III.] resolved to rebuild and embellish the great castle of
Windsor, which king Arthur had first founded in time past, and
where he had erected and established that noble round table
from whence so many gallant knights had issued forth, and
displayed the valiant prowess of their deeds at arms over the
world. King Edward, therefore, determined to establish an
order of knighthood, consisting of himself, his children, and
the most gallant knights in Christendom, to the number of
forty. He ordered it to be denominated 'knights of the blue
garter,' and that the feast should be celebrated every year at
Windsor, upon St. George's day. He summoned, therefore, all
the earls, barons, and knights of his realm, to inform them of
his intentions; they heard it with great pleasure; for it
appeared to them highly honourable, and capable of increasing
love and friendship. Forty knights were then elected,
according to report and estimation the bravest in Christendom,
who sealed, and swore to maintain and keep the feast and the
statutes which had been made. The king founded a chapel at
Windsor, in honour of St. George, and established canons,
there to serve God, with a handsome endowment. He then issued
his proclamation for this feast by his heralds, whom he sent
to France, Scotland, Burgundy, Hainault, Flanders, Brabant,
and the empire of Germany, and offered to all knights and
squires, that might come to this ceremony, passports to last
for fifteen days after it was over. The celebration of this
order was fixed for St. George's day next ensuing, to be held
at Windsor, 1344."
_Froissart (Johnes),
Chronicles,
book 1, chapter 100._
"The popular tradition, derived from Polydore Vergil, is that,
having a festival at Court, a lady chanced to drop her garter,
when it was picked up by the King. Observing that the incident
made the bye-standers smile significantly, Edward exclaimed in
a tone of rebuke, 'Honi soit qui mal y pense'--'Dishonoured
be he who thinks evil of it': and to prevent any further
innuendos, he tied the garter round his own knee. This
anecdote, it is true, has been characterized by some as an
improbable fable; why, we know not. ... Be the origin of the
institution, however, what it may, no Order in Europe is so
ancient, none so illustrious, for 'it exceeds in majesty,
honour and fame all chivalrous fraternities in the world.' ...
By a Statute passed on the 17th January, 1805, the Order is to
consist of the Sovereign and twenty-five Knights Companions,
together with such lineal descendants of George III. as may be
elected, always excepting the Prince of Wales, who is a
constituent part of the original institution. Special Statutes
have since, at different times, been proclaimed for the
admission of Sovereigns and extra Knights."
_Sir B. Burke,
Book of Orders of Knighthood,
page 98._
ALSO IN:
_J. Buswell,
Historical Account of the Knights of the Garter._
_C. M. Yonge,
Cameos from English History,
2d series, chapter 3._
GARUMNI, The Tribe of the.
See AQUITAINE: THE ANCIENT TRIBES.
GASCONY.--GASCONS: Origin.
See AQUITAINE: A. D. 681-768.
GASCONY: A. D. 778.
The ambuscade at Roncesvalles.
See SPAIN: A. D. 778.
GASCONY: A. D. 781.
Embraced in Aquitaine.
See AQUITAINE: A. D. 781.
GASCONY: 11th Century.
The Founding of the Dukedom.
See BURGUNDY: A. D. 1032.
----------GASCONY: End----------
GASIND, The.
See COMITATUS.
GASPE, The burning of the.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1772.
GASTEIN, Convention of (1865).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1861-1866.
GATES, General Horatio, and the American Revolution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1775 (MAY-AUGUST);
1777 (JULY-OCTOBER);
1777-1778; 1780 (FEBRUARY-AUGUST); 1780-1781.
GATH.
See PHILISTINES.
GATHAS, The.
See ZOROASTRIANS.
{1411}
GAU, OR GA, The.
"Next [after the Mark, in the settlements of the Germanic
peoples] in order of constitution, if not of time, is the
union of two, three, or more Marks in a federal bond for
purposes of a religious, judicial, or even political
character. The technical name for such a union is in Germany a
Gau or Bant; in England the ancient name Ga has been almost
universally superseded by that of Scir or Shire. For the most
part the natural divisions of the country are the divisions
also of the Ga; and the size of this depends upon such
accidental limits as well as upon the character and
dispositions of the several collective bodies which we have
called Marks. The Ga is the second and final form of unsevered
possession; for every larger aggregate is but the result of a
gradual reduction of such districts, under a higher political
or administrative unity, different only in degree and not in
kind from what prevailed individually in each. The kingdom is
only a larger Ga than ordinary; indeed the Ga itself was the
original kingdom. ... Some of the modern shire-divisions of
England in all probability have remained unchanged from the
earliest times; so that here and there a now existent Shire
may be identical in territory with an ancient Ga. But it may
be doubted whether this observation can be very extensively
applied."
_J. M. Kemble,
The Saxons in England.
book 1, chapter 8._
GAUGAMELA, OR ARBELA, Battle of (B. C. 331).
See MACEDONIA: B. C. 384-380.
GAUL: described by Cæsar.
"Gallia, in the widest sense of the term, is divided into
three parts, one part occupied by the Belgae, a second by the
Aquitani, and a third by a people whom the Romans name Galli,
but in their own tongue they are named Celtae. These three
people differ in language and social institutions. The Garumna
(Garonne) is the boundary between the Aquitani and the Celtae:
the rivers Matrona (Marne, a branch of the Seine) and the
Sequana (Seine) separate the Celtae from the Belgae. ... That
part of Gallia which is occupied by the Celtae begins at the
river Rhone: it is bounded by the Garonne, the Ocean and the
territory of the Belgae; on the side of the Sequani and the
Helvetii it also extends to the Rhine. It looks to the north.
The territory of the Belgae begins where that of the Celtae
ends: it extends to the lower part of the Rhine; it looks
towards the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from
the Garonne to the Pyrenean mountains and that part of the
Ocean which borders on Spain. It looks in a direction between
the setting sun and the north."
_Julius Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 1, chapter 1;
translated by G. Long
(Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 8, chapter 22)._
GAUL: B. C. 125-121.
First Roman conquests.
See SALYES; ALLOBROGES; and ÆDUI.
GAUL: B. C. 58-51.
Cæsar's conquest.
Cæsar was consul for the year 695 A. U. (B. C. 59). At the
expiration of his consulship he secured, by vote of the
people, the government of the two Gauls (see ROME: B. C.
68-58), not for one year, which was the customary term, but
for five years--afterwards extended to ten. Cisalpine Gaul
(northern Italy) had been fully subjugated and was tranquil;
Transalpine Gaul (Gaul west and north of the Alps, or modern
France, Switzerland and Belgium) was troubled and threatening.
In Transalpine Gaul the Romans had made no conquests beyond
the Rhone, as yet, except along the coast at the south. The
country between the Alps and the Rhone, excepting certain
territories of Massilia (Marseilles) which still continued to
be a free city, in alliance with Rome, had been fully
appropriated and organized as a province--the Provence of
later times. The territory between the Rhone and the Cevennes
mountains was less fully occupied and controlled. Cæsar's
first proceeding as proconsul in Gaul was to arrest the
migration of the Helvetii, who had determined to abandon their
Swiss valleys and to seize some new territory in Gaul. He blocked
their passage through Roman Gaul, then followed them in their
movement eastward of the Rhone, attacked and defeated them
with great slaughter, and forced the small remnant to return
to their deserted mountain homes. The same year (B. C. 58) he
drove out of Gaul a formidable body of Suevic Germans who had
crossed the Rhine some years before under their king,
Ariovistus. They were almost annihilated. The next year (B. C.
57) he reduced to submission the powerful tribes of the
Belgian region, who had provoked attack by leaguing themselves
against the Roman intrusion in Gaul. The most obstinate of
those tribes--the Nervii--were destroyed. In the following
year (B. C. 56) Cæsar attacked and nearly exterminated the
Veneti, a remarkable maritime people, who occupied part of
Armorica (modern Brittany); he also reduced the coast tribes
northwards to submission, while one of his lieutenants,
Crassus, made a conquest of Aquitania. The conquest of Gaul
was now apparently complete, and next year (B. C. 55), after
routing and cutting to pieces another horde of Germanic
invaders--the Usipetes and Tenctheri--who had ventured across
the lower Rhine, Cæsar traversed the channel and invaded
Britain. This first invasion, which had been little more than
a reconnoissance, was repeated the year following (B. C. 54),
with a larger force. It was an expedition having small
results, and Cæsar returned from it in the early autumn to
find his power in Gaul undermined everywhere by rebellious
conspiracies. The first outbreak occurred among the Belgæ, and
found its vigorous leader in a young chief of the Eburones,
Ambiorix by name. Two legions, stationed in the midst of the
Eburones, were cut to pieces while attempting to retreat. But
the effect of this great disaster was broken by the bold
energy of Cæsar, who led two legions, numbering barely 7,000
men, to the rescue of his lieutenant Cicero (brother of the
orator) whose single legion, camped in the Nervian territory,
was surrounded and besieged by 60,000 of the enemy. Cæsar and
his 7,000 veterans sufficed to rout the 60,000 Belgians.
Proceeding with similar vigor to further operations, and
raising new legions to increase his force, the proconsul had
stamped the rebellion out before the close of the year 58 B.
C., and the Eburones, who led in it, had ceased to exist. But
the next year (B. C. 52) brought upon him a still more serious
rising, of the Gallic tribes in central Gaul, leagued with the
Belgians. Its leader was Vercingetorix, a gallant and able
young chief of the Arverni. It was begun by the Carnutes, who
massacred the Roman settlers in their town of Genabum
(probably modern Orleans, but some say Gien, farther up the
Loire). Cæsar was on the Italian side of the Alps when the
news reached him, and the Gauls expected to be able to prevent
his joining the scattered Roman forces in their country. But
his energy baffled them, as it had baffled them many times
before. He was across the Alps, across the Rhone, over the
Cevennes--through six feet of snow in the passes--and in
their midst, with such troops as he could gather in the
Province, before they dreamed of lying in wait for him. Then,
leaving most of these forces with Decimus Brutus, in a strong
position, he stole away secretly, recrossed the Cevennes, put
himself at the head of a small body of cavalry at Vienne on
the Rhone, and rode straight through the country of the
insurgents to join his veteran legions, first at Langres and
afterwards at Sens.
{1412}
In a few weeks he was at the head of a strong army, had taken
the guilty town of Genabum and had given it up to fire and the
sword. A little later the capital of the Bituriges, Avaricum
(modern Bourges), suffered the same fate. Next, attempting to
reduce the Arvernian town of Gergovia, he met with a check and
was placed in a serious strait. But with the able help of his
lieutenant Labienus, who defeated a powerful combination of
the Gauls near Lutetia (modern Paris), he broke the toils,
reunited his army, which he had divided, routed Vercingetorix
in a great battle fought in the valley of the Vingeanne, and
shut him up, with 80,000 men, in the city of Alesia. The siege
of Alesia (modern Alise-Sainte-Reine, west of Dijon) which
followed, was the most extraordinary of Cæsar's military
exploits in Gaul. Holding his circumvallation of the town,
against 80,000 within its walls and thrice as many swarming
outside of it, he scattered the latter and forced the
surrender of the former. His triumph was his greatest shame.
Like a very savage, he dragged the knightly Vercingetorix in
his captive train, exhibited him at a subsequent "triumph" in
Rome, and then sent him to be put to death in the ghastly
Tullianum. The fall of Alesia practically ended the revolt;
although even the next year found some fighting to be done,
and one stronghold of the Cadurci, Uxellodunum (modern
Puy-d'Issolu, near Vayrac), held out with great obstinacy. It
was taken by tapping with a tunnel the spring which supplied
the besieged with water, and Cæsar punished the obstinacy of
the garrison by cutting off their hands. Gaul was then deemed
to be conquered and pacified, and Cæsar was prepared for the
final contest with his rivals and enemies at Rome.
_Cæsar,
Gallic War._
ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4._
_Napoleon III.,
History of Cæsar._
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans under the Empire,
chapters 6-7, 10, and 12 (volumes 1-2)._
_T. A. Dodge,
Cæsar,
chapters 4-25._
GAUL: 2d-3d Century.
Introduction of Christianity.
See CHRISTIANITY: A. D. 100-312 (GAUL).
GAUL: A. D. 277.
The invaders driven back by Probus.
"The most important service which Probus [Roman Emperor, A. D.
276-282] rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul,
and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by
the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of Aurelian,
had ravaged that great province with impunity. Among the
various multitude of those fierce invaders, we may
distinguish, with some degree of clearness, three great
armies, or rather nations, successively vanquished by the
valour of Probus. He drove back the Franks into their
morasses; a descriptive circumstance from whence we may infer
that the confederacy known by the manly appellation of 'Free'
already occupied the flat maritime country, intersected and
almost overflown by the stagnating waters of the Rhine, and
that several tribes of the Frisians and Batavians had acceded
to their alliance. He vanquished the Burgundians [and the
Lygians]. ... The deliverance of Gaul is reported to have cost
the lives of 400,000 of the invaders--a work of labour to the
Romans, and of expense to the emperor, who gave a piece of
gold for the head of every barbarian."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 12._
See, also, LYGIANS.
GAUL: A. D. 287.
Insurrection of the Bagauds.
See BAGAUDS;
also, DEDITITIUS.
GAUL: A. D. 355-361.
Julian's recovery of the province from the barbarians.
During the civil wars and religious quarrels which followed
the death of Constantine the Great--more especially in the
three years of the usurpation of Magnentius, in the west (A.
D. 350-353), Gaul was not only abandoned, for the most part,
to the barbarians of Germany, but Franks and Alemanni were
invited by Constantius to enter it. "In a little while a large
part of the north and east of Gaul were in their almost
undisputed possession. The Alamans seized upon the countries
which are now called Alsace and Lorraine; the Franks secured
for themselves Batavia and Toxandria: forty-five flourishing
cities, among them Cologne, Treves, Spires, Worms, and
Strasburg, were ravaged; and, in short, from the sources of
the Rhine to its mouth, forty miles inland, there remained no
safety for the population but in the strongly fortified
towns." In this condition of the Gallic provinces, Julian, the
young nephew of the emperor, was raised to the rank of Cæsar
and sent thither with a trifling force of men to take the
command. "During an administration of six years [A. D.
355-361] this latest Cæsar revived in Gaul the memory of the
indefatigable exploits and the vigorous rule of the first
Cæsar. Insufficient and ill-disciplined as his forces were,
and baffled and betrayed as he was by those who should have
been his aids, he drove the fierce and powerful tribes of the
Alamans, who were now the hydra of the western provinces,
beyond the Upper Rhine; the Chamaves, another warlike tribe,
he pursued into the heart of their native forests; while the
still fiercer and more warlike Franks were dislodged from
their habitations on the Meuse, to accept of conditions from
his hands. ... A part of these, called the Salians, and
destined to figure hereafter, were allowed to settle in
permanence in Toxandria, between the Meuse and the Scheld,
near the modern Tongres. ... By three successful expeditions
beyond the Rhine [he] restored to their friends a multitude of
Roman captives, recovered the broken and down-trodden lines of
the empire, humiliated many of the proud chiefs of the
Germans, and impressed a salutary awe and respect upon their
truculent followers. ... He spent the intervals of peace which
his valor procured in recuperating the wasted energies of the
inhabitants. Their dilapidated cities were repaired, the
excesses of taxation retrenched, the deficient harvests
compensated by large importations of corn from Britain, and
the resources of suspended industry stimulated into new
action. Once more, says Libanius, the Gauls ascended from the
tombs to marry, to travel, to enjoy the festivals, and to
celebrate the public games."
_P. Godwin,
History of France: Ancient Gaul,
book 2, chapter 7._
ALSO IN:
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 19._
GAUL: A. D. 365-367.
Expulsion of the Alemanni by Valentinian.
See ALEMANNI: A. D. 365-367.
GAUL: A. D. 378.
Invasion of the Alemanni.
Their destruction by Gratian.
See ALEMANNI: A. D. 378.
{1413}
GAUL: A. D. 406-409.
The breaking of the Rhine barrier.
The same year (A. D. 406) in which Radagaisus, with his motley
barbaric horde, invaded Italy and was destroyed by Stilicho, a
more fatal assault was made upon Gaul. Two armies, in which
were gathered up a vast multitude of Suevi, Vandals, Alans and
Burgundians, passed the Rhine. The Franks opposed them as
faithful allies of the Roman power, and defeated a Vandal army
in one great battle, where 20,000 of the invaders were slain;
but the Alans came opportunely to the rescue of their friends
and forced the Frank defenders of Gaul to give way. "The
victorious confederates pursued their march, and on the last
day of the year, in a season when the waters of the Rhine were
most probably frozen, they entered without opposition the
defenceless provinces of Gaul. This memorable passage of the
Suevi, the Vandals, the Alani, and the Burgundians, who never
afterwards retreated, may be considered as the fall of the
Roman empire in the countries beyond the Alps; and the
barriers which had so long separated the savage and the
civilized nations of the earth were, from that fatal moment,
levelled with the ground. ... The flourishing city of Mentz
was surprised and destroyed, and many thousand Christians were
inhumanly massacred in the church. Worms perished after a long
and obstinate siege; Strasburg, Spires, Rheims, Tournay,
Arras, Amiens, experienced the cruel oppression of the German
yoke; and the consuming flames of war spread from the banks of
the Rhine over the greatest part of the seventeen provinces of
Gaul. That rich and extensive country, as far as the ocean,
the Alps, and the Pyrenees, was delivered to the barbarians,
who drove before them in a promiscuous crowd the bishop, the
senator, and the virgin, laden with the spoils of their houses
and altars."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 30._
GAUL: A. D. 407-411.
Reign of the usurper Constantine.
See BRITAIN: A. D. 407.
GAUL: A. D. 410-419.
Establishment of the Visigoths in the kingdom of Toulouse.
See GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 410-419.
GAUL: A. D. 410-420.
The Franks join in the attack on Gaul.
See FRANKS: A. D. 410-420.
GAUL: 5th-8th Centuries.
Barbarities of the Frank conquest.
The conquests of the Franks in Gaul, under Clovis, began in
486 and ended with his death in 511 (see FRANKS: A. D.
481-511). "In the year 532, Theoderik, one of the sons and
successors of Chlodowig, said to those Frankish warriors whom
he commanded: 'Follow me as far as Auvergne, and I will make
you enter a country where you will take as much gold and
silver as you possibly can desire; where you can carry away in
abundance flocks, slaves, and garments.' The Franks took up
arms and once more crossing the Loire, they advanced on the
territory of the Bituriges and Arvernes. These paid with
interest for the resistance they had dared to the first
invasion. Everything amongst them was devastated; the churches
and monasteries were razed to their foundations. The young men
and women were dragged, their hands bound, after the luggage
to be sold as slaves. The inhabitants of this unfortunate
country perished in large numbers or were ruined by the
pillage. Nothing was left them of what they had possessed,
says an ancient chronicle, except the land, which the
barbarians could not carry away. Such were the neighbourly
relations kept up by the Franks with the Gallic populations
which had remained beyond their limits. Their conduct with
respect to the natives of the northern provinces was hardly
less hostile. When Hilperik, the son of Chlother, wished, in
the year 584, to send his daughter in marriage to the king of
the West Goths, or Visigoths, settled in Spain, he came to
Paris and carried away from the houses belonging to the 'fisc'
a great number of men and women, who were heaped up in
chariots to accompany and serve the bride elect. Those who
refused to depart, and wept, were put in prison: several
strangled themselves in despair. Many people of the best
families enlisted by force into this procession, made their
will, and gave their property to the churches. 'The son,' says
a contemporary, 'was separated from his father, the mother
from her daughter; they departed sobbing, and pronouncing deep
curses; so many persons in Paris were in tears that it might
be compared to the desolation of Egypt.' In their domestic
misfortunes the kings of the Franks sometimes felt remorse,
and trembled at the evil they had done. ... But this momentary
repentance soon yielded to the love of riches, the most
violent passion of the Franks. Their incursions into the south
of Gaul recommenced as soon as that country, recovered from its
terrors and defeats, no longer admitted their garrisons nor
tax collectors. Karle, to whom the fear of his arms gave the
surname of Marteau, made an inroad as far as Marseilles; he
took possession of Lyons, Arles, and Vienne, and carried off
an immense booty to the territory of the Franks. When this
same Karle, to insure his frontiers, went to fight the
Saracens in Aquitania, he put the whole country to fire and
sword; he burnt Bérgiers, Agde, and Nûnes; the arenas of the
latter city still bear traces of the fire. At death of Karle,
his two sons, Karlemann and Peppin, continued the great
enterprise of replacing the inhabitants of the south, to whom
the name of Romans was still given, under the yoke of the
Franks. ... Southern Gaul was to the sons of the Franks what
entire Gaul had been to their fathers; a country, the riches
and climate of which attracted them incessantly, and saw them
return as enemies, as soon as it did not purchase peace of
them."
_A. Thierry,
Narratives of the Merovingian Era, Historical Essays, etc.,
essay 24._
GAUL: 5th-10th Centuries.
The conquerors and the conquered.
State of society under the barbarian rule.
The evolution of Feudalism.