QEOROR I. (OF RUSSIA). 



GERARD, FRANCOIS, BARON. 



H 



HU little capacity for business w*> made (till leu by his indolenee 

 or lore of nae, which appears really to hTo been hi* strongest pas- 

 atoo, or the most marked point of hii character. Anne boro him 

 DO fewer than nineteen children, of whom only fire lived to be 

 baptised, and eren of Uieee two died on the day on which they wer 

 burn. A daughter Mary, born JUDO 2nd 1635, lived till February 8th 

 16S7 ; another. Anne Sophia, born May 12th 1836, lived till February 

 Sad 1887; only a aon, William, born July 24th 16S9, and toon after 

 mated Duke of Gloucester (though the patent never passed the great 

 M|), and in 1 696 elected and installed a Knight of the Garter, outlived 

 hi* infancy : he died July 30th 1700. He was a boy of great promise, 

 and a copious account of him is given by Uurnet, who was hit 

 preceptor. 



GEORGE I. surnames! the Long-handed, grand-duke of Russia, was 

 the son of Vladimir Monnmachos, who married Gyda, daughter of 

 Harold, the last Saxon king of England. After the death of her 

 father at the battle of Hastings, in 1065, Oyda retired to Sweden, 

 from which country she married Vladimir, about 1070. It U how- 

 ever impossible to ascertain whether George was the son of the 

 English princess, as bis father was married three times ; but it is very 

 probable, as George died in 1157, at an advanced ago. He was of a 

 very ambitious and grasping character, a circumstance from which be 

 derived his surname, the Long-handed. Having received for hi* 

 appanage the principality of Soozdal, situated in the north of Russia, 

 he tried to establish himself on the grand-ducal throne of Kicff, which 

 was possessed by his nephew Isiaslaf, and he succeeded in driving him 

 from that principality (1140), but he was soon afterwards expelled 

 himself by the Hungarians, who restored Isiaslaf. After many 

 vicissitudes he attained his object, and became grand-duke of Kieff 

 in 1155. He died two years afterwards. The reign of George is 

 remarkable for the foundation of Moscow in a spot where, as the 

 chroniclers relate, there lived a rich man named Koochko, of whose 

 wife George became enamoured, and where, after causing the husband 

 to be murdered, and having established for some time his residence 

 there, he laid the foundation of a future city. George was very 

 partial to the southern principalities of Russia, and being for a long 

 time unable to possess any of them, be built several towns in his own 

 dominions, to which he gave the names of those cities which wera 

 situated in the south ; as for instance, Vladimir, Peryaslay, &c. His 

 own dominions, inhabited originally by several Finnish tribes, 

 living in an almost savage state, and being mostly idolaters, became 

 civilised under this reign by the foundation of cities, churches, and 

 monasteries. 



George peopled the new towns with settlers of Slavonian and Finnish 

 stock, whom he attracted by granting them privileges and several 

 other advantages. This is the origin of the population of Grand 

 Russia, generally known under the name of the Muscovite or Sooz- 

 dalian, which leing a mixture of Slavonians and Fins, exhibits a 

 striking contrast in physical appearance, language, manners, aud 

 character to all the other Slavonian populations. This people ought 

 never to be confounded with the real Russians, who inhabit the 

 south-western provinces of the present Russian empire, as well as 

 Galicia or Austrian Poland, and who, being of a pure Slavonic race, 

 much more resemble in every respect the Poles, the Slovacks of Hun- 

 gary, and other people of Slavonic origin, than the population of Grand 

 Russia. After the reign of George I., tho northern principalities 

 acquired great importance, and his son Andrew increased his power 

 and established his residence at the town of Vladimir, which was 

 built by his father on the banks of the Klasma. Instead of aiming at 

 the possession of Kieff, which conferred the empty title of the Grand- 

 Duke of Russia, and which was captured and sacked by his son and 

 a coalition of other princes (1159), he assumed that title in his own 

 dominions. He strengthened his power by exiling all his brothers, 

 who found refuge at the court of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus. 

 Andrew was murdered by some conspirators iu 1174. After two 

 years of civil war, during which Michel, prince of Rezan, for a short 

 time occupied the throne of Vladimir, Vsevolod, brother of Andrew 

 and BOD of George I., obtained the grand-ducal dignity, which he 

 preserved till his death in 1212. 



GEORGE 1L, son of Vsevolod and grandson of George I., became 

 grand-duke, not immediately after the death of his father, but after 

 that of his competitor, the grand-duke Constautine, in 1219. His 

 reign is marked by one of the most important events of the middle 

 ages, which has produced the most decisive influence on the condition 

 of Russia ; we mean the invasion of the Moguls, the circumstances of 

 which cannot be well understood without previously giving a short 

 sketch of the state of Russia at the beginning of the 13th century. 



The dominions of Vladimir the Great (who died in 1016) extended 

 almost from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and from the frontiers of 

 Hungary and Poland to the banks of the Volga, containing several 

 tribes of Slavonians in the south and the west, and of Fins iu the 

 north and the east, who were forcibly united under the dominion of 

 the Varangian or Norman dynasty of Ruric, but divided by that 

 monarch between his twelve sons. From that time the different prin- 

 cipalities, although occasionally united, continued to be subdivided by 

 several successive sovereigns, so that at the period in question there 

 was a great number of minor princes besides the two great princi- 

 palities of Vladimir in the north and of Halich in tho south. The 



most important neighbours of Russia at that time were the nomadic 

 nation of the Polovtcee, called by the Byzantine writers Coman . 

 established themselves, about the middle of the llth century, in the 

 countries along the shores of the Black Sea from the banks of the Don 

 to those of the Danube. By their inroads they became formidable to 

 all their neighbours, but particularly to the Russian princes, by whom 

 they were also often hired as auxiliary troops. In 1224 the Mogul 

 expedition sent by Gengis Khan under his son Joodgee Khan, to extend 

 his conquests in the west, attacked the Polovtwso, whose chieftains, 

 being defeated by the Moguls, fled to Russia, and entreated the 

 Russian princes to assist them against an enemy, who, as they 

 expressed it, " has taken our country to-day and will take yours 

 to-morrow." 



The Russian princes of the south, influenced by Motinlaf, duke of 

 Halich, listened to the Polovtzee, and having assembled an army of 

 about 100,000 men, which was joined by great numbers of tho Polovtzee, 

 marched against the Moguls. 



The combined army was entirely defeated by the Moguls on the 

 Slst of Mav 1224, on the banks of the river Kalka(now Kalmiua) near 

 the town of Mariop >1. The Moguls after this victory extended their 

 devastations as far as the banks of the Dnieper, but although no r> hist- 

 ancj was offered, they suddenly retired from the Dnieper into the 

 deserts of Central Asia, and their invasion produced on the minds of 

 the inhabitants the effects of a supernatural apparition. George II. 

 bad despatched an auxiliary force against the Moguls, but on their way 

 they heard of the fate of the Russian expedition, aud returned without 

 meeting the invaders. The Russian princes soon forgot the invasion 

 of the Moguls, and instead of thinking of the possibility of their 

 return, abandoned themselves to their usual broils and internal as well 

 as external feuds. Nothing was heard of the Moguls till 1237, when 

 a report was spread that they had invaded the country of the Bulga- 

 rians, situated on the banks of the Volga, in the present government 

 of Kasan. It was Batoo Khan, grandson of Gengis Khan, who was 

 sent by his uncle Oktay with 300,000 men in order to extend his con- 

 quests to the west, and with instructions to give peace only to the 

 conquered nations. The report was followed by the appearance of 

 the invaders, who entered the principalities of Rezan, and summoned 

 its sovereign to submit and to give up the tenth part of all his and 

 his subjects' property. Tho Duke of Hezan, with some minor princes, 

 resolving to oppose the Moguls, sent a message to the grand duke 

 George requesting his assistance ; but George relying on his own forces 

 refused to join them, and decided on awaiting the approach of the 

 enemy iu his own dominions. The Moguls took and destroyed Rezan 

 after a brave defence, and massacred the inhabitants. Moscow, 

 Kolomna, and many other cities shared the same fate. George en- 

 trusted the defence of his capital Vladimir to his sons, aud retired to 

 a fortified camp on the bonks of the river Sit The capit.il was taken 

 by storm in February 1238, and everything was destroyed with lire 

 and sword. 



George II., whose two sons perished at Vladimir, awaited the 

 enemies iu his position, and though attacked by an overwhelming 

 force fought bravely till he was killed, on the 4th of March I-".--. 

 The Moguls soon retired beyond the Volga, but in the next year they 

 invaded Southern Russia, and having devastated a part of Hungary 

 and Poland, penetrated as fur as Liegnitz iu Silesia, where they 

 were repulsed in a battle with the Silesiau dukes assisted by the 

 Germans. 



Batoo Khan returned to the banks of the Volga, where he summoned 

 the Russian princes to pay him homage. Resistance was hopeless, 

 and the grand-duke Yaroslaf, brother to George II., was the first who 

 acknowledged the sovereignty of the Grand Khan. This is the begin- 

 ning of the Mogul or Tartar domination in Russia, which Listed till 

 about 1470. 



(j EHARD, a celebrated translator of the middle ages, was born at 

 Cremona, in Lombordy, in 1114. He early applied himself to philo- 

 sophical studies, but as they were in a very low condition at that 

 time amongst the Western Christians, he went to Spain, where learn- 

 ing was ill a flourishing state amongst the Arabs. He there I- 

 thoroughly acquainted with the Arabic, and applied himself parti- 

 cularly to the translation of different works from that language into 

 Latin. Gerard returned to his native towu, where he died in 1187, 

 at the age of seventy-three. 



His principal translations which have reached us are 1. ' Theoria 

 Planetarum.' 2. ' Allakeu de Causis Crepueculorum.' 3. ' Geomantia 

 Astronomica,' which was translated into French, and published under 

 the title of 'Gdouiantie Astronomique,' in 1669 and 1682. 4. Tho 

 Treatise on Medicine, of Avicenua, known by the name of tho ' Canons.' 

 5. An Abridgment of the Medical Treatise of Rhazis, made by Abouli 

 Ben David. 6. A Treatise on Medicine, by the same Rhazis. 7. ' Prac- 

 tica sive Breviarium Medicum ' of Serapion. 8. The Book of Albeng- 

 nefit ' De Virtute Medicinarum ct Ciborum.' 9. The ' Therapeutica ' of 

 Serapion. 10. The work of Jshak, ' De Deflnitionibus." 11. 'Albucosis 

 Methodus Medendi ' (libri iii .). 12. ' Ars Parva' of Galen. 13. ' Com- 

 mentaries on tho Prognostics of Hippocrates.' All these works have 

 In TII often printed. 



GERARD, FRANCOIS, BARON, one of the most distinguished 

 painters of France, was born of a French father and Italian mother 

 at Rome in 1770. Ho weut early to Paris, and was first placed with 



