[1] See Max Rooses, _Keus van Dicht- en Prozawerken van J.F.
Willems_, and his _Brieven_ in the publications of the Willemsfonds
(Ghent, 1872-1874).
FLENSBURG (Danish, _Flensborg_), a seaport of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Schleswig-Holstein, at the head of the Flensburg Fjord, 20
m. N.W. from Schleswig, at the junction of the main line Altona-Vamdrup
(Denmark), with branches to Kiel and Glucksburg. Pop. (1905) 48,922. The
principal public buildings are the Nikolai Kirche (built 1390, restored
1894), with a spire 295 ft. high; the Marienkirche, also a medieval
church, with a lofty tower; the law courts; the theatre and the
exchange. There are two gymnasia, schools of marine engineering,
navigation, wood-carving and agriculture. The cemetery contains the
remains of the Danish soldiers who fell at the battle of Idstedt (25th
of July 1850), but the colossal Lion monument, erected by the Danes to
commemorate their victory, was removed to Berlin in 1864. Flensburg is a
busy centre of trade and industry, and is the most important town in
what was formerly the duchy of Schleswig. It possesses excellent
wharves, does a large import trade in coal, and has shipbuilding yards,
breweries, distilleries, cloth and paper factories, glass-works,
copper-works, soap-works and rice mills. Its former extensive trade
with the West Indies has lately suffered owing to the enormous
development of the North Sea ports, but it is still largely engaged in
the Greenland whale and the oyster fisheries.
Flensburg was probably founded in the 12th century. It attained
municipal privileges in 1284, was frequently pillaged by the Swedes
after 1643, and in 1848 became the capital, under Danish rule, of
Schleswig.
See Holdt, _Flensburg fruher und jetzt_ (1884).
FLERS, a manufacturing town of north-western France, in the
arrondissement of Domfront, and department of Orne, on the Vere, 41 m.
S. of Caen on the railway to Laval. Pop. (1906) 11,188. A modern church
in the Romanesque style and a restored chateau of the 15th century are
its principal buildings. There is a tribunal of commerce, a board of
trade-arbitrators, a communal college and a branch of the Bank of
France. Flers is the centre of a cotton and linen-manufacturing region
which includes the towns of Conde-sur-Noireau and La Ferte-Mace.
Manufactures are very important, and include, besides cotton and linen
fabrics, of which the annual value is about L1,500,000, drugs and
chemicals; there are large brick and tile works, flour mills and
dyeworks.
FLETA, a treatise, with the sub-title _seu Commentarius juris
Anglicani_, on the common law of England. It appears, from internal
evidence, to have been written in the reign of Edward I., about the year
1290. It is for the most part a poor imitation of Bracton. The author is
supposed to have written it during his confinement in the Fleet prison,
hence the name. It has been conjectured that he was one of those judges
who were imprisoned for malpractices by Edward I. Fleta was first
printed by J. Selden in 1647, with a dissertation (2nd edition, 1685).
FLETCHER, ALICE CUNNINGHAM (1845- ), American ethnologist, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts, in 1845. She studied the remains of Indian
civilization in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, became a member of the
Archaeological Institute of America in 1879, and worked and lived with
the Omahas as a representative of the Peabody Museum of American
Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. In 1883 she was appointed
special agent to allot lands to the Omaha tribes, in 1884 prepared and
sent to the New Orleans Exposition an exhibit showing the progress of
civilization among the Indians of North America in the quarter-century
previous, in 1886 visited the natives of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands
on a mission from the commissioner of education, and in 1887 was United
States special agent in the distribution of lands among the Winnebagoes
and Nez Perces. She was made assistant in ethnology at the Peabody
Museum in 1882, and received the Thaw fellowship in 1891; was president
of the Anthropological Society of Washington and of the American
Folk-Lore Society, and vice-president of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science; and, working through the Woman's National
Indian Association, introduced a system of making small loans to
Indians, wherewith they might buy land and houses. In 1888 she published
_Indian Education and Civilization_, a special report of the Bureau of
Education. In 1898 at the Congress of Musicians held at Omaha during the
Trans-Mississippi Exposition she read "several essays upon the songs of
the North American Indians ... in illustration of which a number of
Omaha Indians ... sang their native melodies." Out of this grew her
_Indian Story and Song from North America_ (1900), illustrating "a stage
of development antecedent to that in which culture music appeared."
FLETCHER, ANDREW, of Saltoun (1655-1716), Scottish politician, was the
son and heir of Sir Robert Fletcher (1625-1664), and was born at
Saltoun, the modern Salton, in East Lothian. Educated by Gilbert Burnet,
afterwards bishop of Salisbury, who was then the parish minister of
Saltoun, he completed his education by spending some years in travel and
study, entering public life as member of the Scottish parliament which
met in 1681. Possessing advanced political ideas, Fletcher was a
fearless and active opponent of the measures introduced by John
Maitland, duke of Lauderdale, the representative of Charles II. in
Scotland, and his successor, the duke of York, afterwards King James
II.; but he left Scotland about 1682, subsequently spending some time in
Holland as an associate of the duke of Monmouth and other malcontents.
Although on grounds of prudence Fletcher objected to the rising of 1685,
he accompanied Monmouth to the west of England, but left the army after
killing one of the duke's trusted advisers. This incident is thus told
by Sir John Dalrymple:
"Being sent upon an expedition, and not esteeming times of danger to
be times of ceremony, he had seized for his own riding the horse of a
country gentleman (the mayor of Lynne) which stood ready equipt for
its master. The master hearing this ran in a passion to Fletcher, gave
him opprobrious language, shook his cane and attempted to strike.
Fletcher, though rigid in the duties of morality, yet having been
accustomed to foreign services both by sea and land in which he had
acquired high ideas of the honour of a soldier and a gentleman and of
the affront of a cane, pulled out his pistol and shot him dead on the
spot. The action was unpopular in countries where such refinements
were not understood. A clamour was raised against it among the people
of the country, in a body they waited upon the duke with their
complaints; and he was forced to desire the only soldier and almost
the only man of parts in his army, to abandon him."
Another, but less probable account, represents Fletcher as quitting the
rebel army because he disapproved of the action of Monmouth in
proclaiming himself king.
His history during the next few years is rather obscure. He probably
travelled in Spain, and fought against the Turks in Hungary; and having
in his absence lost his estates and been sentenced to death, he joined
William of Orange at the Hague, and returned to Scotland in 1689 in
consequence of the success of the Revolution of 1688. His estates were
restored to him; and he soon became a leading member of the "club," an
organization which aimed at reducing the power of the crown in Scotland,
and in general an active opponent of the English government. In 1703, at
a critical stage in the history of Scotland, Fletcher again became a
member of the Scottish parliament. The failure of the Darien expedition
had aroused a strong feeling of resentment against England, and Fletcher
and the national party seized the opportunity to obtain a greater degree
of independence for their country.
His attitude in this matter, and also to the proposal for the union of
the two crowns, is thus described by a writer in the third edition of
the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_:--
"The thought of England's domineering over Scotland was what his
generous soul could not endure. The indignities and oppression which
Scotland lay under galled him to the heart, so that in his learned and
elaborate discourses he exposed them with undaunted courage and
pathetical eloquence. In that great event, the Union, he performed
essential service. He got the act of security passed, which declared
that the two crowns should not pass to the same head till Scotland was
secured in her liberties civil and religious. Therefore Lord Godolphin
was forced into the Union, to avoid a civil war after the queen's
demise. Although Mr Fletcher disapproved of some of the articles, and
indeed of the whole frame of the Union, yet, as the act of security
was his own work, he had all the merit of that important transaction."
Soon after the passing of the Act of Union Fletcher retired from public
life. Employing his abilities in another direction, he did a real, if
homely, service to his country by introducing from Holland machinery for
sifting grain. He died unmarried in London in September 1716.
Contemporaries speak very highly of Fletcher's integrity, but he was
also choleric and impetuous. Burnet describes him as "a Scotch gentleman
of great parts and many virtues, but a most violent republican and
extremely passionate." In appearance he was "a low, thin man, of a brown
complexion; full of fire; with a stern, sour look." Fletcher was a fine
scholar and a graceful writer, and both his writings and speeches afford
bright glimpses of the manners and state of the country in his time. His
chief works are: _A Discourse of Government relating to Militias_
(1698); _Two Discourses concerning the Affairs of Scotland_ (1698); and
_An Account of a Conversation concerning a right regulation of
Governments for the common good of Mankind_ (1704). In Two Discourses he
suggests that the numerous vagrants who infested Scotland should be
brought into compulsory and hereditary servitude; and in _An Account of
a Conversation_ occurs his well-known remark, "I knew a very wise man
so much of Sir Christopher's (Sir C. Musgrave) sentiment, that he
believed if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not
care who should make the laws of a nation."
_The Political Works of Andrew Fletcher_ were published in London in
1737. See D.S. Erskine, 11th earl of Buchan, _Essay on the Lives of
Fletcher of Saltoun and the Poet Thomson_ (1792); J.H. Burton,
_History of Scotland_, vol. viii. (Edinburgh, 1905); and A. Lang,
_History of Scotland_, vol. iv. (Edinburgh, 1907).
FLETCHER, GILES (c. 1548-1611), English author, son of Richard Fletcher,
vicar of Cranbrook, Kent, and father of the poets Phineas and Giles
Fletcher, was born in 1548 or 1549. He was educated at Eton and at
King's College, Cambridge, taking his B.A. degree in 1569. He was a
fellow of his college, and was made LL.D. in 1581. In 1580 he had
married Joan Sheafe of Cranbrook. In that year he was commissary to Dr
Bridgwater, chancellor of Ely, and in 1585 he sat in parliament for
Winchelsea. He was employed on diplomatic service in Scotland, Germany
and Holland, and in 1588 was sent to Russia to the court of the czar
Theodore with instructions to conclude as alliance between England and
Russia, to restore English trade, and to obtain better conditions for
the English Russia Company. The factor of the company, Jerome Horsey,
had already obtained large concessions through the favour of the
protector, Boris Godunov, but when Dr Fletcher reached Moscow in 1588 he
found that Godunov's interest was alienated, and that the Russian
government was contemplating an alliance with Spain. The envoy was badly
lodged, and treated with obvious contempt, and was not allowed to
forward letters to England, but the English victory over the Armada and
his own indomitable patience secured among other advantages for English
traders exclusive rights of trading on the Volga and their security from
the infliction of torture. Fletcher's treatment at Moscow was later made
the subject of formal complaint by Queen Elizabeth. He returned to
England in 1589 in company with Jerome Horsey, and in 1591 he published
_Of the Russe Commonwealth, Or Maner of Government by the Russe Emperour
(commonly called The Emperour of Moskovia) with the manners and fashions
of the people of that Countrey_. In this comprehensive account of
Russian geography, government, law, methods of warfare, church and
manners, Fletcher, who states that he began to arrange his material
during the return journey, doubtless received some assistance from the
longer experience of his travelling companion, who also wrote a
narrative of his travels, published in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_ (1626).
The Russia Company feared that the freedom of Fletcher's criticisms
would give offence to the Muscovite authorities, and accordingly damage
their trade. The book was consequently suppressed, and was not reprinted
in its entirety until 1856, when it was edited from a copy of the
original edition for the Hakluyt Society, with an introduction by Mr
Edward A. Bond.
Fletcher was appointed "Remembrancer" to the city of London, and an
extraordinary master of requests in 1596, and became treasurer of St
Paul's in 1597. He contemplated a history of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth, and in a letter to Lord Burghley he suggested that it might
be well to begin with an account from the Protestant side of the
marriage of Henry VIII. and Ann Boleyn. But personal difficulties
prevented the execution of this plan. He had become security to the
exchequer for the debts of his brother, Richard Fletcher, bishop of
London, who died in 1596, and was only then saved from imprisonment by
the protection of the earl of Essex. He was actually in prison in 1601,
when he addressed a somewhat ambiguous letter to Burghley from which it
may be gathered that his prime offence had been an allusion to Essex's
disgrace as being the work of Sir Walter Raleigh. Fletcher was employed
in 1610 to negotiate with Denmark on behalf of the "Eastland Merchants,"
and he died next year, and was buried on the 11th of March in the parish
of St Catherine Colman, London.
_The Russe Commonwealth_ was issued in an abridged form in _Hakluyt's
Principal Navigations, Voyages_, &c. (vol. i. p. 473, ed. of 1598), a
somewhat completer version in _Purchas his Pilgrimes_ (pt. iii. ed.
1625), also as _History of Russia_ in 1643 and 1657. Fletcher also
wrote _De literis antiquae Britanniae_ (ed. by Phineas Fletcher,
1633), a treatise on "The Tartars," printed in _Israel Redux_ (ed. by
S(amuel) L(ee), 1677), to prove that they were the ten lost tribes of
Israel, Latin poems published in various miscellanies, and _Licia, or
Poemes of Love in Honour of the admirable and singular vertues of his
Lady, to the imitation of the best Latin Poets ... whereunto is added
the Rising to the Crowne of Richard the third_ (1593). This series of
love sonnets, followed by some other poems, was published anonymously.
Most critics, with the notable exception of Alexander Dyce (Beaumont
and Fletcher, _Works_, i. p. xvi., 1843) have accepted it as the work
of Dr Giles Fletcher on the evidence afforded in the first of the
_Piscatory Eclogues_ of his son Phineas, who represents his father
(Thelgon), as having "raised his rime to sing of Richard's climbing."
See E.A. Bond's Introduction to the Hakluyt Society's edition; also Dr
A.B. Grosart's prefatory matter to _Licia_ (_Fuller Worthies Library_,
Miscellanies, vol. iii., 1871), and to the works (1869) of Phineas
Fletcher in the same series. Fletcher's letters relative to the
college dispute with the provost, Dr Roger Goad, are preserved in the
Lansdowne MSS. (xxiii. art. 18 et seq.), and are translated in
Grosart's edition.
FLETCHER, GILES (c. 1584-1623), English poet, younger son of the
preceding, was born about 1584. Fuller in his _Worthies of England_ says
that he was a native of London, and was educated at Westminster school.
From there he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A.
degree in 1606, and became a minor fellow of his college in 1608. He was
reader in Greek grammar (1615) and in Greek language (1618). In 1603 he
contributed a poem on the death of Queen Elizabeth to _Sorrow's Joy_.
His great poem of _Christ's Victory_ appeared in 1610, and in 1612 he
edited the _Remains_ of his cousin Nathaniel Pownall. It is not known in
what year he was ordained, but his sermons at St Mary's were famous.
Fuller tells us that the prayer before the sermon was a continuous
allegory. He left Cambridge about 1618, and soon after received, it is
supposed from Francis Bacon, the rectory of Alderton, on the Suffolk
coast, where "his clownish and low-parted parishioners ... valued not
their pastor according to his worth; which disposed him to melancholy
and hastened his dissolution." (Fuller, _Worthies of England_, ed. 1811,
vol. ii. p. 82). His last work, _The Reward of the Faithful_, appeared
in the year of his death (1623).
The principal work by which Giles Fletcher is known is _Christ's
Victorie and Triumph, in Heaven, in Earth, over and after Death_ (1610).
An edition in 1640 contains seven full-page illustrative engravings by
George Tate. It is in four cantos and is epic in design. The first
canto, "Christ's Victory in Heaven," represents a dispute in heaven
between Justice and Mercy, assuming the facts of Christ's life on earth;
the second, "Christ's Victory on Earth," deals with an allegorical
account of the Temptation; the third, "Christ's Triumph over Death,"
treats of the Passion; and the fourth, "Christ's Triumph after Death,"
treating of the Resurrection and Ascension, concludes with an
affectionate eulogy of his brother Phineas Fletcher (q.v.) as
"Thyrsilis." The metre is an eight-line stanza owing something to
Spenser. The first five lines rhyme ababb, and the stanza concludes with
a rhyming triplet, resuming the conceit which nearly every verse
embodies. Giles Fletcher, like his brother Phineas, to whom he was
deeply attached, was a close follower of Spenser. In his very best
passages Giles Fletcher attains to a rich melody which charmed the ear
of Milton, who did not hesitate to borrow very considerably from the
_Christ's Victory and Triumph_ in his _Paradise Regained_. Fletcher
lived in an age which regarded as models the poems of Marini and
Gongora, and his conceits are sometimes grotesque in connexion with the
sacredness of his subject. But when he is carried away by his theme and
forgets to be ingenious, he attains great solemnity and harmony of
style. His descriptions of the Lady of Vain Delight, in the second
canto, and of Justice and of Mercy in the first, are worked out with
much beauty of detail into separate pictures, in the manner of the
_Faerie Queene_.
Giles Fletcher's poem was edited (1868) for the _Fuller Worthies
Library_, and (1876) for the _Early English Poets_ by Dr A.B. Grosart.
It is also reprinted for _The Ancient and Modern Library of
Theological Literature_ (1888), and in R. Cattermole's and H.
Stebbing's _Sacred Classics_ (1834, &c.) vol. 20. In the library of
King's College, Cambridge, is a MS. _Aegidii Fletcherii versio poetica
Lamentationum Jeremiae_.
FLETCHER, JOHN WILLIAM (1729-1785), English divine, was born at Nyon in
Switzerland on the 12th of September 1729, his original name being DE LA
FLECHIERE. He was educated at Geneva, but, preferring an army career to
a clerical one, went to Lisbon and enlisted. An accident prevented his
sailing with his regiment to Brazil, and after a visit to Flanders,
where an uncle offered to secure a commission for him, he went to
England, picked up the language, and in 1752 became tutor in a
Shropshire family. Here he came under the influence of the new Methodist
preachers, and in 1757 took orders, being ordained by the bishop of
Bangor. He often preached with John Wesley and for him, and became known
as a fervent supporter of the revival. Refusing the wealthy living of
Dunham, he accepted the humble one of Madeley, where for twenty-five
years (1760-1785) he lived and worked with unique devotion and zeal.
Fletcher was one of the few parish clergy who understood Wesley and his
work, yet he never wrote or said anything inconsistent with his own
Anglican position. In theology he upheld the Arminian against the
Calvinist position, but always with courtesy and fairness; his
resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768-1771) of
the countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca left no unpleasantness.
The outstanding feature of his life was a transparent simplicity and
saintliness of spirit, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his
godliness is unanimous. Wesley preached his funeral sermon from the
words "Mark the perfect man." Southey said that "no age ever provided a
man of more fervent piety or more perfect charity, and no church ever
possessed a more apostolic minister." His fame was not confined to his
own country, for it is said that Voltaire, when challenged to produce a
character as perfect as that of Christ, at once mentioned Fletcher of
Madeley. He died on the 14th of August 1785.
Complete editions of his works were published in 1803 and 1836. The
chief of them, written against Calvinism, are _Five Checks to
Antinomianism_, _Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth_,
and the _Portrait of St Paul_. See lives by J. Wesley (1786); L.
Tyerman (1882); F.W. Macdonald (1885); J. Maratt (1902); also C.J.
Ryle, _Christian Leaders of the 18th Century_, pp. 384-423 (1869).
FLETCHER, PHINEAS (1582-1650), English poet, elder son of Dr Giles
Fletcher, and brother of Giles the younger, noticed above, was born at
Cranbrook, Kent, and was baptized on the 8th of April 1582. He was
admitted a scholar of Eton, and in 1600 entered King's College,
Cambridge. He graduated B.A. in 1604, and M.A. in 1608, and was one of
the contributors to _Sorrow's Joy_ (1603). His pastoral drama,
_Sicelides or Piscatory_ (pr. 1631) was written (1614) for performance
before James I., but only produced after the king's departure at King's
College. He had been ordained priest and before 1611 became a fellow of
his college, but he left Cambridge before 1616, apparently because
certain emoluments were refused him. He became chaplain to Sir Henry
Willoughby, who presented him in 1621 to the rectory of Hilgay, Norfolk,
where he married and spent the rest of his life. In 1627 he published
_Locustae, vel Pietas Jesuitica_. _The Locusts or Apollyonists_, two
parallel poems in Latin and English furiously attacking the Jesuits. Dr
Grosart saw in this work one of the sources of Milton's conception of
Satan. Next year appeared an erotic poem, _Brittains Ida_, with Edmund
Spenser's name on the title-page. It is certainly not by Spenser, and is
printed by Dr Grosart with the works of Phineas Fletcher. _Sicelides_, a
play acted at King's College in 1614, was printed in 1631. In 1632
appeared two theological prose treatises, _The Way to Blessedness_ and
_Joy in Tribulation_, and in 1633 his _magnum opus, The Purple Island_.
The book was dedicated to his friend Edward Benlowes, and included his
_Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poetical Miscellanies_. He died in 1650,
his will being proved by his widow on the 13th of December of that year.
_The Purple Island, or the Isle of Man_, is a poem in twelve cantos
describing in cumbrous allegory the physiological structure of the human
body and the mind of man. The intellectual qualities are personified,
while the veins are rivers, the bones the mountains of the island, the
whole analogy being worked out with great ingenuity. The manner of
Spenser is preserved throughout, but Fletcher never lost sight of his
moral aim to lose himself in digressions like those of the _Faerie
Queene_. What he gains in unity of design, however, he more than loses
in human interest and action. The chief charm of the poem lies in its
descriptions of rural scenery. The _Piscatory Eclogues_ are pastorals
the characters of which are represented as fisher boys on the banks of
the Cam, and are interesting for the light they cast on the biography of
the poet himself (Thyrsil) and his father (Thelgon). The poetry of
Phineas Fletcher has not the sublimity sometimes reached by his brother
Giles. The mannerisms are more pronounced and the conceits more
far-fetched, but the verse is fluent, and lacks neither colour nor
music.
A complete edition of his works (4 vols.) was privately printed by Dr
A.B. Grosart (Fuller Worthies Library, 1869).
FLEURANGES, ROBERT (III.) DE LA MARCK, SEIGNEUR DE (1491-1537), marshal
of France and historian, was the son of Robert II. de la Marck; duke of
Bouillon, seigneur of Sedan and Fleuranges, whose uncle was the
celebrated William de la Marck, "The Wild Boar of the Ardennes." A
fondness for military exercises displayed itself in his earliest years,
and at the age of ten he was sent to the court of Louis XII., and placed
in charge of the count of Angouleme, afterwards King Francis I. In his
twentieth year he married a niece of the cardinal d'Amboise, but after
three months he quitted his home to join the French army in the
Milanese. With a handful of troops he threw himself into Verona, then
besieged by the Venetians; but the siege was protracted, and being
impatient for more active service, he rejoined the army. He then took
part in the relief of Mirandola, besieged by the troops of Pope Julius
II., and in other actions of the campaign. In 1512 the French being
driven from Italy, Fleuranges was sent into Flanders to levy a body of
10,000 men, in command of which, under his father, he returned to Italy
in 1513, seized Alessandria, and vigorously assailed Novara. But the
French were defeated, and Fleuranges narrowly escaped with his life,
having received more than forty wounds. He was rescued by his father and
sent to Vercellae, and thence to Lyons. Returning to Italy with Francis
I. in 1515, he distinguished himself in various affairs, and especially
at Marignano, where he had a horse shot under him, and contributed so
powerfully to the victory of the French that the king knighted him with
his own hand. He next took Cremona, and was there called home by the
news of his father's illness. In 1519 he was sent into Germany on the
difficult errand of inducing the electors to give their votes in favour
of Francis I.; but in this he failed. The war in Italy being rekindled,
Fleuranges accompanied the king thither, fought at Pavia (1525), and was
taken prisoner with his royal master. The emperor, irritated by the
defection of his father, Robert II. de la Marck, sent him into
confinement in Flanders, where he remained for some years. During this
imprisonment he was created marshal of France. He employed his enforced
leisure in writing his _Histoire des choses memorables advenues du regne
de Louis XII et de Francois I, depuis 1499 jusqu'en l'an 1521_. In this
work he designates himself _Jeune Adventureux_. Within a small compass
he gives many curious and interesting details of the time, writing only
of what he had seen, and in a very simple but vivid style. The book was
first published in 1735, by Abbe Lambert, who added historical and
critical notes; and it has been reprinted in several collections. The
last occasion on which Fleuranges was engaged in active service was at
the defence of Peronne, besieged by the count of Nassau in 1536. In the
following year he heard of his father's death, and set out from Amboise
for his estate of La Marck; but he was seized with illness at
Longjumeau, and died there in December 1537.
See his own book in the _Nouvelle Collection des memoires pour servir
a l'histoire de France_ (edited by J.F. Michaud and J.J.F. Poujoulat,
series i. vol. v. Paris, 1836 seq.).
FLEUR-DE-LIS (Fr. "lily flower"), an heraldic device, very widespread in
the armorial bearings of all countries, but more particularly associated
with the royal house of France. The conventional fleur-de-lis, as Littre
says, represents very imperfectly three flowers of the white lily
(_Lilium_) joined together, the central one erect, and each of the
other two curving outwards. The fleur-de-lis is a common device in
ancient decoration, notably in India and in Egypt, where it was the
symbol of life and resurrection, the attribute of the god Horus. It is
common also in Etruscan bronzes. It is uncertain whether the
conventional fleur-de-lis was originally meant to represent the lily or
white iris--the flower-de-luce of Shakespeare--or an arrow-head, a
spear-head, an amulet fastened on date-palms to ward off the evil eye,
&c. In Roman and early Gothic architecture the fleur-de-lis is a
frequent sculptured ornament. As early as 1120 three fleurs-de-lis were
sculptured on the capitals of the Chapelle Saint-Aignan at Paris. The
fleur-de-lis was first definitely connected with the French monarchy in
an _ordonnance_ of Louis le Jeune (c. 1147), and was first figured on a
seal of Philip Augustus in 1180. The use of the fleur-de-lis in heraldry
dates from the 12th century, soon after which period it became a very
common charge in France, England and Germany, where every gentleman of
coat-armour desired to adorn his shield with a loan from the shield of
France, which was at first _d'azur, seme de fleurs de lis d'or_. In
February 1376 Charles V. of France reduced the number of fleurs-de-lis
to three--in honour of the Trinity--and the kings of France thereafter
bore _d'azur, a trois fleurs de lis d'or_. Tradition soon attributed the
origin of the fleur-de-lis to Clovis, the founder of the Frankish
monarchy, and explained that it represented the lily given to him by an
angel at his baptism. Probably there was as much foundation for this
legend as for the more rationalistic explanation of William Newton
(_Display of Heraldry_, p. 145), that the fleur-de-lis was the figure of
a reed or flag in blossom, used instead of a sceptre at the proclamation
of the Frankish kings. Whatever be the true origin of the fleur-de-lis
as a conventional decoration, it is demonstrably far older than the
Frankish monarchy, and history does not record the reason of its
adoption by the royal house of France, from which it passed into common
use as an heraldic charge in most European countries. An order of the
Lily, with a fleur-de-lis for badge, was established in the Roman states
by Pope Paul III. in 1546; its members were pledged to defend the
patrimony of St Peter against the enemies of the church. Another order
of the Lily was founded by Louis XVIII. in 1816, in memory of the silver
fleurs-de-lis which the comte d'Artois had given to the troops in 1814
as decorations; it was abolished by the revolution of 1830.
[Illustration: Middle Ages. 17th century. 18th and 19th centuries.]
FLEURUS, a village of Belgium, in the province of Hennegau, 5 m. N.E. of
Charleroi, famous as the scene of several battles. The first of these
was fought on August 19/29, 1622, between the forces of Count Mansfeld
and Christian of Brunswick and the Spaniards under Cordovas, the latter
being defeated. The second is described below, and the third and fourth,
incidents of Jourdan's campaign of 1794, under FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY
WARS. The ground immediately north-east of Fleurus forms the battlefield
of Ligny (June 16, 1815), for which see WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.
[Illustration: Map of Fleurus 1690.]
The second battle was fought on the 1st of July 1690 between 45,000
French under Francois-Henri de Montgomery-Bouteville, duke of Luxemburg,
and 37,000 allied Dutch, Spaniards and Imperialists under George
Frederick, prince of Waldeck. The latter had formed up his army between
Heppignies and St Amand in what was then considered an ideal position; a
double barrier of marshy brooks was in front, each flank rested on a
village, and the space between, open upland, fitted his army exactly.
But Luxemburg, riding up with his advanced guard from Velaine, decided,
after a cursory survey of the ground, to attack the front and both
flanks of the Allies' position at once--a decision which few, if any,
generals then living would have dared to make, and which of itself
places Luxemburg in the same rank as a tactician as his old friend and
commander Conde. The left wing of cavalry was to move under cover of
woods, houses and hollows to gain Wangenies, where it was to connect
with the frontal attack of the French centre from Fleurus and to envelop
Waldeck's right. Luxemburg himself with the right wing of cavalry and
some infantry and artillery made a wide sweep round the enemy's left by
way of Ligny and Les Trois Burettes, concealed by the high-standing
corn. At 8 o'clock the frontal attack began by a vigorous artillery
engagement, in which the French, though greatly outnumbered in guns,
held their own, and three hours later Waldeck, whose attention had been
absorbed by events on the front, found a long line of the enemy already
formed up in his rear. He at once brought his second line back to oppose
them, but while he was doing so the French leader filled up the gap
between himself and the frontal assailants by posting infantry around
Wagnelee, and also guns on the neighbouring hill whence their fire
enfiladed both halves of the enemy's army up to the limit of their
ranging power. At 1 P.M. Luxemburg ordered a general attack of his whole
line. He himself scattered the cavalry opposed to him and hustled the
Dutch infantry into St Amand, where they were promptly surrounded. The
left and centre of the French army were less fortunate, and in their
first charge lost their leader, Lieutenant-General Jean Christophe,
comte de Gournay, one of the best cavalry officers in the service. But
Waldeck, hoping to profit by this momentary success, sent a portion of
his right wing towards St Amand, where it merely shared the fate of his
left, and the day was decided. Only a quarter of the cavalry and 14
battalions of infantry (English and Dutch) remained intact, and Waldeck
could do no more, but with these he emulated the last stand of the
Spaniards at Rocroi fifty years before. A great square was formed of the
infantry, and a handful of cavalry joined them--the French cavalry,
eager to avenge Gournay, had swept away the rest. Then slowly and in
perfect order, they retired into the broken ground above Mellet, where
they were in safety. The French slept on the battlefield, and then
returned to camp with their trophies and 8000 prisoners. They had lost
some 2500 killed, amongst them Gournay and Berbier du Metz, the chief of
artillery, the Allies twice as many, as well as 48 guns, and Luxemburg
was able to send 150 colours and standards to decorate Notre-Dame. But
the victory was not followed up, for Louis XIV. ordered Luxemburg to
keep in line with other French armies which were carrying on more or
less desultory wars of manoeuvre on the Meuse and Moselle.
FLEURY [ABRAHAM JOSEPH BENARD] (1750-1822), French actor, was born at
Chartres on the 26th of October 1750, and began his stage apprenticeship
at Nancy, where his father was at the head of a company of actors
attached to the court of King Stanislaus. After four years in the
provinces, he came to Paris in 1778, and almost immediately was made
_societaire_ at the Comedie Francaise, although the public was slow to
recognize him as the greatest comedian of his time. In 1793 Fleury, like
the rest of his fellow-players, was arrested in consequence of the
presentation of Laya's _L'Ami des lois_, and, when liberated, appeared
at various theatres until, in 1799, he rejoined the rehabilitated
Comedie Francaise. After forty years of service he retired in 1818, and
died on the 3rd of March 1822. He was notoriously illiterate, and it is
probable that the interesting _Memoire de Fleury_ owes more to its
author, Lafitte, than to the subject whose "notes and papers" it is said
to contain.
FLEURY, ANDRE HERCULE DE (1653-1743), French cardinal and statesman, was
born at Lodeve (Herault) on the 22nd of June 1653, the son of a
collector of taxes. Educated by the Jesuits in Paris, he entered the
priesthood, and became in 1679, through the influence of Cardinal Bonzi,
almoner to Maria Theresa, queen of Louis XIV., and in 1698 bishop of
Frejus. Seventeen years of a country bishopric determined him to seek a
position at court. He became tutor to the king's great-grandson and
heir, and in spite of an apparent lack of ambition, he acquired over the
child's mind an influence which proved to be indestructible. On the
death of the regent Orleans in 1723 Fleury, although already seventy
years of age, deferred his own supremacy by suggesting the appointment
of Louis Henri, duke of Bourbon, as first minister. Fleury was present
at all interviews between Louis XV. and his first minister, and on
Bourbon's attempt to break through this rule Fleury retired from court.
Louis made Bourbon recall the tutor, who on the 11th of July 1726 took
affairs into his own hands, and secured the exile from court of Bourbon
and of his mistress Madame de Prie. He refused the title of first
minister, but his elevation to the cardinalate in that year secured his
precedence over the other ministers. He was naturally frugal and
prudent, and carried these qualities into the administration, with the
result that in 1738-1739 there was a surplus of 15,000,000 livres
instead of the usual deficit. In 1726 he fixed the standard of the
currency and secured the credit of the government by the regular payment
thenceforward of the interest on the debt. By exacting forced labour
from the peasants he gave France admirable roads, though at the cost of
rousing angry discontent. During the seventeen years of his orderly
government the country found time to recuperate its forces after the
exhaustion caused by the extravagances of Louis XIV. and of the regent,
and the general prosperity rapidly increased. Internal peace was only
seriously disturbed by the severities which Fleury saw fit to exercise
against the Jansenists. He imprisoned priests who refused to accept the
bull _Unigenitus_, and he met the opposition of the parlement of Paris
by exiling forty of its members.
In foreign affairs his chief preoccupation was the maintenance of peace,
which was shared by Sir Robert Walpole, and therefore led to a
continuance of the good understanding between France and England. It was
only with reluctance that he supported the ambitious projects of
Elizabeth Farnese, queen of Spain, in Italy by guaranteeing in 1729 the
succession of Don Carlos to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. Fleury had
economized in the army and navy, as elsewhere, and when in 1733 war was
forced upon him he was hardly prepared. He was compelled by public
opinion to support the claims of Louis XV.'s father-in-law Stanislaus
Leszczynski, ex-king of Poland, to the Polish crown on the death of
Frederick Augustus I., against the Russo-Austrian candidate; but the
despatch of a French expedition of 1500 men to Danzig only served to
humiliate France. Fleury was driven by Chauvelin to more energetic
measures; he concluded a close alliance with the Spanish Bourbons and
sent two armies against the Austrians. Military successes on the Rhine
and in Italy secured the favourable terms of the treaty of Vienna
(1735-1738). France had joined with the other powers in guaranteeing the
succession of Maria Theresa under the Pragmatic sanction, but on the
death of Charles VI. in 1740 Fleury by a diplomatic quibble found an
excuse for repudiating his engagements, when he found the party of war
supreme in the king's counsels. After the disasters of the Bohemian
campaign he wrote in confidence a humble letter to the Austrian general
Konigsegg, who immediately published it. Fleury disavowed his own
letter, and died a few days after the French evacuation of Prague on the
29th of January 1743. He had enriched the royal library by many valuable
oriental MSS., and was a member of the French Academy, of the Academy of
Science, and the Academy of Inscriptions.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--F.J. Bataille, _Eloge historique de M. le Cardinal A.
H. de Fleury_ (Strassburg, 1737); C. Frey de Neuville, _Oraison
funebre de S.E. Mgr. le Cardinal A. H. Fleury_ (Paris, 1743); P.
Vicaire, _Oraison funebre du Cardinal A. H. de Fleury_ (Caen, 1743);
M. van Hoey, _Lettres et negotiations pour servir a l'histoire de la
vie du Cardinal de Fleury_ (London, 1743); _Leben des Cardinals A. H.
Fleury_ (Freiburg, 1743); F. Morenas, _Parallele du ministere du
Cardinal Richelieu et du Cardinal de Fleury_ (Avignon, 1743);
_Nachrichten von dem Leben und der Verwaltung des Cardinals Fleury_
(Hamburg, 1744).