118 



THK STANDARD DICTIONARY (>F FACTS 



her 26, 1815), the object of which was professedly 

 to pledge the respective monarehs to conduct 

 their relations to each other under the guidance 

 of Christian principles, but really to pledire 

 other to the maintenance of their respective 

 . the UTIMS of this alliance, no 

 member of the family of Napoleon was ever to 

 occupy a European throne. 



II !> Roman Empire. The. The 

 western pert of the old Roman Kmpirv. which 

 was severed from the eastern part in 800, and 

 was given bv the pope to Charlemagne, who was 

 crowned "tmperor of the Roman-." When 

 Charlemagne's empire was divided. Ludwig the 

 nan became kaiser; but on the death 

 of Karl the Fat the title fell into abeyance 

 for I '-ars. In 9tJ. John XII. -rave the 



title to Otto I. the Great, ami chanired it into 

 "The Holy Roman Empire." Francis II. re- 

 nounced tne title* of King of the Romans and 

 Emperor of the Romans in 1806, and Napoleon 

 added the Italian states to France, May, 1809. 



Home Rule League (1870). Projected 

 by Mr. Butt, who stoutly opposed the repeal of 

 I'nion. hut apitatecTfor an Irish parliament 

 which should have no power to touch upon 

 imperial matters, but should be empowered to 

 deal with matters of Ireland of a purely local 

 character. On the death of Mr. Butt, in 1879, 

 his scheme passed into the hands of the Land 

 League, and their watchword, " Ireland for the 

 ant separation from Great Britain. 

 The term Home Rule survived the death of Mr. 

 Butt, and in 1866, Mr. Gladstone, then prime 

 minister, brought in a bill to give Ireland Home 

 Rule, and exclude Irish members from West- 

 minster. The measure broke up the great Whig 

 party under the leadership of Lord Hartington, 

 supported by Mr. Chamberlain (a Radical), Mr. 

 Goschen, and others, who called themselves 

 Unionists, and joined the great Tory party under 

 thegovernment of Lord Salisbury. 



Huguenots. A name formerly given to 

 the Protestants in France. The story of the 

 persecutions of the Huguenots is one of the sad- 

 dest in history. In 1561 they took up arms 

 against their persecutors; and the struggle con- 

 tinued till the Edict of Nantes, establishing the 

 rights of the Protestants, was signed by Henry 

 of Navarre, April 13, 1598. The massacre of 

 St. Bartholomew (in which, according to Sully, 

 70,000 Huguenots, including women and chil- 

 dren, were murdered throughout the kingdom 

 by secret orders from Charles IX., at the insti- 

 gation of his mother, Catherine de Medici) began 

 on the night of the festival. August 24, 1572. 



Hundred Years War, The (1336- 

 1431). Between England and France. From 

 Edward III. to Joan of Arc. The origin of this 

 long war was Edward's claim to the Crown of I 

 France. Philippe le Bel left three sons, all of 

 whom died without male issue, and the nearest I 

 male heirs were Edward III. (who was the 

 nephew of the three sons), and Philippe de 

 Vajois (their cousin). The flaw in Edward's 

 claim the Salic law, which passed over women, 

 and Edward owed his blooa relationship to his 

 mother. Edward maintained that, though his ! 

 mother was cut off, being a woman, the Salic ' 

 law could not apply to him, being a man; but 



Philippe answered, if the mother was cut off, 

 cut oil' also. On this dispute began 

 the \\ar which lasted above a century. 



Hungary. The Magyars, an Asiatic people 

 of Turanian race, allied to the Finns and the 

 Turks, dwelt in what is now Southern Russia 

 they descended under Arpdd into the 

 plain of the Danube, towards the end of the 

 Ninth Century, and conquered the whole of 

 Hungary and Transylvania. During the first 

 half of the Tenth Century their invasions and 

 incursions spread terror throughout Germany, 

 1 ranee, and Italy; but at length their total 

 defeat by Otho I. of Germany put an end to 

 their maraudings, and under their native dynasty 

 of Arpads they settled down to learn agriculture 

 and the arts of peace. Stephen I. (997-1030) 

 was the first who was successful in extending 

 Christianity generally amongst the Hungarians, 

 and was rewarded by a crown from Pope Syl- 

 vester II. and with the title of apostolic king 

 ( 1000). Stephen encouraged learning and litera- 

 ture, and under him Latin became not only the 

 official language of the government, but the 

 vehicle of Hungarian civilization, which it un- 

 fortunately continued to be for the next 800 

 .years. In 1089 King Ladislaus extended the 

 boundaries of Hungary by the conquest of 

 Croatia and Slavonia, and King Coloman by 

 that of Dalmatia in 1102. During the Twelfth 

 Century the Hungarians first attained, through 

 French connections, a certain refinement of life 

 and manners. About the middle of the Thir- 

 teenth Century King Bela induced many Ger- 

 mans to settle in the country which had been 

 depopulated by the Mongol invasions. With 

 Andrew III. (1290-1301) the male line of the 

 Arpdd Dynasty became extinct, and the royal 

 dignity now became purely elective Charles 

 Robert of Anjou was the first elected (1309). 

 Louis I. (1342-82) added Poland, Red Russia, 

 Moldavia, and a part of Servia, to his kingdom. 

 The reign of Sigismund (1387-1437), who was 

 elected Emperor of Germany, is interesting from 

 the invasion of Hungary by the Turks (1391), 

 and the war with the Hussites. Sigismund 

 introduced various reforms, and founded an 

 academy at Buda. Matthias Corvinus (1458- 

 90), combining the talents of a diplomatist and 

 general, was equally successful against his ene- 

 mies at home and abroad, and is even yet re- 

 membered by the popular mind as the ideal of 

 a just and firm ruler. He founded a university 

 at Pressburg. During the reigns of Ladislaus II. 

 (1490-1516) and Louis II. (1516-26) the rapacity 

 of the magnates and domestic troubles brought 

 the power of Hungary low, and the battle of 

 Mohacs (1526) made a great part of the country 

 a Turkish province for 160 years. The rest was 

 left in dispute between Ferdinand of Austria 

 and John Zapolya; but eventually, by the help 

 of the Protestants, passed to the former, and has 

 since remained under the scepter of the Habs- 

 burgs. In 1866 Leopold I. took Buda and 

 recovered most of Hungary and Transylvania. 

 In 1724 Charles VI. secured by the Pragmatic 

 Sanction the Hungarian Crown to the female 

 descendants of the House of Habsburg, and the 

 loyalty of the Hungarians to his daughter, Maria 

 Theresa, saved the dynasty from ruin. Maria 



