LOU 
emperor Charles V. and his lifters, were brought up here till 
jjio; and formerly theaflembly of the ftates yvas held here. 
It is now in ruins. The city was hr ft furrounded with 
walls in the year 1 (65, and afterwards very much enlarged 
in the 14th century, by Wenceflaus and John, dukes of 
Brabant. The trade at prefent is not very confiderable; 
the principal article is beer, of which a great quantity is 
feat to Bruflels, Antwerp, Liege, Tirlemont, and other 
cities and towns. It was formerly much larger than it 
now is, much richer, and carried on more trade than any 
other place in the country. At the beginning of the four¬ 
teenth century, four thoufand houfes were inhabited by 
clothiers, and their manufactories employed above 150,000 
workmen. It is related in their annals, that, when, this 
crowd of weavers left work, they were compelled to found 
a large bell, that the women might keep their children 
within doors, left they (liould be thrown down and tram¬ 
pled to death. This is probably the reafon that the ma- 
giftrates are here more numerous than in other cities; for, 
befides two burgo-mafters, feven echevins, two penlioners, 
fix Secretaries, and four receivers, they had council of 
51; eleven of whom are nobles, and the other ten mer¬ 
chants or tradefmen. The town-houfe where they af- 
fembled is a beautiful Gothic ftru&ure. In the year 1382, 
the weavers and other tradefmen revolted again ft Wen¬ 
ceflaus, duke of Brabant, and cruelly threw l'eventeen of 
the magillrates out of the town-houfe windows ; took arms 
againft their prince, and laid wafte the province; but be¬ 
ing befieged, they implored for mercy, and obtained par¬ 
don at the intreaty of Arnold de Hornes, bifhopof Liege, 
only the moll culpable being puniflied ; and the weavers, 
who were the authors of the infurreCtion, were banilhed ; 
they retired for the molt part to England, where they were 
very well received. Louvain being thus nearly deprived 
of commerce and inhabitants, John IV. duke of Brabant, 
with the content of Pope Martin V. in the year 1426, 
founded an univerftty, which has fince been the chief or¬ 
nament and glory of the place, and is laid to refemble thofe 
in England more than any other abroad. There are fixty 
colleges in this univeriity, which, though much admired 
for their fituation and building, are not however fo fump- 
tuous as thofe of Oxford and Cambridge. The Dutch 
have a college here for Roman Catholics; the Englifli one 
of Dominican friars ; the Irilh one of fecular priefts, an¬ 
other of Dominican friars, and another of Francifcans. 
There is a convent here of Englifli nuns, which is reck¬ 
oned the beft of any of this nation in the Low Counties. 
Louvain long prided itfelf as never having been taken 
by arms. In the jear 1542, Martin Roflen, general of 
the Gueldrians, attempted it in vain ; and, in 1572, Wil¬ 
liam prince of Orange was compelled to rail'e the liege by 
tlie vigorous refiftar.ee of the citizens and ftudents. On the 
fjHi Sunday of July, they have an annual fete in memory 
of their deliverance from the Dutch and the French in 
1635, who were compelled by famine to retire. And on 
the 5th of Auguft, 1710, the French, under the partifan du 
Moulin, attempted to furprife the city, but were repulfed 
by the citizens, and obliged to retire in confufion ; this 
bravery was rewarded by a prefent of a golden key, fent 
them by Charles III. king of Spain, as an acknowledg¬ 
ment of their fidelity, which they preferve in their town- 
houfe, as a memorial of his majefty’s good-will. But, ne- 
verthelefs, this city was taken by the French in the year 
7746 ; and again by the foldiers of the French republic, 
under Dumourier, in their hafty progrefs through Bra¬ 
bant; but was Evacuated on the zzd of March, 1793 ; and 
indeed it is but ill adapted for defence, the walls being nine 
miles in circumference, though not a third part of the in- 
elofure is built on ; the reft being occupied for gardens 
and vineyards. Louvain was anciently fituated part in 
the diocefe of I.iege, and part in the diocefe of Cam bray, 
but, on the erethon of the archbil.hopric of Malines, it 
was placed under that diocefe, and lb remained till its 
union with France. The number of inhabitants is efti- 
snated at i$,oe<?. It is twenty-one miles fauth-weft of 
* 
L O' U 70*5 
Antwerp,apd thirteen north-eaftof Bruftels. Lat. 50. 34. N. 
Ion. 4. 40. E. 
LOU'VE, a river of France, which runs into the Adour 
near Caltlenau. 
LOU'VEN, a river of Norway, which runs into the fea 
at Lauvig., in the province of Aggerhuus. 
LOUVET' (Peter), a French advocate, ecclefiaftica! 
writer, and antiquaiy, in the feventeenth century, was a 
native of Reinville, two leagues from Beauvais: he was edu¬ 
cated to the legal p.rofeffion, and became mailer of requefts 
to queen Margaret, in w.ho.fe .fervice he died in 1646. He 
was the author of feveral works, which, tho.ugh not to be 
commended for the ftyle in which they are written, will 
be found to contain much ufeful and curious matter, va¬ 
luable to the civil and eccleftaltical hiltorian. Of this de- 
feription, are, 1. The Hiftory of the Antiquities of the 
Diocefe of Beauvais, 2 vols. Svo. 1609 and 1614. 2. No- 
menclatura et Chronoiogia Reium Ecclefiafticarum Dite- 
cefis Btllovacenlis, Svo. 1618. 3. Remarks on the anci¬ 
ent State of the Nobiiity in the Beauvafin, and of feveral 
French Families, Svo. 1631 and 1640; which is very rare, 
and in an unfinifhed ftate : it is drawn up in alphabetical 
order, and reaches no farther than to the commencement 
of the letter N. 4. An Abftraft of Conftitutions and 
Regulations, for general provincial, and particular. Chap¬ 
ters, deligned to efteftuate a Reform in the Convent cf ja¬ 
cobins at Beauvais, 1618. Mortri. 
LOUVET de COUVRA'Y (John Baptift), one of the 
members of the French convention of France. He was 
of the Briflotine party, and had the courage to oppofe the 
lavage Robefpierre, when at the very height of his power ; 
yet he elcaped the daughter which that tyrant iniiifted on 
a multitude of good men, and died in the year 1797. 
He was author of; 1. A romance, entitled the Amours 
of the Chevalier Faublas. 2. A political journal, called 
the Sentinel. 3. A Juitification of Paris in 1789. 4. 
Emily de Varmont. 5, An Account of himfell, and of 
the Dangers which he had palled through. 
LOUVIER'S, a town of France, and principal place of 
a diftrift, in the department cf the Eure : twelve miles 
north of Evreux, and fifteen foiuh of Rouen. Lat. 49. 
3. N. Ion. 2. 55. E. 
LOUVIGNE', a town of France, in the department of 
the Ourthe, and chief place of a canton, in the diftrift of 
Liege. The place contains 1541, and the canton 5925, 
inhabitants, in feven communes. 
LOUVIGNE', a town of France, in the department of 
the Ille and Vilaine : eight miles north-north-ealt of Fou- 
geres, and twenty-four eaft of Dol. 
LOUVIGNE' en BAI'N, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Ille and Vilaine: feven miles fouth-weft 
of Vine, and eight north-weft of La Guerche. 
LOUVIL'LE o’ALONVIL'LE (Eugene),;a French ma- 
thematician and aftronomer, was delcended from an ancient 
and noble family, and born at the chateau de Louville in 
the diocefe of Chartres, in the year 1671. He received 
an education intended to qualify him for affuming the 
naval or military profeflion ; and, having ferved for fotne 
time at fea, and afterwards on land, was made brigadier 
in the armies of Philip V. king of Spain, and colonel o* 
a regiment of dragoons. Being difhanded upon the peace 
of Utrecht, he devoted himfelf entirely to the ftudy of the 
mathematics, and particularly of aftror.omy. In the year 
1713 or 1714, he went to Marfeilles, for the foie purpole 
of precifely afeertaining the latitude of that place, that 
his obfervatious might correfpond the more exaftly with 
thofe of Pytheas, made almoll two thoufand years before 
that time. In the laft of the years above-mentioned, lie 
ivas admitted a member of the Academy of Sciences at 
Paris, and appointed aftronomer at the obfervatory of that 
city. During the year 1715, he came into England, in 
order to obferve the total eclipfe of the fun in that year, 
which was to be more perfeftdy vifible about London 
than in any other part of the northern hemilphere. 
While lie was in this country, or not long afterwards, he 
spas 
