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SEYMOURSHAD WELL. 



had been nominated one of the council of regency, 

 during the minority of Edward VI. (q. v.); but, 

 not content with his share of power, he procured 

 himself to be appointed governor of the king mid 

 protector of the kingdom. In 1548, he obtained 

 the post of lord treasurer, was created duke of 

 Somerset, and made earl marshal. The same year 

 he headed an army, with which he invaded Scot- 

 land, and, after having gained the victory of Mussel- 

 burgh, returned in triumph to England. His success 

 excited the jealousy of the earl of Warwick and 

 others, who procured his confinement in the Tower, 

 in October, 1549, on the charge of arbitrary conduct 

 and injustice; and he was deprived of his offices, 

 and heavily fined. But he soon after obtained a 

 full pardon from the king, was admitted at court, 

 and ostensibly reconciled to his adversary, lord 

 Warwick (see Dudley, John), whose son espoused 

 one of his daughters. The reconciliation was pro- 

 bably insincere, as Warwick, who had succeeded to 

 his influence over the young king, caused Somerset 

 to be again arrested, in October, 1551, on the 

 charge of treasonable designs against the lives of 

 some of the privy counsellors. He was tried, found 

 guilty, and beheaded on Tower-hill, in 1552. 

 SEYMOUR, JANE. See Henry VIII. 

 SFORZA; a celebrated Italian house, which 

 played an important part in the fifteenth and six- 

 teenth centuries, gave six sovereigns to Milan, and 

 formed alliances with most of the princely houses 

 of Europe. The founder of the house was a peasant 

 of Cotignola, in Romagna, Giacomo Attendolo, 

 whose skill and courage as a statesman and a warrior 

 made him one of the most powerful condottieri of 

 Italy. As he was one day labouring in the field, 

 he was attracted by the sight of some mercenaries, 

 and, throwing his axe against a tree, determined to 

 become a soldier if it stuck in the tree, and to re- 

 main a peasant if it fell. Fate doomed him to be- 

 come a soldier, and he served Joanna II., queen of 

 Naples, who regarded him as the stay of her throne. 

 The name of Sforza he assumed from the vigour 

 with which he had hurled his axe. To his equally 

 valiant son Francesco, he left, with a body of de- 

 voted followers, a power which made him formidable 

 to any of the Italian states. Francesco became the 

 son-in-law of Philip Maria Visconti, duke of Milan, 

 and received the command of the Milanese forces 

 in the war against Venice^ But, after the death of 

 his father-in-law (1447), symptoms of distrust ap- 

 peared between him and the leaders of the Milanese 

 state. He seemed to possess the power and the 

 will to seize upon the throne, to which his wife 

 Bianca had a hereditary claim. He accordingly 

 concluded a treaty with Venice, advanced against 

 Milan, and compelled the citizens by famine to sur- 

 render the city. They chose him duke in 1448, 

 and Francesco, a fortunate and celebrated prince, 

 became the founder of a dynasty, that did not inherit 

 his fame nor his fortune. He died in 1466. 



His son, Galeazzo Maria, a barbarian and a vo- 

 luptuary, was murdered hy some conspirators in 

 1476 The son of Galeazzo, Giovanni Galeazzo, 

 was deposed by his uncle Ludovico, surnamed the 

 Moor (il Morci). The latter formed a connexion 

 with Charles VIII. of France, to whom he opened 

 the passage through Italy to Naples (1494), and 

 thus prevented Giovanni's father-in-law, Alphonso, 

 king of Naples, from rendering assistance to his son. 

 At a subsequent period, he joined the league against 

 France, and was on that account deposed by Louis 

 XII. (1499V By the help of the Swiss, he expel- 



led the French in the same year; but Louis again 

 took the field against him, and prevailed upon tin- 

 Swiss in his service to refuse to fight against their 

 countrymen in the French ranks. Ludovico was 

 afterwards betrayed by one of his Swiss mercenaries 

 to the king, who (1500) carried him to France, 

 where he died at Loches, in 1510. 



His son, Maximilian, once more drove the French 

 from his territories by the aid of the Swiss, but, in 

 consequence of the battle of Marignano, was obliged 

 to cede his dominions to Francis I. (1515), in con- 

 sideration of a pension. Francis was afterwards 

 driven from Italy by the emperor Charles V., who 

 invested Francesco, brother of Maximilian, with 

 the duchy of Milan, in 1529. On the death ot 

 Francesco, in 1535, Charles V. conferred the duchy 

 on his son Philip II., king of Spain. See Milan. 



S'GRAVESANDE. See Gravesande. 



SHAD; a large species of herring (clupea), which 

 inhabits the sea near the mouths of large rivers, and 

 in the spring ascends them for the purpose of de- 

 positing its spawn in the shallow water about their 

 sources. The young fry remain for a season in the 

 waters which gave them birth, but on the approach 

 of cold weather descend the rivers, and take refuge 

 in the ocean. The old ones likewise return, and at 

 this time are emaciated and unfit for food. The 

 form of the shad is the same as that of the 'other 

 herrings, very much compressed, with the abdomen 

 gradually becoming thinner, and forming a serrated 

 edge; and, like them, the bones are much more 

 numerous and more slender than in other fish. The 

 shad which frequents American waters has not 

 been accurately compared with the European, but 

 is probably a different species. It usually weighs 

 four or five pounds, but sometimes twelve; the 

 scales are easily detached, when a row of dark spots 

 is exposed on each side. It is highly esteemed for 

 food, and is consumed in great quantities, in the 

 fresh state. During the season they are an import- 

 ant source of wealth to the inhabitants of the bor- 

 ders of the Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake. 

 Great quantities are salted, but are less esteemed 

 than when eaten fresk. 



SHADDOCK ; a large species of orange, attain- 

 ing the diameter of seven or eight inches, with a 

 white, thick, spongy and bitter rind, and a red or 

 white pulp, of a sweet taste, mingled with acidity. 

 It is a native of China and Japan, and was brought 

 to the West Indies by a captain Shaddock, from 

 whom it has derived its name. It is often called 

 pampelmoes. See Orange. 



SHADWELL, THOMAS, an English dramatic 

 poet, was born at Stanton-hall, Norfolk, a seat of 

 his father's, about 1640, educated at Cambridge, 

 and afterwards placed at the Middle Temple, where 

 he studied the law for some time, and then visited 

 the continent. On his return from his travels, he 

 applied himself to the drama, and wrote seventeen 

 plays. His model was Ben Jonson, whom he imi- 

 tated in drawing numerous characters, chiefly in 

 caricature, of eccentricities in the manners of the 

 day. Although coarse, and of temporary reputa- 

 tion, the comedies of Shadwell are not destitute ol 

 genuine humour. At the revolution he was created 

 poet laureate, on the recommendation of the earl ot 

 Dorset; and as he obtained it by the dispossession 

 of Dryden, the latter exhibited the bitterest enmity 

 towards his successor, against whom he composed 

 his severe satire of Mac Flecknoe. He died Dec. 

 6, 1692, in consequence, it is supposed, of taking 

 too large a dose of opium, to which he was attached. 



