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Read Ebook: Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th Edition Helmont Jean to Hernosand Volume 13 Slice 3 by Various
Font size: Background color: Text color: Add to tbrJar First Page Next PageEbook has 439 lines and 170602 words, and 9 pagescillors. Area, 7184 acres. Settlements in the neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead date from pre-Roman times, and a Roman villa has been discovered at Boxmoor. The manor, royal demesne in 1086, was granted by Edmund Plantagenet in 1285 to the house of Ashridge, and the town developed under monastic protection. In 1539 a charter incorporated the bailiff and inhabitants. A mayor, aldermen and councillors received governing power by a charter of 1898. The town has never had parliamentary representation. A market on Thursday and a fair on the feast of Corpus Christi were conferred in 1539. A statute fair, for long a hiring fair, originated in 1803. The Hemichorda include three orders, the Phoronidea , the Pterobranchia and the Enteropneusta , but the relationship to the Chordata expressed in the designation Hemichordata cannot be regarded as more than an attractive theory with certain arguments in its favour. HEMICYCLE , a semicircular recess of considerable size which formed one of the most conspicuous features in the Roman Thermae, where it was always covered with a hemispherical vault. A small example exists in Pompeii, in the street of tombs, with a seat round inside, where those who came to pay their respects to the departed could rest. An immense hemicycle was designed by Bramante for the Vatican, where it constitutes a fine architectural effect at the end of the great court. HEMIMORPHITE, a mineral consisting of hydrous zinc silicate, H2Zn2SiO5, of importance as an ore of the metal, of which it contains 54.4%. It is interesting crystallographically by reason of the hemimorphic development of its orthorhombic crystals; these are prismatic in habit and are differently terminated at the two ends. In the figure, the faces at the upper end of the crystal are the basal plane k and the domes o, p, l, m, whilst at the lower end there are only the four faces of the pyramid P. Connected with this polarity of the crystals is their pyroelectric character--when a crystal is subjected to changes of temperature it becomes positively electrified at one end and negatively at the opposite end. There are perfect cleavages parallel to the prism faces . Crystals are usually colourless, sometimes yellowish or greenish, and transparent; they have vitreous lustre. The hardness is 5, and the specific gravity 3.45. The mineral also occurs as stalactitic or botryoidal masses with a fibrous structure, or in a massive, cellular or granular condition intermixed with calamine and clay. It is decomposed by hydrochloric acid with gelatinization; this property affords a ready means of distinguishing hemimorphite from calamine , these two minerals being, when not crystallized, very like each other in appearance. The water contained in hemimorphite is expelled only at a red heat, and the mineral must therefore be considered as a basic metasilicate, 2SiO3. Hemimorphite occurs with other ores of zinc , forming veins and beds in sedimentary limestones. British localities are Matlock, Alston, Mendip Hills and Leadhills; at Roughten Gill, Caldbeck Fells, Cumberland, it occurs as mammillated incrustations of a sky-blue colour. Well-crystallized specimens have been found in the zinc mines at Altenberg near Aachen in Rhenish Prussia, Nerchinsk mining district in Siberia, and Elkhorn in Montana. The prothorax in Hemiptera is large and free, and the mesothoracic scutellum is usually extensive. The number of tarsal segments is reduced; often three, two or only one may be present instead of the typical insectan number five. The wings will be described in connexion with the various sub-orders, but an interesting peculiarity of the Hemiptera is the occasional presence of winged and wingless races of the same species. Eleven abdominal segments can be recognized, at least in the early stages; as the adult condition is reached, the hinder segments become reduced or modified in connexion with the external reproductive organs, and show, in some male Hemiptera, a marked asymmetry. The typical insectan ovipositor with its three pairs of processes, one pair belonging to the eighth and two pairs to the ninth abdominal segment, can be distinguished in the female. HETEROPTERA Most Heteroptera are flattened in form, and the wings lie flat, or nearly so, when closed. The young Heteropteron is hatched from the egg in a form not markedly different from that of its parent; it is active and takes food through all the stages of its growth. It is usual to divide the Heteroptera into two tribes--the Gymnocerata and the Cryptocerata. HOMOPTERA This sub-order includes the cicads, lantern-flies, frog-hoppers, aphids and scale-insects. The face has such a marked backward slope as to bring the beak into close contact with the haunches of the fore-legs. The feelers have one or more thickened basal segments, while the remaining segments are slender and thread-like. The fore-wings are sometimes membranous like the hind-wings, usually they are firmer in texture, but they never show the distinct areas that characterize the wings of Heteroptera. When at rest the wings of Homoptera slope roofwise across the back of the insect. In their life-history the Homoptera are more specialized than the Heteroptera; the young insect often differs markedly from its parent and does not live in the same situations; while in some families there is a passive stage before the last moult. ANOPLURA The Anoplura or lice are wingless parasitic insects forming an order distinct from the Hemiptera, their sucking and piercing mouth-organs being apparently formed on quite a different plan from those of the Heteroptera and Homoptera. In front of the head is a short tube armed with strong recurved hooks which can be fixed into the skin of the host, and from the tube an elongate more slender sucking-trunk can be protruded . Each foot is provided with a single strong claw which, opposed to a process on the shin, serves to grasp a hair of the host, all the lice being parasites on different mammals. Although G. Enderlein has recently shown that the jaws of the Hemiptera can be recognized in a reduced condition in connexion with the louse's proboscis, the modification is so excessive that the group certainly deserves ordinal separation. Hemlock is a virulent poison, but it varies much in potency according to the conditions under which it has grown, and the season or stage of growth at which it is gathered. In the first year the leaves have little power, nor in the second are their properties developed until the flowering period, at which time, or later on when the fruits are fully grown, the plant should be gathered. The wild plant growing in exposed situations is to be preferred to garden-grown samples, and is more potent in dry warm summers than in those which are dull and moist. The hemp plant, like the hop, which is of the same natural order, Cannabinaceae, is dioecious, i.e. the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The female plant grows to a greater height than the male, and its foliage is darker and more luxuriant, but the plant takes from five to six weeks longer to ripen. When the male plants are ripe they are pulled, put up into bundles, and steeped in a similar manner to flax, but the female plants are allowed to remain until the seed is perfectly ripe. They are then pulled, and after the seed has been removed are retted in the ordinary way. The seed is also a valuable product; the finest is kept for sowing, a large quantity is sold for the food of cage birds, while the remainder is sent to the oil mills to be crushed. The extracted oil is used in the manufacture of soap, while the solid remains, known as oil-cake, are valuable as a food for cattle. The leaves of hemp have five to seven leaflets, the form of which is lanceolate-acuminate, with a serrate margin. The loose panicles of male flowers, and the short spikes of female flowers, arise from the axils of the upper leaves. The height of the plant varies greatly with season, soil and manuring; in some districts it varies from 3 to 8 ft., but in the Piedmont province it is not unusual to see them from 8 to 16 ft. in height, whilst a variety has produced specimens over 17 ft. in height. It would appear that the native country of the hemp plant is in some part of temperate Asia, probably near the Caspian Sea. It spread westward throughout Europe, and southward through the Indian peninsula. Very little hemp is now grown in the British Isles, although this variety was considered to be of very good quality, and to possess great strength. The chief continental hemp-producing countries are Italy, Russia and France; it is also grown in several parts of Canada and the United States and India. The Central Provinces, Bengal and Bombay are the chief centres of hemp cultivation in India, where the plant is of most use for narcotics. The satisfactory growth of hemp demands a light, rich and fertile soil, but, unlike most substances, it may be reared for a few years in succession. The time of sowing, the quantity of seed per acre and the method of gathering and retting are very similar to those of flax; but, as a rule, it is a hardier plant than flax, does not possess the same pliability, is much coarser and more brittle, and does not require the same amount of attention during the first few weeks of its growth. The very finest hemp, that grown in the province of Piedmont, Italy, is, however, very similar to flax, and in many cases the two fibres are mixed in the same material. The hemp fibre has always been valuable for the rope industry, and it was at one time very extensively used in the production of yarns for the manufacture of sail cloth, sheeting, covers, bagging, sacking, &c. Much of the finer quality is still made into cloth, but almost all the coarser quality finds its way into ropes and similar material. A large quantity of hemp cloth is still made for the British navy. The cloth, when finished, is cut up into lengths, made into bags and tarred. They are then used as coal sacks. There is also a quantity made into sacks which are intended to hold very heavy material. Hemp yarns are also used in certain classes of carpets, for special bags for use in cop dyeing and for similar special purposes, but for the ordinary bagging and sacking the employment of hemp yarns has been almost entirely supplanted by yarns made from the jute fibre. Hemp is grown for three products-- the fibre of its stem; the resinous secretion which is developed in hot countries upon its leaves and flowering heads; its oily seeds. The drug has no external action. The effects of its absorption, whether it be swallowed or smoked, vary within wide limits in different individuals and races. So great is this variation as to be inexplicable except on the view that the nature and proportions of the active principles vary greatly in different specimens. But typically the drug is an intoxicant, resembling alcohol in many features of its action, but differing in others. The early symptoms are highly pleasurable, and it is for these, as in the case of other stimulants, that the drug is so largely consumed in the East. There is a subjective sensation of mental brilliance, but, as in other cases, this is not borne out by the objective results. It has been suggested that the incoordination of nervous action under the influence of Indian hemp may be due to independent and non-concerted action on the part of the two halves of the cerebrum. Following on a decided lowering of the pain and touch senses, which may even lead to complete loss of cutaneous sensation, there comes a sleep which is often accompanied by pleasant dreams. There appears to be no evidence in the case of either the lower animals or the human subject that the drug is an aphrodisiac. Excessive indulgence in cannabis indica is very rare, but may lead to general ill-health and occasionally to insanity. The apparent impossibility of obtaining pure and trustworthy samples of the drug has led to its entire abandonment in therapeutics. When a good sample is obtained it is a safe and efficient hypnotic, at any rate in the case of a European. The tincture should not be prescribed unless precautions are taken to avoid the precipitation of the resin which follows its dilution with water. HEMSTERHUIS, FRAN?OIS , Dutch writer on aesthetics and moral philosophy, son of Tiberius Hemsterhuis, was born at Franeker in Holland, on the 27th of December 1721. He was educated at the university of Leiden, where he studied Plato. Failing to obtain a professorship, he entered the service of the state, and for many years acted as secretary to the state council of the United Provinces. He died at the Hague on the 7th of July 1790. Through his philosophical writings he became acquainted with many distinguished persons--Goethe, Herder, Princess Amalia of Gallitzin, and especially Jacobi, with whom he had much in common. Both were idealists, and their works suffer from a similar lack of arrangement, although distinguished by elegance of form and refined sentiment. His most valuable contributions are in the department of aesthetics or the general analysis of feeling. His philosophy has been characterized as Socratic in content and Platonic in form. Its foundation was the desire for self-knowledge and truth, untrammelled by the rigid bonds of any particular system. HEMY, CHARLES NAPIER , British painter, born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, was trained in the Newcastle school of art, in the Antwerp academy and in the studio of Baron Leys. He has produced some figure subjects and landscapes, but is best known by his admirable marine paintings. He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1898, associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1890 and member in 1897. Two of his paintings, "Pilchards" and "London River" , are in the National Gallery of British Art. HENDERSON, ALEXANDER , Scottish ecclesiastic, was born in 1583 at Criech, Fifeshire. He graduated at the university of St Andrews in 1603, and in 1610 was appointed professor of rhetoric and philosophy and questor of the faculty of arts. Shortly after this he was presented to the living of Leuchars. As Henderson was forced upon his parish by Archbishop George Gladstanes, and was known to sympathize with episcopacy, his settlement was at first extremely unpopular; but he subsequently changed his views and became a Presbyterian in doctrine and church government, and one of the most esteemed ministers in Scotland. He early made his mark as a church leader, and took an active part in petitioning against the "five acts" and later against the introduction of a service-book and canons drawn up on the model of the English prayer-book. On the 1st of March 1638 the public signing of the "National Covenant" began in Greyfriars Church, Edinburgh. Henderson was mainly responsible for the final form of this document, which consisted of the "king's confession" drawn up in 1581 by John Craig, a recital of the acts of parliament against "superstitious and papistical rites," and an elaborate oath to maintain the true reformed religion. Owing to the skill shown on this occasion he seems to have been applied to when any manifesto of unusual ability was required. In July of the same year he proceeded to the north to debate on the "Covenant" with the famous Aberdeen doctors; but he was not well received by them. "The voyd church was made fast, and the keys keeped by the magistrate," says Baillie. Henderson's next public opportunity was in the famous Assembly which met in Glasgow on the 21st of November 1638. He was chosen moderator by acclamation, being, as Baillie says, "incomparablie the ablest man of us all for all things." James Hamilton, 3rd marquess of Hamilton, was the king's commissioner; and when the Assembly insisted on proceeding with the trial of the bishops, he formally dissolved the meeting under pain of treason. Acting on the constitutional principle that the king's right to convene did not interfere with the church's independent right to hold assemblies, they sat till the 20th of December, deposed all the Scottish bishops, excommunicated a number of them, repealed all acts favouring episcopacy, and reconstituted the Scottish Kirk on thorough Presbyterian principles. During the sitting of this Assembly it was carried by a majority of seventy-five votes that Henderson should be transferred to Edinburgh. He had been at Leuchars for about twenty-three years, and was extremely reluctant to leave it. Henderson is one of the greatest men in the history of Scotland and, next to Knox, is certainly the most famous of Scottish ecclesiastics. He had great political genius; and his statesmanship was so influential that "he was," as Masson well observes, "a cabinet minister without office." He has made a deep mark on the history, not only of Scotland, but of England; and the existing Presbyterian churches in Scotland are largely indebted to him for the forms of their dogmas and their ecclesiastical organization. He is thus justly considered the second founder of the Reformed Church in Scotland. HENDERSON, a city and the county-seat of Henderson county, Kentucky, U.S.A., on the S. bank of the Ohio river, about 142 m. W.S.W. of Louisville. Pop. , 8835; , 10,272, of whom 4029 were negroes; 11,452. It is served by the Illinois Central, the Louisville & Nashville, and the Louisville, Henderson & St. Louis railways, and has direct communication by steamboat with Louisville, Evansville, Cairo, Memphis and New Orleans. Henderson is built on the high bank of the river, above the flood level; the river is spanned here by a fine steel bridge, designed by George W. G. Ferris , the designer of the Ferris Wheel. The city has a public park of 80 acres and a Carnegie library. It is situated in the midst of a region whose soil is said to be the best in the world for the raising of dark, heavy-fibred tobacco, and is well adapted also for the growing of fruit, wheat and Indian corn. Bituminous coal is obtained from the surrounding country. Immense quantities of stemmed tobacco are shipped from here, and the city is an important market for Indian corn. The manufactures of the city include cotton and woollen goods, hominy, meal, flour, tobacco and cigars, carriages, baskets, chairs and other furniture, bricks, ice, whisky and beer; the value of the city's factory products in 1905 was ,365,120. The municipality owns and operates its water works, gas plant and electric-lighting plant. Henderson, named in honour of Richard Henderson , was settled as early as 1784, was first known as Red Banks, was laid out as a town by Henderson's company in 1797, was incorporated as a town in 1810, and was first chartered as a city in 1854. The city boundary lines were extended in 1905 by the annexation of Audubon and Edgewood. Henderson was for some time the home of John James Audubon, the ornithologist. HENDON, an urban district in the Harrow parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, on the river Brent, 8 m. N.W. of St Paul's Cathedral, London, served by the Midland railway. Pop. , 15,843; , 22,450. The nucleus of the township lies on high ground to the east of the Edgware road, which crosses the Welsh Harp reservoir of Regent's Canal, a favourite fishing and skating resort. The church of St Mary is mainly Perpendicular, and contains a Norman font and monuments of the 18th century. To the north of the village, which has extended greatly as a residential suburb of the metropolis, is Mill Hill, with a Roman Catholic Missionary College, opened in 1871, with branches at Rosendaal, Holland and Brixen, Austria, and a preparatory school at Freshfield near Liverpool; and a large grammar school founded by Nonconformists in 1807. The manor belonged at an early date to the abbot of Westminster. HENDRICKS, THOMAS ANDREWS , American political leader, vice-president of the United States in 1885, was born near Zanesville, Ohio, on the 7th of September 1819. He graduated at Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, in 1841, and began in 1843 a successful career at the bar. Identifying himself with the Democratic party, he served in the state House of Representatives in 1848, and was a prominent member of the convention for the revision of the state constitution in 1850-1851, a representative in Congress , commissioner of the United States General Land Office , a United States senator , and governor of Indiana . From 1868 until his death he was put forward for nomination for the presidency at every national Democratic Convention save in 1872. Both in 1876 and 1884, after his failure to receive the nomination for the presidency, he was nominated by the Democratic National Convention for vice-president, his nomination in each of these conventions being made partly, it seems, with the hope of gaining "greenback" votes--Hendricks had opposed the immediate resumption of specie payments. In 1876, with S. J. Tilden, he lost the disputed election by the decision of the electoral commission, but he was elected with Grover Cleveland in 1884. He died at Indianapolis on the 25th of November 1885. HENGELO, or HENGELOO, a town in the province of Overyssel, Holland, and a junction station 5 m. by rail N.W. of Enschede. Pop. , 14,968. The castle belonging to the ancient territorial lords of Hengelo has long since disappeared, and the only interest the town now possesses is as the centre of the flourishing industries of the Twente district. The manufacture of cotton in all its branches is very actively carried on, and there are dye-works and breweries, besides the engineering works of the state railway company. "Preacher at once and zany of his age." HENLEY-ON-THAMES, a market town and municipal borough in the Henley parliamentary division of Oxfordshire, England, on the left bank of the Thames, the terminus of a branch of the Great Western railway, by which it is 35 3/4 m. W. of London, while it is 57 1/2 m. by river. Pop. 5984. It occupies one of the most beautiful situations on the Thames, at the foot of the finely wooded Chiltern Hills. The river is crossed by an elegant stone bridge of five arches, constructed in 1786. The parish church possesses a lofty tower of intermingled flint and stone, attributed to Cardinal Wolsey, but more probably erected by Bishop Longland. The grammar school, founded in 1605, is incorporated with a Blue Coat school. Henley is a favourite summer resort, and is celebrated for the annual Henley Royal Regatta, the principal gathering of amateur oarsmen in England, first held in 1839 and usually taking place in July. Henley is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen and 12 councillors. Area, 549 acres. The preparation of henna consists in reducing the leaves and young twigs to a fine powder, catechu or lucerne leaves in a pulverized state being sometimes mixed with them. When required for use, the powder is made into a pasty mass with hot water, and is then spread upon the part to be dyed, where it is generally allowed to remain for one night. According to Lady Callcott, the flowers are often used by the Eastern women to adorn their hair. The distilled water from the flowers is used as a perfume. HENNEQUIN, PHILIPPE AUGUSTE , French painter, was a pupil of David. He was born at Lyons in 1763, distinguished himself early by winning the "Grand Prix," and left France for Italy. The disturbances at Rome, during the course of the Revolution, obliged him to return to Paris, where he executed the Federation of the 14th of July, and he was at work on a large design commissioned for the town-hall of Lyons, when in July 1794 he was accused before the revolutionary tribunal and thrown into prison. Hennequin escaped, only to be anew accused and imprisoned in Paris, and after running great danger of death, seems to have devoted himself thenceforth wholly to his profession. At Paris he finished the picture ordered for the municipality of Lyons, and in 1801 produced his chief work, "Orestes pursued by the Furies" . He was one of the four painters who competed when in 1802 Gros carried off the official prize for a picture of the Battle of Nazareth, and in 1808 Napoleon himself ordered Hennequin to illustrate a series of scenes from his German campaigns, and commanded that his picture of the "Death of General Salomon" should be engraved. After 1815 Hennequin retired to Li?ge, and there, aided by subventions from the Government, carried out a large historical picture of the "Death of the Three Hundred in defence of Li?ge"--a sketch of which he himself engraved. In 1824 Hennequin settled at Tournay, and became director of the academy; he exhibited various works at Lille in the following year, and continued to produce actively up to the day of his death in May 1833. HENNER, JEAN JACQUES , French painter, was born on the 5th of March 1829 at Dornach . At first a pupil of Drolling and of Picot, he entered the ?cole des Beaux-Arts in 1848, and took the Prix de Rome with a painting of "Adam and Eve finding the Body of Abel" . At Rome he was guided by Flandrin, and, among other works, painted four pictures for the gallery at Colmar. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1863 a "Bather Asleep," and subsequently contributed "Chaste Susanna" ; "Byblis turned into a Spring" ; "The Magdalene" ; "Portrait of M. Hayem" ; "Christ Entombed" ; "Saint Jerome" ; "Herodias" ; "A Study" ; "Christ in His Shroud," and a "Portrait of Carolus-Duran" ; a "Portrait of Mlle Fouquier" ; "The Levite of the Tribe of Ephraim" , for which a first-class medal was awarded to him; and "The Dream" . Among other professional distinctions Henner also took a Grand Prix for painting at the Paris International Exhibition of 1900. He was made Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1873, Officer in 1878 and Commander in 1889. In 1889 he succeeded Cabanel in the Institut de France. When the Scottish troubles broke out, she raised money from her fellow-Catholics to support the king's army on the borders in 1639. During the session of the Short Parliament in the spring of 1640, the queen urged the king to oppose himself to the House of Commons in defence of the Catholics. When the Long Parliament met, the Catholics were believed to be the authors and agents of every arbitrary scheme which was supposed to have entered into the plans of Strafford or Laud. Before the Long Parliament had sat for two months, the queen was urging upon the pope the duty of lending money to enable her to restore her husband's authority. She threw herself heart and soul into the schemes for rescuing Strafford and coercing the parliament. The army plot, the scheme for using Scotland against England, and the attempt upon the five members were the fruits of her political activity. In the next year the queen effected her passage to the Continent. In February 1643 she landed at Burlington Quay, placed herself at the head of a force of loyalists, and marched through England to join the king near Oxford. After little more than a year's residence there, on the 3rd of April 1644, she left her husband, to see his face no more. Henrietta Maria found a refuge in France. Richelieu was dead, and Anne of Austria was compassionate. As long as her husband was alive the queen never ceased to encourage him to resistance. During her exile in France she had much to suffer. Her husband's execution in 1649 was a terrible blow. She brought up her youngest child Henrietta in her own faith, but her efforts to induce her youngest son, the duke of Gloucester, to take the same course only produced discomfort in the exiled family. The story of her marriage with her attached servant Lord Jermyn needs more confirmation than it has yet received to be accepted, but all the information which has reached us of her relations with her children points to the estrangement which had grown up between them. When after the Restoration she returned to England, she found that she had no place in the new world. She received from parliament a grant of ?30,000 a year in compensation for the loss of her dower-lands, and the king added a similar sum as a pension from himself. In January 1661 she returned to France to be present at the marriage of her daughter Henrietta to the duke of Orleans. In July 1662 she set out again for England, and took up her residence once more at Somerset House. Her health failed her, and on the 24th of June 1665, she departed in search of the clearer air of her native country. She died on the 31st of August 1666, at Colombes, not far from Paris. HENRY , the name of many European sovereigns, the more important of whom are noticed below in the following order: emperors and German kings; kings of England; other kings in the alphabetical order of their states; other reigning princes in the same order; non-reigning princes; bishops, nobles, chroniclers, &c. Crossing the Alps, Henry appeared in January 1077 as a penitent before the castle of Canossa, where Gregory had taken refuge. The story of this famous occurrence, which represents the king as standing in the courtyard of the castle for three days in the snow, clad as a penitent, and entreating to be admitted to the pope's presence, is now regarded as mythical in its details; but there is no doubt that the king visited the castle at intervals, and prayed for admission for three days until the 28th of January, when he was received by Gregory and absolved, after promising to submit to the pope's authority and to secure for him a safe journey to Germany. No historical incident has more profoundly impressed the imagination of the Western world. It marked the highest point reached by papal authority, and presents a vivid picture of the awe inspired during the middle ages by the supernatural powers supposed to be wielded by the church. The character of Henry is unattractive. His love of power was inordinate; he was wanting in generosity, and he did not shrink from treachery in pursuing his ends. In the following May, Henry made his second expedition to Italy, where Pope Celestine had definitely espoused the cause of Tancred. The ransom received from Richard enabled him to equip a large army, and aided by a fleet fitted out by Genoa and Pisa he soon secured a complete mastery over the Italian mainland. When he reached Sicily he found Tancred dead, and, meeting with very little resistance, he entered Palermo, where he was crowned king on Christmas day 1194. A stay of a few months' duration enabled Henry to settle the affairs of the kingdom; and leaving his wife, Constance, as regent, and appointing many Germans to positions of influence, he returned to Germany in June 1195. Henry was twice married. After the death of his first wife, Matilda , he took to wife Adelaide, daughter of Godfrey, count of Louvain , in the hope of male issue. But the marriage proved childless, and the empress Matilda was designated as her father's successor, the English baronage being compelled to do her homage both in 1126, and again, after the Angevin marriage, in 1131. He had many illegitimate sons and daughters by various mistresses. Of these bastards the most important is Robert, earl of Gloucester, upon whom fell the main burden of defending Matilda's title against Stephen. Henry died near Gisors on the 1st of December, 1135, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign, and was buried in the abbey of Reading which he himself had founded. FOOTNOTE: Henry had in him some of the elements of a fine character. His mind was cultivated; he was a discriminating patron of literature, and Westminster Abbey is an abiding memorial of his artistic taste. His personal morality was irreproachable, except that he inherited the Plantagenet taste for crooked courses and dissimulation in political affairs; even in this respect the king's reputation has suffered unduly at the hands of Matthew Paris, whose literary skill is only equalled by his malice. The ambitions which Henry cherished, if extravagant, were never sordid; his patriotism, though seldom attested by practical measures, was thoroughly sincere. Some of his worst actions as a politician were due to a sincere, though exaggerated, gratitude for the support which the Papacy had given him during his minority. But he had neither the training nor the temper of a statesman. His dreams of autocracy at home and far-reaching dominion abroad were anachronisms in a century of constitutional ideas and national differentiation. Above all he earned the contempt of Englishmen and foreigners alike by the instability of his purpose. Matthew Paris said that he had a heart of wax; Dante relegated him to the limbo of ineffectual souls; and later generations have endorsed these scathing judgments. Henry, stricken with sore disease, was unable to reap the advantage. His necessities had all along enabled the Commons to extort concessions in parliament, until in 1406 he was forced to nominate a council and govern by its advice. However, with Archbishop Arundel as his chancellor, Henry still controlled the government. But in January 1410 Arundel had to give way to the king's half-brother, Thomas Beaufort. Beaufort and his brother Henry, bishop of Winchester, were opposed to Arundel and supported by the prince of Wales. For two years the real government rested with the prince and the council. Under the prince's influence the English intervened in France in 1411 on the side of Burgundy. In this, and in some matters of home politics, the king disagreed with his ministers. There is good reason to suppose that the Beauforts had gone so far as to contemplate a forced abdication on the score of the king's ill-health. However, in November 1411 Henry showed that he was still capable of vigorous action by discharging the prince and his supporters. Arundel again became chancellor, and the king's second son, Thomas, took his brother's place. The change was further marked by the sending of an expedition to France in support of Orleans. But Henry's health was failing steadily. On the 20th of March 1413, whilst praying in Westminster Abbey he was seized with a fainting fit, and died that same evening in the Jerusalem Chamber. At the time he was believed to have been a leper, but as it would appear without sufficient reason. As a young man Henry had been chivalrous and adventurous, and in politics anxious for good government and justice. As king the loss and failure of friends made him cautious, suspicious and cruel. The persecution of the Lollards, which began with the burning statute of 1401, may be accounted for by Henry's own orthodoxy, or by the influence of Archbishop Arundel, his one faithful friend. But that political Lollardry was strong is shown by the proposal in the parliament of 1410 for a wholesale confiscation of ecclesiastical property. Henry's faults may be excused by his difficulties. Throughout he was practical and steadfast, and he deserved credit for maintaining his principles as a constitutional ruler. So after all his troubles he founded his dynasty firmly, and passed on the crown to his son with a better title. He is buried under a fine tomb at Canterbury. Henry's last words were a wish that he might live to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. They are significant. His ideal was founded consciously on the models of Arthur and Godfrey as national king and leader of Christendom. So he is the typical medieval hero. For that very reason his schemes were doomed to end in disaster, since the time was come for a new departure. Yet he was not reactionary. His policy was constructive: a firm central government supported by parliament; church reform on conservative lines; commercial development; and the maintenance of national prestige. His aims in some respects anticipated those of his Tudor successors, but he would have accomplished them on medieval lines as a constitutional ruler. His success was due to the power of his personality. He could train able lieutenants, but at his death there was no one who could take his place as leader. War, diplomacy and civil administration were all dependent on his guidance. His dazzling achievements as a general have obscured his more sober qualities as a ruler, and even the sound strategy, with which he aimed to be master of the narrow seas. If he was not the founder of the English navy he was one of the first to realize its true importance. Henry had so high a sense of his own rights that he was merciless to disloyalty. But he was scrupulous of the rights of others, and it was his eager desire to further the cause of justice that impressed his French contemporaries. He has been charged with cruelty as a religious persecutor; but in fact he had as prince opposed the harsh policy of Archbishop Arundel, and as king sanctioned a more moderate course. Lollard executions during his reign had more often a political than a religious reason. To be just with sternness was in his eyes a duty. So in his warfare, though he kept strict discipline and allowed no wanton violence, he treated severely all who had in his opinion transgressed. In his personal conduct he was chaste, temperate and sincerely pious. He delighted in sport and all manly exercises. At the same time he was cultured, with a taste for literature, art and music. Henry lies buried in Westminster Abbey. His tomb was stripped of its splendid adornment during the Reformation. The shield, helmet and saddle, which formed part of the original funeral equipment, still hang above it. During these early years Bedford ruled France wisely and at first with success, but he could not prevent the mischief which Humphrey of Gloucester caused both at home and abroad. Even in France the English lost ground steadily after the victory of Joan of Arc before Orleans in 1429. The climax came with the death of Bedford, and defection of Philip of Burgundy in 1435. This closed the first phase of Henry's reign. There followed fifteen years of vain struggle in France, and growing disorder at home. The determining factor in politics was the conduct of the war. Cardinal Beaufort, and after him Suffolk, sought by working for peace to secure at least Guienne and Normandy. Gloucester courted popularity by opposing them throughout; with him was Richard of York, who stood next in succession to the crown. Beaufort controlled the council, and it was under his guidance that the king began to take part in the government. Thus it was natural that as Henry grew to manhood he seconded heartily the peace policy. That policy was wise, but national pride made it unpopular and difficult. Henry himself had not the strength or knowledge to direct it, and was unfortunate in his advisers. The cardinal was old, his nephews John and Edmund Beaufort were incompetent, Suffolk, though a man of noble character, was tactless. Suffolk, however, achieved a great success by negotiating the marriage of Henry to Margaret of Anjou in 1445. Humphrey of Gloucester and Cardinal Beaufort both died early in 1447. Suffolk was now all-powerful in the favour of the king and queen. But his home administration was unpopular, whilst the incapacity of Edmund Beaufort ended in the loss of all Normandy and Guienne. Suffolk's fall in 1450 left Richard of York the foremost man in England. Henry's reign then entered on its last phase of dynastic struggle. Cade's rebellion suggested first that popular discontent might result in a change of rulers. But York, as heir to the throne, could abide his time. The situation was altered by the mental derangement of the king, and the birth of his son in 1453. York after a struggle secured the protectorship, and for the next year ruled England. Then Henry was restored to sanity, and the queen and Edmund Beaufort, now Duke of Somerset, to power. Open war followed, with the defeat and death of Somerset at St Albans on the 22nd of May 1455. Nevertheless a hollow peace was patched up, which continued during four years with lack of all governance. In 1459 war broke out again. On the 10th of July 1460 Henry was taken prisoner at Northampton, and forced to acknowledge York as heir, to the exclusion of his own son. Richard of York's death at Wakefield , and the queen's victory at St Albans , brought Henry his freedom and no more. Edward of York had himself proclaimed king, and by his decisive victory at Towton on the 29th of March, put an end to Henry's reign. For over three years Henry was a fugitive in Scotland. He returned to take part in an abortive rising in 1464. A year later he was captured in the north, and brought a prisoner to the Tower. For six months in 1470-1471 he emerged to hold a shadowy kingship as Warwick's puppet. Edward's final victory at Tewkesbury was followed by Henry's death on the 21st of May 1471, certainly by violence, perhaps at the hands of Richard of Gloucester. Already Cornwall had risen in insurrection that year, not liking the taxation imposed for the purpose of repelling the Scotch invasion. A host of the country people, led first by a blacksmith, but afterwards by a nobleman, marched up towards London and were only defeated at Blackheath. But the Cornishmen were quite ready for another revolt, and indeed had invited Perkin to their shores. He had little fight in him, however, and after a futile siege of Exeter and an advance to Taunton he stole away and took sanctuary at Beaulieu in Hampshire. But, being assured of his life, he surrendered, was brought to London, and was only executed two years later, when, being imprisoned near the earl of Warwick in the Tower, he inveigled that simple-minded youth into a project of escape. For this Warwick, too, was tried, condemned and executed--no doubt to deliver Henry from repeated conspiracies in his favour. The secular importance of Henry's activity has been somewhat obscured by his achievements in the sphere of ecclesiastical politics; but no small part of his energies was devoted to the task of expanding the royal authority at the expense of temporal competitors. Feudalism was not yet dead, and in the north and west there were medieval franchises in which the royal writ and common law hardly ran at all. Wales and its marches were brought into legal union with the rest of England by the statutes of Wales ; and after the Pilgrimage of Grace the Council of the North was set up to bring into subjection the extensive jurisdictions of the northern earls. Neither they nor the lesser chiefs who flourished on the lack of common law and order could be reduced by ordinary methods, and the Councils of Wales and of the North were given summary powers derived from the Roman civil law similar to those exercised by the Star Chamber at Westminster and the court of Castle Chamber at Dublin. Ireland had been left by Wolsey to wallow in its own disorder; but disorder was anathema to Henry's mind, and in 1535 Sir William Skeffington was sent to apply English methods and artillery to the government of Ireland. Sir Anthony St Leger continued his policy from 1540; Henry, instead of being merely lord of Ireland dependent on the pope, was made by an Irish act of parliament king, and supreme head of the Irish church. Conciliation was also tried with some success; plantation schemes were rejected in favour of an attempt to Anglicize the Irish; their chieftains were created earls and endowed with monastic lands; and so peaceful was Ireland in 1542 that the lord-deputy could send Irish kernes and gallowglasses to fight against the Scots. Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page |
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