[1] Fitzgerald was known by the sobriquet of "Silken Thomas," either
from the silken fringes on his helmet, or from his distinguished
manners.
FITZHERBERT, SIR ANTHONY (1470-1538), English jurist, was born at
Norbury, Derbyshire. After studying at Oxford, he was called to the
English bar, and in 1523 became justice of the Court of Common Pleas,
the duties of which office he continued to discharge till within a short
time of his death in 1538. As a judge he left behind him a high
reputation for fairness and integrity, and his legal learning is
sufficiently attested by his published works.
He is the author of _La Graunde Abridgement_, a digest of important
legal cases written in Old French, first printed in 1514; _The Office
and Authority of Justices of the Peace_, first printed in 1538 (last
ed. 1794); the _New Natura Brevium_ (1534, last ed. 1794), with a
commentary ascribed to Sir Matthew Hale. To Fitzherbert are sometimes
attributed the _Book of Husbandry_ (1523), the first published work on
agriculture in the English language, and the _Book of Surveying and
Improvements_ (1523) (see AGRICULTURE).
FITZHERBERT, THOMAS (1552-1640), English Jesuit, was the eldest son and
heir of William Fitzherbert of Swynnerton in Staffordshire, and grandson
of Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, judge of the common pleas. He was educated
at Oxford, where, at the age of twenty, he was imprisoned for recusancy.
On his release he went to London, where he was a member of the
association of young men founded in 1580 to assist the Jesuits Edmund
Campion and Robert Parsons. In 1582 he withdrew to the continent, where
he was active in the cause of Mary, queen of Scots. He married in this
year Dorothy, daughter of Edward East of Bledlow in Buckinghamshire.
After the death of his wife (1588) he went to Spain, where on the
recommendation of the duke of Feria he received a pension from the king.
He continued his intrigues against the English government, and in 1598
he was charged with complicity in a plot to poison Queen Elizabeth.
After this he was for a short while in the service of the duke of Feria
at Milan, then went to Rome, where he was ordained priest (1601-1602)
and became agent for the English clergy. He was unpopular with them,
however, owing to his subserviency to the Jesuits, and resigned the
agency in 1607 owing to the remonstrances of the English arch-priest
George Birkhead. In 1613 he joined the Society of Jesus, and was
appointed superior of the English mission at Brussels in 1616, and in
1618 rector of the English college at Rome. He held this post to within
a year of his death, which occurred at Rome on the 7th of August (O.S.)
1640.
Father Fitzherbert, who is described as "a person of excellent parts,
a notable politician, and of graceful behaviour and generous spirit,"
wrote many controversial works, a list of which is given in the
article on him by Mr Thompson Cooper in the _Dictionary of National
Biography_, together with authorities for his life.
FITZ NEAL or (FITZ NIGEL), RICHARD (d. 1198), treasurer of Henry II. and
Richard I. of England, and bishop of London, belonged to a great
administrative family whose fortunes were closely linked with those of
Henry I., Henry II. and Richard I. The founder of the family was Roger,
bishop of Salisbury, the great minister of Henry I. Before the death of
that sovereign (1135) the care of the treasury passed from Roger to his
nephew, Nigel, bishop of Ely (d. 1169), who held that office until the
whole family were disgraced by Stephen (1139). Becoming a partisan of
the empress, Nigel reaped his reward at the accession of her son, Henry
II., who made him at first chancellor and then treasurer. Nigel's son,
Richard, who was born before his father's elevation to the episcopate
(1133), succeeded to the office of treasurer in 1158, and held it
continuously for forty years. His name appears in the lists of itinerant
justices for 1179 and 1194, but these are the only occasions on which
he exercised that office. Before 1184 he became dean of Lincoln, and
was in that year presented by the chapter of Lincoln among three select
candidates for the vacant see. The king passed him over in favour of
Hugh of Avalon, having resolved on this occasion to make a disinterested
appointment. Richard I., however, rewarded the treasurer's services with
the see of London (1189).
Richard Fitz Neal is best remembered as an author. He lacked the broad
statesmanship of his father and great-uncle; he avoided any connexion
with political parties; he is only once mentioned as taking part in a
debate of the Great Council (1193), and then spoke, in his character as
a bishop, to support a royal demand for a special aid. But his work _De
necessariis observantiis Scaccarii dialogus_, commonly called the
_Dialogus de Scaccario_, is of unique interest to the historian. It is
an account, in two books, of the procedure followed by the exchequer in
the author's time. Richard handles his subject with the more enthusiasm
because, as he explains, the "course" of the exchequer was largely the
creation of his own family. When read in connexion with the Pipe Rolls
the _Dialogus_ furnishes a most faithful and detailed picture of English
fiscal arrangements under Henry II. The speakers in the dialogue are
Richard himself and an anonymous pupil. The latter puts leading
questions which Richard answers in elaborate fashion. The date of the
conversation is given in the prologue as 1176-1177. This probably marks
the date at which the book was begun; it was not completed before 1178
or 1179. Soon after the author's death we find it already recognized as
the standard manual for exchequer officials. It was frequently
transcribed and has been used by English antiquarians of every period.
Hence it is the more necessary to insist that the historical statements
which the treatise contains are sometimes demonstrably erroneous; the
author appears to have relied excessively upon oral tradition. But, as
the work is only known to us through transcripts, it is possible that
some of the blunders which it now contains are due to the misdirected
zeal of editors. Richard Fitz Neal also compiled in his earlier years a
register or chronicle of contemporary affairs, arranged in three
parallel columns. This was preserved in the exchequer at the time when
he wrote the _Dialogus_, but has since disappeared. Stubbs' conjectural
identification of this _Liber tricolumnis_ with the first part of the
_Gesta Henrici_ (formerly attributed to Benedictus Abbas) is now
abandoned as untenable.
See Madox's edition in his _History of the Exchequer_ (1769); and that
of A. Hughes, C.G. Crump and C. Johnson (Oxford, 1902). F.
Liebermann's _Einleitung in den Dialogus de Scaccario_ (Gottingen,
1875) contains the fullest account of the author. (H. W. C. D.)
FITZ-OSBERN, ROGER (fl. 1070), succeeded to the earldom of Hereford and
the English estate of William Fitz-Osbern in 1071. He did not keep on
good terms with William the Conqueror, and in 1075, disregarding the
king's prohibition, married his sister Emma to Ralph Guader, earl of
Norfolk, at the famous bridal of Norwich. Immediately afterwards the two
earls rebelled. But Roger, who was to bring his force from the west to
join the earl of Norfolk, was held in check at the Severn by the
Worcestershire fyrd which the English bishop Wulfstan brought into the
field against him. On the collapse of his confederate's rising, Roger
was tried before the Great Council, deprived of his lands and earldom,
and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment; but he was released, with other
political prisoners, at the death of William I. in 1087.
FITZ-OSBERN, WILLIAM, Earl of Hereford (d. 1071), was an intimate friend
of William the Conqueror, and the principal agent in preparing for the
invasion of England. He received the earldom of Hereford with the
special duty of pushing into Wales. During William's absence in 1067,
Fitz-Osbern was left as his deputy in central England, to guard it from
the Welsh on one side, and the Danes on the other. He also acted as
William's lieutenant during the rebellions of 1069. In 1070 William sent
him to assist Queen Matilda in the government of Normandy. But Richilde,
widow of Baldwin VI. of Flanders, having offered to marry him if he
would protect her son Arnulf against Robert the Frisian, Fitz-Osbern
accepted the proposal and joined Richilde in Flanders. He was killed,
fighting against Robert, at Cassel in 1071.
See Freeman, _Norman Conquest_, vols. iii. and iv.; Sir James Ramsay,
_Foundations of England_, vol. ii.
FITZ OSBERT, WILLIAM (d. 1196), was a Londoner of good position who had
served in the Third Crusade, and on his return took up the cause of the
poorer citizens against the magnates who monopolized the government of
London and assessed the taxes, as he alleged, with gross partiality. It
is affirmed that he entered on this course of action through a quarrel
with his elder brother who had refused him money. But this appears to be
mere scandal; the chronicler Roger of Hoveden gives Fitz Osbert a high
character, and he was implicitly trusted by the poorer citizens. He
attempted to procure redress for them from the king; but the city
magistrates persuaded the justiciar Hubert Walter that Fitz Osbert and
his followers meditated plundering the houses of the rich. Troops were
sent to seize the demagogue. He was smoked out of the sanctuary of St
Mary le Bow, in which he had taken refuge, and summarily dragged to
execution at Tyburn.
FITZ PETER, GEOFFREY (d. 1213), earl of Essex and chief justiciar of
England, began his official career in the later years of Henry II., whom
he served as a sheriff, a justice itinerant and a justice of the forest.
During Richard's absence on Crusade he was one of the five justices of
the king's court who stood next in authority to the regent, Longchamp.
It was at this time (1190) that Fitz Peter succeeded to the earldom of
Essex, in the right of his wife, who was descended from the famous
Geoffrey de Mandeville. In attempting to assert his hereditary rights
over Walden priory Fitz Peter came into conflict with Longchamp, and
revenged himself by taking an active part in the baronial agitation
through which the regent was expelled from his office. The king,
however, forgave Fitz Peter for his share in these proceedings; and,
though refusing to give him formal investiture of the Essex earldom,
appointed him justiciar in succession to Hubert Walter (1198). In this
capacity Fitz Peter continued his predecessor's policy of encouraging
foreign trade and the development of the towns; many of the latter
received, during his administration, charters of self-government. He was
continued in his office by John, who found him a useful instrument and
described him in an official letter as "indispensable to the king and
kingdom." He proved himself an able instrument of extortion, and
profited to no small extent by the spoliation of church lands in the
period of the interdict. But he was too closely connected with the
baronage to be altogether trusted by the king. The contemporary
_Histoire des ducs_ describes Fitz Peter as living in constant dread of
disgrace and confiscation. In the last years of his life he endeavoured
to act as a mediator between the king and the opposition. It was by his
mouth that the king promised to the nation the laws of Henry I. (at the
council of St Albans, August 4th, 1213). But Fitz Peter died a few weeks
later (Oct. 2), and his great office passed to Peter des Roches, one of
the unpopular foreign favourites. Fitz Peter was neither a far-sighted
nor a disinterested statesman; but he was the ablest pupil of Hubert
Walter, and maintained the traditions of the great bureaucracy which the
first and second Henries had founded.
See the original authorities specified for the reigns of Richard I.
and John. Also Miss K. Norgate's _Angevin England_, vol. ii. (1887),
and _John Lackland_ (1902); A. Ballard in _English Historical Review_,
xiv. p. 93; H.W.C. Davis' _England under the Normans and Angevins_
(1905). (H. W. C. D.)
FITZROY, ROBERT (1805-1865), English, vice-admiral, distinguished as a
hydrographer and meteorologist, was born at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, on the
5th of July 1805, being a grandson, on the father's side, of the third
duke of Grafton, and on the mother's, of the first marquis of
Londonderry. He entered the navy from the Royal Naval College, then a
school for cadets, on the 19th of October 1819, and on the 7th of
September 1824 was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. After serving in
the "Thetis" frigate in the Mediterranean and on the coast of South
America, under the command of Sir John Phillimore and Captain Bingham,
he was in August 1828 appointed to the "Ganges," as flag-lieutenant to
Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Otway, the commander-in-chief on the South
American station; and on the death of Commander Stokes of the "Beagle,"
on the 13th of November 1828, was promoted to the vacant command. The
"Beagle," a small brig of about 240 tons, was then, and had been for the
two previous years, employed on the survey of the coasts of Patagonia
and Tierra del Fuego, under the orders of Commander King in the
"Adventure," and, together with the "Adventure," returned to England in
the autumn of 1830. Fitzroy had brought home with him four Fuegians, one
of whom died of smallpox a few weeks after arriving in England; to the
others he endeavoured, with but slight success, to impart a rudimentary
knowledge of religion and of some useful handicrafts; and, as he had
pledged himself to restore them to their native country, he was making
preparations in the summer of the following year to carry them back in a
merchant ship bound to Valparaiso, when he received his reappointment to
the "Beagle," to continue the survey of the same wild coasts. The
"Beagle" sailed from Plymouth on the 27th of December 1831, carrying as
a supernumerary Charles Darwin, the afterwards famous naturalist. After
an absence of nearly five years, and having, in addition to the survey
of the Straits of Magellan and a great part of the coast of South
America, run a chronometric line round the world, thus fixing the
longitude of many secondary meridians with sufficient exactness for all
the purposes of ordinary navigation, the "Beagle" anchored at Falmouth
on the 2nd of October 1836. In 1835 Fitzroy had been advanced to the
rank of captain and was now for the next few years principally employed
in reducing and discussing his numerous observations. In 1837 he was
awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society; and in 1839 he
published, in two thick 8vo volumes, the narrative of the voyage of the
"Adventure" and "Beagle," 1826-1830, and of the "Beagle," 1831-1836,
with a third volume by Darwin--a book familiarly known as a record of
scientific travel. Of Fitzroy's work as a surveyor, carried on under
circumstances of great difficulty, with scanty means, and with an outfit
that was semi-officially denounced as "shabby," Sir Francis Beaufort,
the Hydrographer to the Admiralty, wrote, in a report to the House of
Commons, 10th of February 1848, that "from the equator to Cape Horn, and
from thence round to the river Plata on the eastern side of America, all
that is _immediately_ wanted has been already achieved by the splendid
survey of Captain Robert Fitzroy." This was written before steamships
made the Straits of Magellan a high-road to the Pacific. The survey that
was sufficient then became afterwards very far from sufficient.
In 1841 Fitzroy unsuccessfully contested the borough of Ipswich, and in
the following year was returned to parliament as member for Durham.
About the same time he accepted the post of conservator of the Mersey,
and in his double capacity obtained leave to bring in a bill for
improving the condition and efficiency of officers in the mercantile
marine. This was not proceeded with at the time, but gave rise to the
"voluntary certificate" instituted by the Board of Trade in 1845, and
furnished some important clauses to the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850.
Early in 1843 Fitzroy was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of
New Zealand, then recently established as a colony. He arrived in his
government in December, whilst the excitement about the Wairau massacre
was still fresh, and the questions relating to the purchase of land from
the natives were in a very unsatisfactory state. The early settlers were
greedy and unscrupulous; Fitzroy, on the other hand, had made no secret
of his partiality for the aborigines. Between such discordant elements
agreement was impossible: the settlers insulted the governor; the
governor did not conciliate the settlers, who denounced his policy as
adverse to their interests, as unjust and illegal; colonial feeling
against him ran very high; petition after petition for his recall was
sent home, and the government was compelled to yield to the pressure
brought to bear on it. Fitzroy was relieved by Sir George Grey in
November 1845.
In September 1848 he was appointed acting superintendent of the
dockyard at Woolwich, and in the following March to the command of the
"Arrogant," one of the early screw frigates which had been fitted out
under his supervision, and with which it was desired to carry out a
series of experiments and trials. When these were finished he applied to
be superseded, on account at once of his health and of his private
affairs. In February 1850 he was accordingly placed on half-pay; nor did
he ever serve again, although advanced in due course by seniority to the
ranks of rear-and vice-admiral on the retired list (1857, 1863). In 1851
he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1854, after serving
for a few months as private secretary to his uncle, Lord Hardinge, then
commander-in-chief of the army, he was appointed to the meteorological
department of the Board of Trade, with, in the first instance, the
peculiar title of "Meteorological Statist."
From the date of his joining the "Beagle" in 1828 he had paid very great
attention to the different phenomena foreboding or accompanying change
of weather, and his narratives of the voyages of the "Adventure" and
"Beagle" are full of interesting and valuable details concerning these.
Accordingly, when in 1854 Lord Wrottesley, the president of the Royal
Society, was asked by the Board of Trade to recommend a chief for its
newly forming meteorological department, he, almost without hesitation,
nominated Fitzroy, whose name and career became from that time
identified with the progress of practical meteorology. His _Weather
Book_, published in 1863, embodies in broad outline his views, far in
advance of those then generally held; and in spite of the rapid march of
modern science, it is still worthy of careful attention and exact study.
His storm warnings, in their origin, indeed, liable to a charge of
empiricism, were gradually developed on a more scientific basis, and
gave a high percentage of correct results. They were continued for
eighteen months after his death by the assistants he had trained, and
though stopped when the department was transferred to the management of
a committee of the Royal Society, they were resumed a few months
afterwards; and under the successive direction of Dr R.H. Scott and Dr
W.N. Shaw, have been developed into what we now know them. But though it
is perhaps by these storm warnings that Fitzroy's name has been most
generally known, seafaring men owe him a deeper debt of gratitude, not
only for his labours in reducing to a more practical form the somewhat
complicated wind charts of Captain Maury, but also for his great
exertions in connexion with the life-boat association. Into this work,
in its many ramifications, he threw himself with the energy of an
excitable temperament, already strained by his long and anxious service
in the Straits of Magellan. His last years were fully and to an
excessive degree occupied by it; his health, both of body and mind,
threatened to give way; but he refused to take the rest that was
prescribed. In a fit of mental aberration he put an end to his existence
on the 30th of April 1865.
Besides his works already named mention may be made of _Remarks on New
Zealand_ (1846); _Sailing Directions for South America_ (1848); his
official reports to the Board of Trade (1857-1865); and occasional
papers in the journal of the Royal Geographical Society and of the
Royal United Service Institution. (J. K. L.)
FITZROY, a city of Bourke county, Victoria, Australia, 2 m. by rail N.E.
of and suburban to Melbourne. Pop. (1901) 31,610. It is a prosperous
manufacturing town, well served with tramways and containing many fine
residences.
FITZ STEPHEN, ROBERT (fl. 1150), son of Nesta, a Welsh princess and
former mistress of Henry I., by Stephen, constable of Cardigan, whom
Robert succeeded in that office, took service with Dermot of Leinster
when that king visited England (1167), In 1169 Robert led the vanguard
of Dermot's Anglo-Welsh auxiliaries to Ireland, and captured Wexford,
which he was then allowed to hold jointly with Maurice Fitz Gerald.
Taken prisoner by the Irish in 1171, he was by them surrendered to Henry
II., who appointed him lieutenant of the justiciar of Ireland, Hugh de
Lacy. Robert rendered good service in the troubles of 1173, and was
rewarded by receiving, jointly with Miles Cogan, a grant of Cork (1177).
He had difficulty in maintaining his position and was nearly
overwhelmed by a rising of Desmond in 1182. The date of his death is
uncertain.
FITZ STEPHEN, WILLIAM (d. c. 1190), biographer of Thomas Becket and
royal justice, was a Londoner by origin. He entered Becket's service at
some date between 1154 and 1162. The chancellor employed Fitz Stephen in
legal work, made him sub-deacon of his chapel and treated him as a
confidant. Fitz Stephen appeared with Becket at the council of
Northampton (1164) when the disgrace of the archbishop was published to
the world; but he did not follow Becket into exile. He joined Becket's
household again in 1170, and was a spectator of the tragedy in
Canterbury cathedral. To his pen we owe the most valuable among the
extant biographies of his patron. Though he writes as a partisan he
gives a precise account of the differences between Becket and the king.
This biography contains a description of London which is our chief
authority for the social life of the city in the 12th century. Despite
his connexion with Becket, William subsequently obtained substantial
preferment from the king. He was sheriff of Gloucestershire from 1171 to
1190, and a royal justice in the years 1176-1180 and 1189-1190.
See his "Vita S. Thomae" in J.C. Robertson's _Materials for the
History of Thomas Becket_, vol. iii. (Rolls series, 1877). Sir T.D.
Hardy, in his _Catalogue of Materials_, ii. 330 (Rolls series, 1865),
discusses the manuscripts of this biography and its value. W.H.
Hutton, _St Thomas of Canterbury_, pp. 272-274 (1889), gives an
account of the author. (H. W. C. D.)
FITZ THEDMAR, ARNOLD (d. 1274), London chronicler and merchant, was born
in London on the 9th of August 1201. Both his parents were of German
extraction. The family of his mother migrated to England from Cologne in
the reign of Henry II.; his father, Thedmar by name, was a citizen of
Bremen who had been attracted to London by the privileges which the
Plantagenets conferred upon the Teutonic Hanse. Arnold succeeded in time
to his father's wealth and position. He held an honourable position
among the Hanse traders, and became their "alderman." He was also, as he
tells us himself, alderman of a London ward and an active partisan in
municipal politics. In the Barons' War he took the royal side against
the populace and the mayor Thomas Fitz Thomas. The popular party
planned, in 1265, to try him for his life before the folk-moot, but he
was saved by the news of the battle of Evesham which arrived on the very
day appointed for the trial. Even after the king's triumph Arnold
suffered from the malice of his enemies, who contrived that he should be
unfairly assessed for the tallages imposed upon the city. He appealed
for help to Henry III., and again to Edward I., with the result that his
liability was diminished. In 1270 he was one of the four citizens to
whose keeping the muniments of the city were entrusted. To this
circumstance we probably owe the compilation of his chronicle. _Chronica
Maiorum et Vicecomitum_, which begins at the year 1188 and is continued
to 1274. From 1239 onwards this work is a mine of curious information.
Though municipal in its outlook, it is valuable for the general history
of the kingdom, owing to the important part which London played in the
agitation against the misrule of Henry III. We have the king's word for
the fact that Arnold was a consistent royalist; but this is apparent
from the whole tenor of the chronicle. Arnold was by no means blind to
the faults of Henry's government, but preferred an autocracy to the
mob-rule which Simon de Montfort countenanced in London. Arnold died in
1274; the last fact recorded of him is that, in this year, he joined in
a successful appeal to the king against the illegal grants which had
been made by the mayor, Walter Hervey.
The _Chronica Maiorum et Vicecomitum_, with the other contents of
Arnold's common-place book, were edited for the Camden Society by T.
Stapleton (1846), under the title _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_. Our
knowledge of Arnold's life comes from the _Chronica_ and his own
biographical notes. Extracts, with valuable notes, are edited in G.H.
Pertz's _Mon. Germaniae historica, Scriptores_, vol. xxviii. See also
J.M. Lappenberg's _Urkundliche Geschichte des Hansischen Stahlhofes zu
London_ (Hamburg, 1851). (H. W. C. D)
FITZWALTER, ROBERT (d. 1235), leader of the baronial opposition against
King John of England, belonged to the official aristocracy created by
Henry I. and Henry II. He served John in the Norman wars, and was taken
prisoner by Philip of France, and forced to pay a heavy ransom. He was
implicated in the baronial conspiracy of 1212. According to his own
statement the king had attempted to seduce his eldest daughter; but
Robert's account of his grievances varied from time to time. The truth
seems to be that he was irritated by the suspicion with which John
regarded the new baronage. Fitzwalter escaped a trial by flying to
France. He was outlawed, but returned under a special amnesty after
John's reconciliation with the pope. He continued, however, to take the
lead in the baronial agitation against the king, and upon the outbreak
of hostilities was elected "marshal of the army of God and Holy Church"
(1215). To his influence in London it was due that his party obtained
the support of the city and used it as their base of operations. The
famous clause of Magna Carta (S 39) prohibiting sentences of exile,
except as the result of a lawful trial, refers more particularly to his
case. He was one of the twenty-five appointed to enforce the promises of
Magna Carta; and his aggressive attitude was one of the causes which
contributed to the recrudescence of civil war (1215). His incompetent
leadership made it necessary for the rebels to invoke the help of
France. He was one of the envoys who invited Louis to England, and was
the first of the barons to do homage when the prince entered London.
Though slighted by the French as a traitor to his natural lord, he
served Louis with fidelity until captured at the battle of Lincoln (May
1217). Released on the conclusion of peace he joined the Damietta
crusade of 1219, but returned at an early date to make his peace with
the regency. The remainder of his career was uneventful; he died
peacefully in 1235.
See the list of chronicles for the reign of John. The _Histoire des
ducs de Normandie et des rois d'Angleterre_ (ed. F. Michel, Paris,
1840) gives the fullest account of his quarrel with the king. Miss K.
Norgate's _John Lackland_ (1902), W. McKechnie's _Magna Carta_ (1905),
and Stubbs's _Constitutional History_, vol. i. ch. xii. (1897), should
also be consulted.
FITZWILLIAM, SIR WILLIAM (1526-1599), lord deputy of Ireland, was the
eldest son of Sir William Fitzwilliam (d. 1576) of Milton,
Northamptonshire, where he was born, and grandson of another Sir William
Fitzwilliam (d. 1534), alderman and sheriff of London, who was also
treasurer and chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey, and who purchased Milton
in 1506. On his mother's side Fitzwilliam was related to John Russell,
1st earl of Bedford, a circumstance to which he owed his introduction to
Edward VI. In 1559 he became vice-treasurer of Ireland and a member of
the Irish House of Commons; and between this date and 1571 he was
(during the absences of Thomas Radclyffe, earl of Sussex, and of his
successor, Sir Henry Sidney) five times lord justice of Ireland. In 1571
Fitzwilliam himself was appointed lord deputy, but like Elizabeth's
other servants he received little or no money, and his period of
government was marked by continuous penury and its attendant evils,
inefficiency, mutiny and general lawlessness. Moreover, the deputy
quarrelled with the lord president of Connaught, Sir Edward Fitton
(1527-1579), but he compelled the earl of Desmond to submit in 1574. He
disliked the expedition of Walter Devereux, earl of Essex; he had a
further quarrel with Fitton, and after a serious illness he was allowed
to resign his office. Returning to England in 1575 he was governor of
Fotheringhay Castle at the time of Mary Stuart's execution. In 1588
Fitzwilliam was again in Ireland as lord deputy, and although old and
ill he displayed great activity in leading expeditions, and found time
to quarrel with Sir Richard Bingham (1528-1599), the new president of
Connaught. In 1594 he finally left Ireland, and five years later he died
at Milton. From Fitzwilliam, whose wife was Anne, daughter of Sir
William Sidney, were descended the barons and earls Fitzwilliam.
See R. Bagwell, _Ireland under the Tudors_, vol. ii. (1885).
FITZWILLIAM, WILLIAM WENTWORTH FITZWILLIAM, 2ND EARL (1748-1833),
English statesman, was the son of the 1st earl (peerage of the United
Kingdom), who died in 1756. The English family of Fitzwilliam claimed
descent from a natural son of William the Conqueror, and among its
earlier members were a Sir William Fitzwilliam (1460-1534), sheriff of
London, who in 1506 acquired the family seat of Milton Manor in
Northamptonshire, and his grandson Sir William Fitzwilliam (see above).
The latter's grandson was made an Irish baron in 1620; and in later
generations the Irish titles of Viscount Milton and Earl Fitzwilliam
(1716) and the English titles of Baron Milton (1742) and Viscount Milton
and Earl Fitzwilliam (1746), were added. These were all in the English
house of the Fitzwilliams of Milton Manor. They were distinct from the
Irish Fitzwilliams of Meryon, who descended from a member of the English
family who went to Ireland with Prince John at the end of the 12th
century, and whose titles of Baron and Viscount Fitzwilliam died out
with the 8th viscount in 1833; the best known of these was Richard, 7th
viscount (1745-1816), who left the Fitzwilliam library and a fund for
creating the Fitzwilliam Museum to Cambridge University.
The 2nd earl inherited not only the Fitzwilliam estates in
Northamptonshire, but also, on the death of his uncle the marquess of
Rockingham in 1782, the valuable Wentworth estates in Yorkshire, and
thus became one of the wealthiest noblemen of the day. He had been at
Eton with C.J. Fox, and became an active supporter of the Whig party;
and in 1794, with the duke of Portland, Windham and other "old Whigs" he
joined Pitt's cabinet, becoming president of the council. At the end of
the year, however, he was sent to Ireland as viceroy. Fitzwilliam,
however, had set his face against the jobbery of the Protestant leaders,
and threw himself warmly into Grattan's scheme for admitting the
Catholics to political power; and in March 1795 he was recalled, his
action being disavowed by Pitt, the result of a series of
misunderstandings which appeared to Fitzwilliam to give him just cause
of complaint. The quarrel was, however, made up, and in 1798 Fitzwilliam
was appointed lord-lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire. He
continued to take an active part in politics, and in 1806 was president
of the council, but his Whig opinions kept him mainly in opposition. He
died in February 1833, his son, Charles William Wentworth, the 3rd earl
(1786-1857), and later earls, being notable figures in the politics and
social life of the north of England.
FIUME (Slav. _Rjeka_, _Rieka_ or _Reka_, Ger. _St Veit am Flaum_), a
royal free town and port of Hungary; situated at the northern extremity
of the Gulf of Quarnero, an inlet of the Adriatic, and on a small stream
called the Rjeka, Recina or Fiumara, 70 m. by rail S.E. of Trieste. Pop.
(1900) 38,955; including 17,354 Italians, 14,885 Slavs (Croats, Serbs
and Slovenes), 2482 Hungarians and 1945 Germans. Geographically, Fiume
belongs to Croatia; politically the town, with its territory of some 7
sq. m., became a part of Hungary in August 1870. The picturesque old
town occupies an outlying ridge of the Croatian Karst; while the modern
town, with its wharves, warehouses, electric light and electric trams,
is crowded into the amphitheatre left between the hills and the shore.
On the north-west there is a fine public garden. The most interesting
buildings are the cathedral church of the Assumption, founded in 1377,
and completed with a modern facade copied from that of the Pantheon in
Rome; the church of St Veit, on the model of Santa Maria della Salute in
Venice; and the Pilgrimage church, hung with offerings from shipwrecked
sailors, and approached by a stairway of 400 steps. In the old town is a
Roman triumphal arch, said to have been erected during the 3rd century
A.D. in honour of the emperor Claudius II. Fiume also possesses a
theatre and a music-hall; palaces for the governor and the Austrian
emperor; a high court of justice for commerce and marine; a chamber of
commerce; an asylum for lunatics and the aged poor; an industrial home
for boys; and several large schools, including the marine academy (1856)
and the school of seamanship (1903). Municipal affairs are principally
managed by the Italians, who sympathize with the Hungarians against the
Slavs.
Fiume is the only seaport of Hungary, with which country it was
connected, in 1809, by the Maria Louisa road, through Karlstadt. It has
two railways, opened in 1873; one a branch of the southern railway from
Vienna to Trieste, the other of the Hungarian state railway from
Karlstadt. There are several harbours, including the _Porto Canale_, for
coasting vessels; the _Porto Baross_, for timber; and the _Porto
Grande_, sheltered by the _Maria Theresia_ mole and breakwater, besides
four lesser moles, and flanked by the quays, with their grain-elevators.
The development of the _Porto Grande_, originally named the _Porto
Nuovo_, was undertaken in 1847, and carried on at intervals as trade
increased. In 1902, arrangements were made for the construction of a new
mole and an enlargement of the quays and breakwater; these works to be
completed within 5 years, at a cost of L420,000. The exports, worth
L6,460,000 in 1902, chiefly consisted of grain, flour, sugar, timber and
horses; the imports, worth L3,678,000 in the same year, of coal, wine,
rice, fruit, jute and various minerals, chemicals and oils. A large
share in the carrying trade belongs to the Cunard, Adria, Ungaro-Croat
and Austrian Lloyd Steamship Companies, subsidized by the state. A
steady stream of Croatian and Hungarian emigrants, officially numbered
in 1902 at 7500, passes through Fiume. Altogether 11,550 vessels, of
1,963,000 tons, entered at Fiume in 1902; and 11,535, of 1,956,000,
cleared. Foremost among the industrial establishments are Whitehead's
torpedo factory, Messrs Smith & Meynie's paper-mill, the royal tobacco
factory, a chemical factory, and several flour-mills, tanneries and rope
manufactories. In 1902 the last shipbuilding yard was closed. The soil
of the surrounding country is stony, but the climate is warm, and wine
is extensively produced. The Gulf of Quarnero yields a plentiful supply
of fish, and the tunny trade with Trieste and Venice is of considerable
importance. Steamboats ply daily from Fiume to the Istrian health-resort
of Abbazia, the Croatian port of Buccari, and the islands of Veglia and
Cherso.
Fiume is supposed to occupy the site of the ancient Liburnian town
_Tersatica_; later it received the name of _Vitopolis_, and eventually
that of _Fanum Sancti Viti ad Flumen_, from which its present name is
derived. It was destroyed by Charlemagne in 799, from which time it
probably long remained under the dominion of the Franks. It was held in
feudal tenure from the patriarch of Aquileia by the bishop of Pola, and
afterwards, in 1139, by the counts of Duino, who retained it till the
end of the 14th century. It next passed into the hands of the counts of
Wallsee, by whom it was surrendered in 1471 to the emperor Frederick
III., who incorporated it with the dominions of the house of Austria.
From this date till 1776 Fiume was ruled by imperial governors. In 1723
it was declared a free port by Charles VI., in 1776 united to Croatia by
the empress Maria Theresa, and in 1779 declared a _corpus separatum_ of
the Hungarian crown. In 1809 Fiume was occupied by the French; but it
was retaken by the British in 1813, and restored to Austria in the
following year. It was ceded to Hungary in 1822, but after the
revolution of 1848-1849 was annexed to the crown lands of Croatia, under
the government of which it remained till it came under Hungarian control
in 1870.
FIVES, a ball-game played by two or four players in a court enclosed on
three or four sides, the ball being struck with the hand, usually
protected by a glove, whence the game is known in America as "handball."
The origin of the game is probably the French _jeu de paume_, tennis
played with the hand, the hand in that case being eventually superseded
by the racquet. Fives and racquets are probably both descended from the
_jeu de paume_, of which they are simplified forms. The name fives may
be derived from _la longue paume_, in which five on a side played, or
from the five fingers, or from the fact that five points had to be made
by the winners (in modern times the game consists of fifteen points).
Fives is played in Great Britain principally at the schools and
universities, although its encouragement is included in the functions of
the Tennis Racquets and Fives Association, founded in 1908. In America
it is much affected for training purposes by professional athletes and
boxers. There are two forms of fives--the Eton game and the Rugby
game--which require separate notice, though the main features of the two
games are the serving of the ball to the taker of the service, the
necessity of hitting the ball before the second bounce, and of hitting
it above a line and within the limits of the court.
_Eton Fives._--The peculiar features of the Eton court arose from the
fact that in early times the game was played against the chapel-wall, so
that buttresses formed side walls and the balustrade of the chapel-steps
projected into the court, while a step divided the court latitudinally.
These were reproduced in the regular courts, the buttress being known as
the "pepper-box" and the space between it and the step as the "hole."
The riser of the step is about 5 in. The floor of the court is paved;
there is no back wall. On the front wall is a ledge, known as the
"line," 4 ft. 6 in. from the floor, and a vertical line, painted; 3 ft.
8 in. from the right-hand wall. Four people usually play, two against
two; one of each pair plays in the forward court, the other in the back
court. The server stands on the left of the forward court, his partner
in the right-hand corner of the back court; the taker of the service by
the right wall of the forward court, his partner at the left-hand corner
of the back court. The forward court is known as "on-wall," the other as
"off-wall." The server must toss the ball gently against the front wall,
above the line, so that it afterwards hits the right wall and falls on
the "off-wall," but the server's object is not, as at tennis and
racquets, to send a service that cannot be returned. At fives he must
send a service that hand-out can take easily; indeed hand-out can refuse
to take any service that he does not like, and if he fails to return the
ball above the line no stroke is counted. After the service has been
returned either of the opponents returns the ball if he can, and so on,
each side and either member of it returning the ball above the line
alternately till one side or the other hits it below the line or out of
court. Only hand-in can score. If hand-in wins a stroke, his side scores
a point; if he misses a stroke he loses his innings and his partner
becomes server, unless he has already served in this round, in which
case the opponents become hand-in. The game is fifteen points. If the
score is "13 all," the out side may "set" the game to 5 or 3; i.e. the
game becomes one of 5 or 3 points; at "14 all" it may be set to three.
The game and its terminology being somewhat intricate, can best be
learnt in the court. No apparatus is required except padded gloves and
fives-balls, which are covered with white leather tightly stretched over
a hard foundation of cork, strips of leather and twine. The Eton balls
are 1-3/4 in. in diameter and weigh about 1-1/4 oz. apiece.
_Rugby Fives_ is much less complicated owing to the simpler form of the
court. The rules as to service, taking the balls, &c., are the same as
in Eton Fives. The balls are rather smaller. The courts are larger,
measuring about 34 ft. by 19 ft. 6 in. and may be roofed or open. The
side walls slope from 20 ft. to 12 ft. Some courts have a dwarf back
wall, some have none. The back wall, when there is one, is 5 ft. 8 in.
in height. In some courts the side walls are plain; in others, where
there is no back wall, a projection about 3 in. deep is built at right
angles to the two side walls; in others a buttress, similar to the
_tambour_ of the tennis-court, is built out from the left-hand wall
about 10 ft. from the front wall, and continued to the end of the court.
The line is generally a board fixed across the front wall, its upper
edge 34 in. from the ground, but the height varies slightly.
_Handball_, of ancient popularity in Ireland and much played in the
United States, is practically identical with fives, though there are
minor differences. The usual American court is about 60 ft. long, 24-1/2
ft. wide and 35 ft. high at the front, tapering to 33 ft. at the back
wall. The front wall is of brick faced with marble, the sides of cement
and the floor of white pine laid on beams 10 in. apart. These are the
dimensions of the Brooklyn court of the former American champion, Phil
Casey (d. 1904), which has been extensively copied. Twenty-one aces
constitute a game and gloves are not usually worn. The American ball is
a trifle larger and softer than the Irish, which is called a "red ace"
when made of solid red rubber, and "black ace" when made of black
rubber. Baggs of Tipperary, who was in his prime about 1855, was the
most celebrated Irish handball player. In his day nearly every village
tavern in Ireland had a court. Browning and Lawlor, who won the Irish
championship in 1885, were his most prominent successors. In America
Phil Casey and Michael Egan are the best-known names.
See A. Tait's _Fives_ in the All England Series: "Fives" in the
_Encyclopaedia of Sport_; and _Official Handball Guide_ in Spalding's
Athletic Library.
FIX, THEODORE (1800-1846), French journalist and economist, was born at
Soleure in Switzerland in 1800. His father was a French physician whose
ancestors had been expatriated by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.
At first a land surveyor, he in 1830 became connected with the _Bulletin
universal des sciences_, to which he contributed most of the
geographical articles. In 1833 he founded the _Revue mensuelle
d'economie politique_, which he edited during the three years of its
existence. He then became engaged in journalistic work, till his essay
on _L'Association des douanes allemandes_ won him a prize from the
Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in 1840, and also procured
him work on the report on the progress of sciences since the Revolution,
which the Institute was preparing. A few months before his death he
published _Observations sur les classes ouvrieres_, in which he argued
against all attempts to regulate artificially the rate of wages, and
attributed the condition of the working classes to their own
thriftlessness and intemperance. He died suddenly at Paris on the 31st
of July 1846.
FIXTURES (Lat. _figere_, to fix), in law, chattels which have been so
fixed or attached to land (as it is expressed in English law, "so
annexed to the freehold"), as to become, in contemplation of law, a part
of it. All systems of law make a marked distinction for certain
purposes, between immovables and movables, between real and personal
property, between land and all other things. In the case of fixtures the
question arises under which set of rights they are to fall--under those
of real or of personal property. The general rule of English law is that
everything attached to the land goes with the land--_quicquid plantatur
solo, solo cedit_. This, like many other rules of English law, is all in
favour of the freeholder; but its hardship has been modified by a large
number of exceptions formulated from time to time by the courts as
occasion arose.
In order to constitute a fixture there must be some degree of annexation
to the land, or to a building which forms part of it. Thus it has been
held that a barn laid on blocks of timber, but not fixed to the ground
itself, is not a fixture; and the onus of showing that articles not
otherwise attached to the land than by their own weight have ceased to
be chattels, rests with those who assert the fact. On the other hand, an
article, even slightly affixed to the land, is to be considered part of
it, unless the circumstances show that it was intended to remain a
chattel. The question is one of fact in each case--depending mainly on
the mode, degree and object of the annexation, and the possibility of
the removal of the article without injury to itself or the freehold. In
certain cases the courts have recognized a constructive annexation, when
the articles, though not fixed to the soil, pass with the freehold as if
they were, e.g. the keys of a house, the stones of a dry wall, and the
detached or duplicate portions of machines.
Questions as to the property in fixtures principally arise--(1) between
landlord and tenant, (2) between heir and executor, (3) between executor
and remainder-man or reversioner, (4) between seller and buyer.
1. At common law, if the tenant has affixed anything to the freehold
during his occupation, he cannot remove it without the permission of
his landlord. But an exception was established in favour of _trade
fixtures_. In a case before Lord Holt it was held that a soap-boiler
might, _during his term_, remove the vats he had set up for trade
purposes, and that not by virtue of any special custom, but "by the
common law in favour of trade, and to encourage industry," and it may
be stated as a general rule that things which a tenant has fixed to
the freehold for the purpose of trade or manufacture may be taken away
by him, whenever the removal is not contrary to any prevailing
practice, or the particular terms of the contract of tenancy, and can
be effected without causing material injury to the estate or
destroying the essential character of the articles themselves
(_Lambourn_ v. _M^cLellan_, 1903, 2 Ch. 269). Agricultural tenants are
not entitled, at common law, to remove trade fixtures. But the
Landlord and Tenant Act 1851 granted such a right of removal in the
case of buildings or machinery erected by a tenant at his own
expense, and with his landlord's consent in writing, provided that the
freehold was not injured or that any injury was made good, and that
before removal a month's written notice was given to the landlord, who
had an option of purchase. Under the Agricultural Holdings Act 1883
the tenant might, under similar conditions, remove fixtures, although
the landlord had not consented to their erection. The Agricultural
Holdings Act 1900 extended this provision to fixtures or buildings
acquired, although not annexed or erected, by the tenant. Similar
rights were created by the Allotments Compensation Act 1887, and by
the Market Gardeners' Compensation Act 1895. All these provisions were
re-enacted by the Agricultural Holdings Act 1908.
Again, _ornamental_ fixtures, set up by the tenant for ornament and
convenience, such as hangings and looking-glasses, tapestry,
iron-backs to chimneys, wainscot fixed by screws, marble
chimney-pieces, are held to belong to the tenant, and to be removable
without the landlord's consent. Here again the extent of the privilege
has been a matter of some uncertainty.
In all these cases the fixtures must be removed during the term. If
the tenant gives up possession of the premises without removing the
fixtures, it will be presumed, it appears, that he has made a gift of
them to the landlord, and that presumption probably could not be
rebutted by positive evidence of a contrary intention. His right to
the fixtures is not, however, destroyed by the mere expiry of the
term, if he still remains in possession; but if he has once left the
premises he cannot come back and claim his fixtures. In one case where
the fixtures had actually been severed from the freehold after the end
of the term, it was held that the tenant had no right to recover them.
2. As between heir and executor or administrator. The question of
fixtures arises between these parties on the death of a person owning
land. The executor has no right to remove trade fixtures, set up for
the benefit of the inheritance. As regards ornamental objects, the
rule _quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit_ was in early times somewhat
relaxed in favour of the executor. As far back as 1701, it was held
that hangings fixed to a wall for ornament passed to the executor;
and, although the effect of this relaxation was subsequently cut down,
it is supported by the decisions of the courts affirming the
executor's right to valuable tapestries affixed by a tenant for life
to the walls of a house for ornament and their better enjoyment as
chattels (_Leigh_ v. _Taylor_, 1902, App. Cas. 157); and the same has
been held as to statues and bronze groups set on pedestals in the
grounds of a mansion house.
3. When a tenant for life of land dies, the question of fixtures
arises between his representatives and the persons next entitled to
the estate (the remainder-man or reversioner). The remainder-man is
not so great a favourite of the law as the heir, and the right to
fixtures is construed more favourably for executors than in the
preceding cases between heir and executor. Whatever are executor's
fixtures against the heir would therefore be executor's fixtures
against the remainder-man. And the result of the cases seems to be
that, as against the remainder, the executor of the tenant for life
would be certainly entitled to trade fixtures. Agricultural fixtures
are not removable by the executor of a tenant for life.
4. As between seller and buyer, a purchase of the lands includes a
purchase of all the fixtures. But here the intention of the parties is
of great importance. Similar questions may arise in other cases, e.g.
as between mortgagor and mortgagee. When land is mortgaged the
fixtures pass with it, unless a contrary intention is expressed in the
conveyance; and this even where the chattels affixed are the subject
of a hire purchase agreement (_Reynolds_ v. _Ashby_, 1903, 1 K.B. 87).
Again, in reference to bills of sale the question arises. Bills of
sale are dispositions of personal property similar to mortgages, the
possession remaining with the person selling them. To make them valid
they must be registered, and so the question has arisen whether deeds
conveying fixtures ought not to have been registered as bills of sale.
Unless it was the intention of the parties to make the fixtures a
distinct security, it seems that a deed of mortgage embracing them
does not require to be registered as a bill of sale. The question of
what is or is not a fixture must also often be considered in questions
of rating or assessment.
The law of Scotland as to fixtures is the same as that of England. The
Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Acts 1883 (ss. 35, 42) and 1900 (as
to market gardens) give a similar statutory right of removal. The law
of Ireland has been the subject of the special legislation sketched in
the article LANDLORD AND TENANT. The French Code Civil recognizes the
right of the usufructuary to remove articles attached by him to the
subject of his estate on the expiry of his term, on making good the
place from which they were taken (Art. 599); and there are similar
provisions in the Civil Codes of Italy (Art. 495), Spain (Arts. 487,
489), Portugal (Art. 2217) and Germany (Arts. 1037, 1049).
The law of the United States as to fixtures is substantially identical
with English common law. Constructive, as well as actual, annexation
is recognized. The same relaxations (from the common law rule
_quicquid plantatur solo, solo cedit_) as regards trade fixtures, and
ornamental fixtures, such as tapestry, have been recognized.
In Mauritius the provisions of the Code Civil are in force without
modification. In Quebec (Civil Code, Arts. 374 et seq.) and St Lucia
(Civil Code, Arts. 368 et seq.) they have been re-enacted in
substance. Some of the British colonies have conferred a statutory
right to remove fixtures on tenants (cf. Tasmania, Landlord and Tenant
Act 1874). In certain of the colonies acquired by cession or
settlement (e.g. New Zealand) the English Landlord and Tenant Act 1851
is in force.
AUTHORITIES.--English law: Amos and Ferard, _Law of Fixtures_ (3rd
ed., London, 1883); Brown, _Law of Fixtures_ (3rd ed., London, 1875);
Ryde, on _Rating_ (2nd ed., London, 1905). Scots Law: Hunter,
_Landlord and Tenant_; Erskine's _Principles_ (20th ed., Edin., 1903).
American Law: Bronson, _Law of Fixtures_ (St Paul, 1904); Reeves,
_Real Property_ (Boston, 1904); _Ruling Cases_ (London and Boston,
1894-1901), Tit. "Fixtures" (American Notes). (A. W. R.)
FIZEAU, ARMAND HIPPOLYTE LOUIS (1819-1896), French physicist, was born
at Paris on the 23rd of September 1819. His earliest work was concerned
with improvements in photographic processes; and then, in association
with J.B.L. Foucault, he engaged in a series of investigations on the
interference of light and heat. In 1849 he published the first results
obtained by his method for determining the speed of propagation of light
(see LIGHT), and in 1850 with E. Gounelle measured the velocity of
electricity. In 1853 he described the employment of the condenser as a
means for increasing the efficiency of the induction-coil. Subsequently
he studied the expansion of solids by heat, and applied the phenomena of
interference of light to the measurement of the dilatations of crystals.
He died at Venteuil on the 18th of September 1896. He became a member of
the French Academy in 1860 and of the Bureau des Longitudes in 1878.
FJORD, or FIORD, the anglicized Norwegian word for a long narrow arm of
the sea running far inland, with more or less precipitous cliffs on each
side. These "sea-lochs," as they are sometimes called, present many
peculiar features. They differ entirely from an estuary in the fact that
they are bounded seawards by a rocky sill, covered by shallow water, and
they deepen inland for some distance before the bottom again curves up
to the surface. They are thus true rock basins drowned in sea-water. It
is pointed out by Dr H.R. Mill that Loch Morar on the west coast of
Scotland, a fresh-water basin 178 fathoms deep, with its surface 30 ft.
above sea-level, which is connected with the sea by a short river, is
exactly similar in configuration to Loch Etive, 80 fathoms deep, filled
with sea-water which pours over the seaward sill in a waterfall with the
retreating tide; that Loch Nevis with a depth of 70 fathoms has its sill
8 fathoms below the surface, while the gigantic Sogne Fjord in Norway,
more than 100 m. in length, is a rock basin with a maximum depth of 700
fathoms. Any inland rock basin such as Loch Morar would become a fjord
if the seaward portion sank below sea-level. The origin of these rock
basins has not yet been satisfactorily determined. Recent work upon
somewhat similar basins in the high Alps has suggested local weathering
of surface rock in fracture belts or faulted areas, or dikes, where
material is easily eroded, thus producing a trough bounded by high walls
in which a lake forms under favourable conditions. But investigations in
such regions as the Rocky Mountains and the Yosemite Valley, where there
is frequently a "reversed grade" similar to that near the seaward end of
rock basins and fjords, seem to show, in some cases at least, that such
a formation may be due to the "gouging" effect of a glacier coming down
the valley which it constantly deepens where the ice pressure and the
supply of eroding material are greatest. There may be several causes,
but the results are the same in all these drowned valleys. The mass of
sea-water in the depth of the basin is either unaffected by the seasonal
changes in surface temperature, which in Norway penetrate no deeper than
200 fathoms, or else, as in Loch Goil, the fresher film of surface water
responds quickly to seasonal changes, while the heat of advancing summer
penetrates so slowly to the depth of the basin that it takes six months
to reach the bottom, arriving there in winter. It has been found that
where the fresher surface water has been frozen over, the temperature
may be as much as 45 deg. F. at a few fathoms from the surface. When the
surface is warmest, on the other hand, the depths are coldest.
FLACCUS, a cognomen in the plebeian gens Fulvia, one of the most
illustrious in ancient Rome. Cicero and Pliny state that the family
came from Tusculum, where some were still living in the middle of the
1st century B.C. Of the Fulvii Flacci the most important were the
following:
QUINTUS FULVIUS FLACCUS, son of the first of the family, Marcus, who was
consul with Appius Claudius Caudex in 264. He especially distinguished
himself during the second Punic War. He was consul four times (237, 224,
212, 209), censor (231) pontifex maximus (216), praetor urbanus (215).
During his first consulships he did good service against the Ligurians,
Gauls and Insubrians. In 212 he defeated Hanno near Beneventum, and with
his colleague Appius Claudius Pulcher began the siege of Capua. The
capture of this place was considered so important that their imperium
was prolonged, but on condition that they should not leave Capua until
it had been taken. Hannibal's unexpected diversion against Rome
interfered with the operations for the moment, but his equally
unexpected retirement enabled Flaccus, who had been summoned to Rome to
protect the city, to return, and bring the siege to a successful
conclusion. He punished the inhabitants with great severity, alleging in
excuse that they had shown themselves bitterly hostile to Rome. He was
nominated dictator to hold the consular elections at which he was
himself elected (209). He was appointed to the command of the army in
Lucania and Bruttium, where he crushed all further attempts at
rebellion. Nothing further is known of him. The chief authority for his
life is the part of Livy dealing with the period (see PUNIC WARS).
His brother GNAEUS was convicted of gross cowardice against Hannibal
near Herdoniae in 210, and went into voluntary exile at Tarquinii. His
son, QUINTUS, waged war with signal success against the Celtiberians in
182-181, and the Ligurians in 179. Having vowed to build a temple to
Fortuna Equestris, he dismantled the temple of Juno Lacinia in Bruttium
of its marble slabs. This theft became known and he was compelled to
restore them, though they were never put back in their places.
Subsequently he lost his reason and hanged himself.
MARCUS FULVIUS FLACCUS, grandnephew of the first Quintus, lived in the
times of the Gracchi, of whom he was a strong supporter. After the death
of Tiberius Gracchus (133 B.C.) he was appointed in his place one of the
commission of three for the distribution of the land. He was suspected
of having had a hand in the sudden death of the younger Scipio (129),
but there was no direct evidence against him. When consul in 125, he
proposed to confer the Roman citizenship on all the allies, and to allow
even those who had not acquired it the right of appeal to the popular
assembly against penal judgments. This proposal, though for the time
successfully opposed by the senate, eventually led to the Social War.
The attack made upon the Massilians (who were allies of Rome) by the
Salluvii (Salyes) afforded a convenient excuse for sending Flaccus out
of Rome. After his return in triumph, he was again sent away (122), this
time with Gaius Gracchus to Carthage to found a colony, but did not
remain absent long. In 121 the disputes between the optimates and the
party of Gracchus culminated in open hostilities, during which Flaccus
was killed, together with Gracchus and a number of his supporters. It is
generally agreed that Flaccus was perfectly honest in his support of the
Gracchan reforms, but his hot-headedness did more harm than good to the
cause. Cicero (_Brutus_, 28) speaks of him as an orator of moderate
powers, but a diligent student.
See Livy, _Epit._ 59-61; Val. Max. ix. 5. 1; Vell. Pat. ii. 6; Appian,
_Bell. Civ._ i. 18, 21, 24-26; Plutarch, _C. Gracchus_, 10. 13; also
A.H.J. Greenidge, _Hist. of Rome_ (1904), and authorities quoted under
GRACCHUS.
FLACH, GEOFROI JACQUES (1846- ), French jurist and historian, was born
at Strassburg, Alsace, on the 16th of February 1846, of a family known
at least as early as the 16th century, when Sigismond Flach was the
first professor of law at Strassburg University. G.J. Flach studied
classics and law at Strassburg, and in 1869 took his degree of doctor of
law. In his theses as well as in his early writings--such as _De la
subrogation reelle, La Bonorum possessio_, and _Sur la duree des effets
de la minorite_ (1870)--he endeavoured to explain the problems of laws
by means of history, an idea which was new to France at that time. The
Franco-German War engaged Flach's activities in other directions, and he
spent two years (described in his _Strasbourg apres le bombardement_,
1873) at work on the rebuilding of the library and the museum, which had
been destroyed by Prussian shells. When the time came for him to choose
between Germany and France, he settled definitely in Paris, where he
completed his scientific training at the Ecole des Chartes and the Ecole
des Hautes Etudes. Having acted for some time as secretary to Jules
Senard, ex-president of the Constituent Assembly, he published an
original paper on artistic copyright, but as soon as possible resumed
the history of law. In 1879 he became assistant to the jurist Edouard
Laboulaye at the College de France, and succeeded him in 1884 in the
chair of comparative legislation. Since 1877 he had been professor of
comparative law at the free school of the political sciences. To qualify
himself for these two positions he had to study the most diverse
civilizations, including those of the East and Far East (e.g. Hungary,
Russia and Japan) and even the antiquities of Babylonia and other
Asiatic countries. Some of his lectures have been published,
particularly those concerning Ireland: _Histoire du regime agraire de
l'Irlande_ (1883); _Considerations sur l'histoire politique de
l'Irlande_ (1885); and _Jonathan Swift, son action politique en Irlande_
(1886).
His chief efforts, however, were concentrated on the history of ancient
French law. A celebrated lawsuit in Alsace, pleaded by his friend and
compatriot Ignace Chauffour, aroused his interest by reviving the
question of the origin of the feudal laws, and gradually led him to
study the formation of those laws and the early growth of the feudal
system. His great work, _Les Origines de l'ancienne France_, was
produced slowly. In the first volume, _Le Regime seigneurial_ (1886), he
depicts the triumph of individualism and anarchy, showing how, after
Charlemagne's great but sterile efforts to restore the Roman principle
of sovereignty, the great landowners gradually monopolized the various
functions in the state; how society modelled on antiquity disappeared;
and how the only living organisms were vassalage and clientship. The
second volume, _Les Origines communales, la feodalite et la chevalerie_
(1893), deals with the reconstruction of society on new bases which took
place in the 10th and 11th centuries. It explains how the Gallo-Roman
_villa_ gave place to the village, with its fortified castle, the
residence of the lord; how new towns were formed by the side of old,
some of which disappeared; how the townspeople united in corporations;
and how the communal bond proved to be a powerful instrument of
cohesion. At the same time it traces the birth of feudalism from the
germs of the Gallo-Roman personal _comitatus_; and shows how the bond
that united the different parties was the contract of the fief; and how,
after a slow growth of three centuries, feudalism was definitely
organized in the 12th century. In 1904 appeared the third volume, _La
Renaissance de l'etat_, in which the author describes the efforts of the
Capetian kings to reconstruct the power of the Frankish kings over the
whole of Gaul; and goes on to show how the clergy, the heirs of the
imperial tradition, encouraged this ambition; how the great lords of the
kingdom (the "princes," as Flach calls them), whether as allies or foes,
pursued the same end; and how, before the close of the 12th century, the
Capetian kings were in possession of the organs and the means of action
which were to render them so powerful and bring about the early downfall
of feudalism.
In these three volumes, which appeared at long intervals, the author's
theories are not always in complete harmony, nor are they always
presented in a very luminous or coherent manner, but they are marked by
originality and vigour. Flach gave them a solid basis by the wide range
of his researches, utilizing charters and cartularies (published and
unpublished), chronicles, lives of saints, and even those dangerous
guides, the _chansons de geste_. He owed little to the historians of
feudalism who knew what feudalism was, but not how it came about. He
pursued the same method in his _L'Origine de l'habitation et des lieux
habites en France_ (1899), in which he discusses some of the theories
circulated by A. Meitzen in Germany and by Arbois de Jubainville ville
in France. Following in the footsteps of the jurist F.C. von Savigny,
Flach studied the teaching of law in the middle ages and the
Renaissance, and produced _Cujas, les glossateurs et les Bartolistes_
(1883), and _Etudes critiques sur l'histoire du droit romain au moyen
age, avec textes inedits_ (1890).
FLACIUS (Ger. _Flach_; Slav. _Vlakich_), MATTHIAS (1520-1575), surnamed
ILLYRICUS, Lutheran reformer, was born at Albona, in Illyria, on the 3rd
of March 1520. Losing his father in childhood, he was in early years
self-educated, and made himself able to profit by the instructions of
the humanist, Baptista Egnatius in Venice. At the age of seventeen he
decided to join a monastic order, with a view to sacred learning. His
intention was diverted by his uncle, Baldo Lupetino, provincial of the
Franciscans, in sympathy with the Reformation, who induced him to enter
on a university career, from 1539, at Basel, Tubingen and Wittenberg.
Here he was welcomed (1541) by Melanchthon, being well introduced from
Tubingen, and here he came under the decisive influence of Luther. In
1544 he was appointed professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg. He married in
the autumn of 1545, Luther taking part in the festivities. He took his
master's degree on the 24th of February 1546, ranking first among the
graduates. Soon he was prominent in the theological discussions of the
time, opposing strenuously the "Augsburg Interim," and the compromise of
Melanchthon known as the "Leipzig Interim" (see ADIAPHORISTS).
Melanchthon wrote of him with venom as a renegade ("aluimus in sinu
serpentem"), and Wittenberg became too hot for him. He removed to
Magdeburg (Nov. 9, 1551), where his feud with Melanchthon was patched
up. On the 17th of May 1557 he was appointed professor of New Testament
theology at Jena; but was soon involved in controversy with Strigel, his
colleague, on the synergistic question (relating to the function of the
will in conversion). Affirming the natural inability of man, he
unwittingly fell into expressions consonant with the Manichaean view of
sin, as not an accident of human nature, but involved in its substance,
since the Fall. Resisting ecclesiastical censure, he left Jena (Feb.
1562) to found an academy at Regensburg. The project was not successful,
and in October 1566 he accepted a call from the Lutheran community at
Antwerp. Thence he was driven (Feb. 1567) by the exigencies of war, and
betook himself to Frankfort, where the authorities set their faces
against him. He proceeded to Strassburg, was well received by the
superintendent Marbach, and hoped he had found an asylum. But here also
his religious views stood in his way; the authorities eventually
ordering him to leave the city by Mayday 1573. Again betaking himself to
Frankfort, the prioress, Catharina von Meerfeld, of the convent of White
Ladies, harboured him and his family in despite of the authorities. He
fell ill at the end of 1574; the city council ordered him to leave by
Mayday 1575; but death released him on the 11th of March 1575. His first
wife, by whom he had twelve children, died in 1564; in the same year he
remarried and had further issue. His son Matthias was professor of
philosophy and medicine at Rostock. Of a life so tossed about the
literary fruit was indeed remarkable. His polemics we may pass over; he
stands at the fountain-head of the scientific study of church history,
and--if we except, a great exception, the work of Laurentius Valla--of
hermeneutics also. No doubt his impelling motive was to prove popery to
be built on bad history and bad exegesis. Whether that be so or not, the
extirpation of bad history and bad exegesis is now felt to be of equal
interest to all religionists. Hence the permanent and continuous value
of the principles embodied in Flacius' _Catalogus testium veritatis_
(1556; revised edition by J.C. Dietericus, 1672) and his _Clavis
scripturae sacrae_ (1567), followed by his _Glossa compendiaria in N.
Testamentum_ (1570). His characteristic formula, "historia est
fundamentum doctrinae," is better understood now than in his own day.
See J.B. Ritter, _Flacius's Leben u. Tod_ (1725); M. Twesten, _M.
Flacius Illyricus_ (1844); W. Preger, _M. Flacius Illyricus u. seine
Zeit_ (1859-1861); G. Kawerau, in Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopadie_
(1899). (A. Go.*)
FLACOURT, ETIENNE DE (1607-1660), French governor of Madagascar, was
born at Orleans in 1607. He was named governor of Madagascar by the
French East India Company in 1648. Flacourt restored order among the
French soldiers, who had mutinied, but in his dealings with the natives
he was less successful, and their intrigues and attacks kept him in
continual harassment during all his term of office. In 1655 he returned
to France. Not long after he was appointed director general of the
company; but having again returned to Madagascar, he was drowned on his
voyage home on the 10th of June 1660. He is the author of a _Histoire de
la grande isle Madagascar_ (1st edition 1658, 2nd edition 1661).
See A. Malotet, _Et. de Flacourt, ou les origines de la colonisation
francaise a Madagascar (1648-1661)_, (Paris, 1898).