n i list rue ted he loved and protected letters. 

 Unhappily his successors possessed neither his 

 virtues nor his talents. His son, < IAI i: \//n M u;i \ 

 SFORZA (1466-76), was a tyrant and a monster of 

 debauchery, prodigality, and ferocity, without a 

 single redeeming feature in his charactei. He was 

 assassinated at the porch of the cathedral of 

 Milan. His son GIOVANNI-GALEAZZO SFOKZA 

 (1476-94) succeeded, under the regency of his 

 mother, Bona of Savoy, who held the reins of 

 government with a firm hand. But she was forced 

 to give up (1480) her able coadjutor Simonetta to 

 the vengeance of her brother-in-law, Lodovico 

 Maria, surnamed 'the Moor' from his dark com- 

 plexion; and three days after Siiiionctta's execu- 

 tion the ambitions Lodovico banished her, and 

 assumed the regency. Finding the young duke in 

 his way, Lodovico put him and his wife, Isabella of 

 Calabria, in prison, and was immediately threatened 

 with attack by the king of Naples, a danger which 

 he attempted to ward oil by giving his daughter 

 Bianca, with a dowry of 4(X),(MK) ducats, to the 

 Emperor Maximilian I. and by stirring up Charles 

 VIII. of France to assert his claims to Naples. 

 Soon afterwards Duke Giovanni-Galeazzo died, 

 poisoned, as some believe, by his uncle, 20th 

 October 1494. LoDOVICO-MARIA (1494-1500) 



