[1] This was the "old style" date, which in the new style (see
CALENDAR) would be July 11th (not 12th, as Lecky says, _Hist, of
Ireland_, iii. p. 427). The 12th of July is annually celebrated by
the Orangemen in the north of Ireland as the anniversary, but this is
a confusion between the supposed new style for July 1st and the old
style date of the battle of Aughrim, July 12th; the intention being
to commemorate both.
BOYS' BRIGADE, an organization founded in Glasgow by Mr (afterwards Sir)
W.A. Smith in 1883 to develop Christian manliness by the use of a
semi-military discipline and order, gymnastics, summer camps and
religious services and classes. There are about 2200 companies connected
with different churches throughout the United Kingdom, the British
empire and the United States, with 10,000 officers and 100,000 boys. A
similar organization, confined to the Anglican communion, is the Church
Lads' Brigade. Boys' and girls' life brigades are a more recent
movement; they teach young people how to save life from fire and from
water, and hold classes in hygiene, ambulance and elementary nursing.
BOZDAR, a Baluch tribe of Rind (Arab) extraction, usually associated
with the mountain districts of the frontier near Dera Ghazi Khan. They
are also to be found in Zhob, Thal-Chotiali and Las Bela, whilst the
majority of the population are said to live in the Punjab. They are
usually graziers, and the name Bozdar is probably derived from Buz, the
Persian name for goat. Within the limits of their mountain home on the
outer spurs of the Suliman hills they have always been a turbulent race,
mustering about 2700 fighting men, and they were formerly constantly at
feud with the neighbouring Ustarana and Sherani tribes. In 1857 their
raids into the Punjab drew upon them an expedition under
Brigadier-General Sir N.B. Chamberlain. The Sangarh pass was captured
and the Bozdars submitted. Since Baluchistan has been taken over they
have given but little trouble.
BOZRAH. (1) A capital of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 33; Amos i. 12; Is. xxxiv. 6,
lxiii. 1), doubtfully identified with _el-Buseireh_, S.E. of the Dead
Sea, in the broken country N. of Petra; the ruins here are comparatively
unimportant. It is the centre of a pastoral district, and its
inhabitants, who number between 100 and 200, are all shepherds. (2) A
city in the _Mishor_ or plain country of Moab, denounced by Jeremiah
(xlviii. 24). It has been identified (also questionably) with a very
extensive collection of ruins of various ages, now called Bosra (the
Roman _Bostra_), situated in the Hauran, about 80 m. south of Damascus.
The area within the walls is about 1-1/4 m. in length, and nearly 1 m.
in breadth, while extensive suburbs lie to the east, north and west. The
principal buildings which can still be distinguished are a temple, an
aqueduct, a large theatre (enclosed by a castle of much more recent
workmanship), several baths, a triumphal and other arches, three
mosques, and what are known as the church and convent of the monk
Boheira. In A.D. 106 the city was beautified and perhaps restored from
ruin by Trajan, who made it the capital of the new province of Arabia.
In the reign of Alexander Severus it was made a colony, and in 244, a
native of the place, Philippus, ascended the imperial throne. By the
time of Constantine the Great it seems to have been Christianized, and
not long after it was the seat of an extensive bishopric. It was one of
the first cities of Syria to be subjected to the Mahommedans, and it
successfully resisted all the attempts of the Crusaders to wrest it from
their hands. As late as the 14th century it was a populous city, after
which it gradually fell into decay. It is now inhabited by thirty or
forty families only. Another suggested identification is with Kusur
el-Besheir, equidistant (2 m.) from Dibon and Aroer. This is perhaps the
same as the Bezer mentioned in Deuteronomy and Joshua as a levitical
city and a city of refuge.
In 1 Macc. v. 26 there is mention of Bosor and of Bosora. The latter is
probably to be identified with Bosra, the former perhaps with the
present Busr el-Hariri in the south-east corner of the Leja.
(R. A. S. M.)
BRABANT, a duchy which existed from 1190 to 1430, when it was united
with the duchy of Burgundy, the name being derived from Brabo, a
semi-mythical Frankish chief.
The history of Brabant is connected with that of the duchy of Lower
Lorraine (q.v.), which became in the course of the 11th century split up
into a number of small feudal states. The counts of Hainaut, Namur,
Luxemburg and Limburg asserted their independence, and the territory of
Liege passed to the bishops of that city. The remnant of the duchy,
united since 1100 with the margraviate of Antwerp, was conferred in 1106
by the emperor Henry V., with the title of duke of Lower Lorraine, upon
Godfrey (Godefroid) I., "the Bearded," count of Louvain and Brussels.
His title was disputed by Count Henry of Limburg, and for three
generations the representatives of the rival houses contested the
possession of the ducal dignity in Lower Lorraine. The issue was decided
in favour of the house of Louvain by Duke Godfrey III. in 1159. His son,
Henry I., "the Warrior" (1183-1235), abandoned the title of duke of
Lower Lorraine and assumed in 1190 that of duke of Brabant. His
successors were Henry II., "the Magnanimous" (1235-1248), Henry III.,
"le Debonnair" (1248-1261), and John I., "the Victorious" (1261-1294).
These were all able rulers. Their usual place of residence was Louvain.
John I., in 1283 bought the duchy of Limburg from Adolf of Berg, and
secured his acquisition by defeating and slaying his competitor, Henry
of Luxemburg, at the battle of Woeringen (June 5, 1288). His own son,
John II., "the Pacific" (1294-1312), bestowed liberties upon his
subjects by the charter of Cortenberg. This charter laid the foundation
of Brabantine freedom. By it the imposition of grants (_beden_) and
taxes was strictly limited and regulated, and its execution was
entrusted to a council appointed by the duke for life (four nobles, ten
burghers) whose duty it was to consider all complaints and to see that
the conditions laid down by the charter concerning the administration of
justice and finance were not infringed. He was succeeded by his son,
John III., "the Triumphant" (1312-1355), who succeeded in maintaining
his position in spite of formidable risings in Louvain and Brussels,
and a league formed against him by his princely neighbours, but he had
a hard struggle to face, and many ups and downs of fortune. He it was to
whom Brabant owed the great charter of its liberties, called _La joyeuse
entree_, because it was granted on the occasion of the marriage of his
daughter Johanna (Jeanne) with Wenzel (Wenceslaus) of Luxemburg, and was
proclaimed on their state entry into Brussels (1356).
Henry, the only legitimate son of John III., having died in 1349, the
ducal dignity passed to his daughter and heiress, the above-named
Johanna (d. 1406). She had married in first wedlock William IV., count
of Holland (d. 1345). Wenzel of Luxemburg, her second husband, assumed
in right of his wife, and by the sanction of the charter _La joyeuse
entree_, the style of duke of Brabant. Johanna's title was, however,
disputed by Louis II., count of Flanders (d. 1384), who had married her
sister Margaret. The question had been compromised by the cession to
Margaret in 1347 of the margraviate of Antwerp by John III., but a war
broke out in 1356 between Wenzel supported by the gilds, and Louis, who
upheld the burgher-patrician party in the Brabant cities. The democratic
leaders were Everhard Tserclaes at Brussels and Peter Coutercel at
Louvain. In the course of a stormy reign Wenzel was taken prisoner in
1371 by the duke of Gelderland, and had to be ransomed by his subjects.
After his death (1383) his widow continued to rule over the two duchies
for eighteen years, but was obliged to rely on the support of the house
of Burgundy in her contests with the turbulent city gilds and with her
neighbours, the dukes of Julich and Gelderland. In 1390 she revoked the
deed which secured the succession to Brabant to the house of Luxemburg,
and appointed her niece, Margaret of Flanders (d. 1405), daughter of
Louis II. and Margaret of Brabant (see FLANDERS), and her husband,
Philip the Bold of Burgundy, her heirs. Margaret of Flanders had married
(1) Philip I. de Rouvre of Burgundy (d. 1361) and (2) Philip II., the
Bold, (d. 1404), son of John II., king of France (see BURGUNDY). Of her
three sons by her second marriage John succeeded to Burgundy, and
Anthony to Brabant on the death of Johanna in 1406. Anthony was killed
at the battle of Agincourt in 1415 and was succeeded by his eldest son
by Jeanne of Luxemburg St Pol, John IV. (d. 1427). He is chiefly
memorable for the excitement caused by his divorce from his wife Jacoba
(q.v.), countess of Holland. John IV. left no issue, and the succession
passed to his brother Philip I., who also died without issue in 1430.
On the extinction of the line of Anthony the duchy of Brabant became the
inheritance of the elder branch of the house of Burgundy, in the person
of Philip III., "the Good," of Burgundy, II. of Brabant, son of John.
His grand-daughter Mary (d. 1482), daughter and heiress of Charles I.,
"the Bold," (d. 1477) married the archduke Maximilian of Austria
(afterwards emperor) and so brought Brabant with the other Burgundian
possessions to the house of Habsburg. The chief city of Brabant,
Brussels, became under the Habsburg regime the residence of the court
and the capital of the Netherlands. In the person of the emperor Charles
V. the destinies of Brabant and the other Netherland states were linked
with those of the Spanish monarchy. The attempt of Philip II. of Spain
to impose despotic rule upon the Netherlands led to the outbreak of the
Netherland revolt, 1568 (see NETHERLANDS).
In the course of the eighty years' war of independence the province of
Brabant became separated into two portions. In the southern and larger
part Spanish rule was maintained, and Brussels continued to be the seat
of government. The northern (smaller) part was conquered by the Dutch
under Maurice and Frederick Henry of Orange. The latter captured 's
Hertogenbosch (1629), Maastricht (1632) and Breda (1637). At the peace
of Munster this portion, which now forms the Dutch province of North
Brabant, was ceded by Philip IV. to the United Provinces and was known
as Generality Land, and placed under the direct government of the
states-general. The southern portion, now divided into the provinces of
Antwerp and South Brabant, remained under the rule of the Spanish
Habsburgs until the death of Charles II., the last of his race in 1700.
After the War of the Spanish Succession the southern Netherlands passed
by the treaty of Utrecht (1713) to the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs.
During the whole period of Austrian rule the province of Brabant
succeeded in maintaining, to a very large extent unimpaired, the
immunities and privileges to which it was entitled under the provisions
of its ancient charter of liberty, the Joyous Entry. An ill-judged
attempt by the emperor Joseph II., in his zeal for reform, to infringe
these inherited rights stirred up the people under the leadership of
Henry van der Noot to armed resistance in the Brabancon revolt of
1789-1790.
Since the French conquest of 1794 the history of Brabant is merged in
that of Belgium (q.v.). The revolt against Dutch rule in 1830 broke out
at Brussels and was in its initial stages largely a Brabancon movement.
The important part played by Brabant at this crisis of the history of
the southern Netherlands was marked in 1831 by the adoption of the
ancient Brabancon colours to form the national flag, and of the lion of
Brabant as the armorial bearings of Belgium. The title of duke of
Brabant has been revived as the style of the eldest son of the king of
the Belgians. (G. E.)
BRABANT, the central and metropolitan province of Belgium, is formed out
of part of the ancient duchy. From 1815 to 1830, that is to say, during
the existence of the kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgian Brabant was
distinguished from Dutch by the employment of the geographical terms
South and North. The surface of Brabant is undulating, and the highest
points, some 400 ft. in altitude, are to be found at and near Mont St
Jean. The province is well cultivated, and the people are well known for
their industry. There are valuable stone quarries, and many manufactures
flourish in the smaller towns, such as Ottignies, as well as in the
larger cities of Brussels and Louvain. Brabant contains 820,740 acres or
1268 sq. m. Its principal towns are Brussels, Louvain, Nivelles, Hal,
Ottignies, and its three administrative divisions are named after the
first three of those towns. They are subdivided into 50 cantons and 344
communes. In 1904 the population of the province was 1,366,389 or a
proportion of 1077 per sq. m.
BRABANT, NORTH, the largest province in Holland, bounded S. by Belgium,
W. and N.W. by the Scheldt, the Eendracht, the Volkerak and the
Hollandsch Diep, which separate it from Zealand and South Holland, N.
and N. E. by the Merwede and Maas, which separate it from South Holland
and Gelderland, and E. by the province of Limburg. It has an area of 231
sq. m. and a pop. (1900) of 553,842. The surface of the province is a
gentle slope from the south-east (where it ranges between 80 and 160 ft.
in height) towards the north and north-west, and the soil is composed of
diluvial sand, here and there mixed with gravel, but giving place to
sea-clay along the western boundary and river-clay along the banks of
the Maas and smaller rivers. The watershed is formed by the
north-eastern edge of the Belgian plateau of Campine, and follows a
curved line drawn through Bergen-op-Zoom, Turnhout and Maastricht. The
landscape consists for the most part of waste stretches of heath,
occasionally slightly overlaid with high fen. Between the valleys of the
Aa and the Maas lies the long stretch of heavy high-fen called the Peel
("marshy land"). Deurne, a few miles east of Helmond, the site of a
prehistoric burial-ground, was an early fen colony. The work of
reclamation was removed farther eastwards to Helenaveen in the second
half of the 19th century. Agriculture (potatoes, buckwheat, rye) is the
main industry, generally combined with cattle-raising. On the clay lands
wheat and barley are the principal products, and in the western corner
of the province beetroot is largely cultivated for the beet sugar
industry, factories being found at Bergen-op-Zoom, Steenbergen and
Oudenbosch. There is a special cultivation of hops in the district
north-west of 's Hertogenbosch. The large majority of the population is
Roman Catholic. The earliest development of towns and villages took
place along the river Maas and its tributaries, and the fortified Roman
camps which were the origin of many such afterwards developed in the
hands of feudal lords. The chief town of the province, 's Hertogenbosch,
may be cited as an interesting historical example. Geertruidenberg,
Heusden, Ravestein and Grave are all similarly situated. Breda is the
next town in importance to the capital. Bergen-op-Zoom had originally a
more maritime importance. Rozendaal, Eindhoven and Bokstel (or Boxtel)
are important railway junctions. Bokstel was formerly the seat of an
independent barony which came into the possession of Philip the Good in
1439. The castle was restored in modern times. The precarious position
of the province on the borders of the country doubtless militated
against an earlier industrial development, but since the separation from
Belgium and the construction of roads, railways and canals there has
been a general improvement, Tilburg, Eindhoven and Helmond all having
risen into prominence in modern times as industrial centres.
Leather-tanning and shoe-making are especially associated with the
district called Langstraat, which is situated between Geertruidenberg
and 's Hertogenbosch, and consists of a series of industrial villages
along the course of the Old Maas.
BRACCIANO, a town in the province of Rome, Italy, 25 m. N.W. of Rome by
rail, situated on the S.W. shore of the Lake of Bracciano, 915 ft. above
sea-level. Pop. (1901) 3987. It is chiefly remarkable for its fine
castle (built by the Orsini in 1460, and since 1696 the property of the
Odescalchi) which has preserved its medieval character. The beautiful
lake is the ancient _Lacus Sabatinus_, supposed to derive its name from
an Etruscan city of the name of Sabate, which is wrongly thought to be
mentioned in the Itineraries; the reference is really to the lake
itself, which bore this name and gave it to one of the Roman tribes, the
_tribus Sabatina_, founded in 387 B.C. (O. Cuntz in _Jahreshefte des
Osterr. Arch. Instituts_, ii., 1899, 85). It is 22 sq. m. in area, 538
ft. above sea-level, and 530 ft. deep; it is almost circular, but is
held to be, not an extinct crater, but the result of a volcanic
subsidence. The tufa deposits which radiate from it extend as far as
Rome; various small craters surround it, while the existence of warm
springs in the district (especially those of Vicarello, probably the
ancient _Aquae Apollinares_) may also be noted. Many remains of ancient
villas may be seen round the lake: above its west bank is the station of
Forum Clodii, and on its north shore the village of Trevignano, which
retains traces of the fortifications of an ancient town of unknown name.
About half-a-mile east of it was a post station called Ad Novas. The
site of Anguillara, on the south shore, was occupied by a Roman villa.
The water of the lake partly supplies the Acqua Paola, a restoration by
Paul V. of the Aqua Traiana. (T. As.)
BRACCIOLINI, FRANCESCO (1566-1645), Italian poet, was born at Pistoia,
of a noble family, in 1566. On his removing to Florence he was admitted
into the academy there, and devoted himself to literature. At Rome he
entered the service of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, with whom he
afterwards went to France. After the death of Clement VIII. he returned
to his own country; and when his patron Barberini was elected pope,
under the name of Urban VIII., Bracciolini repaired to Rome, and was
made secretary to the pope's brother, Cardinal Antonio. He had also the
honour conferred on him of taking a surname from the arms of the
Barberini family, which were bees; whence he was afterwards known by the
name of _Bracciolini dell' Api_. During Urban's pontificate the poet
lived at Rome in considerable reputation, though at the same time he was
censured for his sordid avarice. On the death of the pontiff he returned
to Pistoia, where he died in 1645. There is scarcely any species of
poetry, epic, dramatic, pastoral, lyric or burlesque, which Bracciolini
did not attempt; but he is principally noted for his mock-heroic poem
_Lo Scherno degli Dei_, published in 1618, similar but confessedly
inferior to the contemporary work of Tassoni, _Secchia Rapita_. Of his
serious heroic poems the most celebrated is _La Croce Racquistata_.
For the Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini see POGGIO.
BRACE, CHARLES LORING (1826-1890), American philanthropist, was born on
the 19th of June 1826 in Litchfield, Connecticut. He graduated at Yale
in 1846, studied theology there in 1847-1848, and graduated from Union
Theological Seminary in 1849. From this time he practically devoted his
life to social work among the poor of New York, and to Christian
propaganda among the criminal classes; and he became well known as a
social reformer, at home and abroad. He started in 1852 to hold "boys'
meetings," and in 1853 helped to found the Children's Aid Society,
establishing workshops, industrial schools and lodging-houses for
newsboys. In 1872 he was a delegate to the international prison congress
which met in London. He died at Campfer, in Tirol, on the 11th of August
1890. He published from time to time several volumes embodying his views
on practical Christianity and its application to the improvement of
social conditions.
See _The Life and Letters of Charles Loring Brace_ (New York, 1894),
edited by his daughter, Emma Brace.
BRACE, JULIA (1806-1884), American blind deaf-mute, was born at
Newington, Connecticut, on the 13th of June 1806. In her fifth year she
became blind and deaf, and lost the power of speech. At the age of
eighteen she entered the asylum for the deaf and dumb at Hartford. The
study of blind deaf-mutes and their scientific training was then in its
infancy; but she learnt to sew well, was neat in her dress, and had a
good memory. Dr S.G. Howe's experiments with her were interesting as
leading to his success with Laura Bridgman. She died at Bloomington,
Conn., on the 12th of August 1884.
BRACE (through the Fr. from the plural of the Lat. _bracchium_, the
arm), a measure of length, being the distance between the extended arms.
From the original meaning of "the two arms" comes that of something
which secures, connects, tightens or strengthens, found in numerous uses
of the word, as a carpenter's tool with a crank handle and socket to
hold a bit for boring; a beam of wood or metal used to strengthen any
building or machine; the straps passing over the shoulders to support
the trousers; the leathern thong which slides up and down the cord of a
drum, and regulates the tension and the tone; a writing and printing
sign ({) for uniting two or more lines of letterpress or music; a
nautical term for a rope fastened to the yard for trimming the sails
(cf. the corresponding French term _bras de vergue_). As meaning "a
couple" or "pair" the term was first applied to dogs, probably from the
leash by which they were coupled in coursing. In architecture "brace
mould" is the term for two ressaunts or ogees united together like a
brace in printing, sometimes with a small bead between them.
BRACEGIRDLE, ANNE (c. 1674-1748), English actress, is said to have been
placed under the care of Thomas Betterton and his wife, and to have
first appeared on the stage as the page in _The Orphan_ at its first
performance at Dorset Garden in 1680. She was Lucia in Shadwell's
_Squire of Alsatia_ at the Theatre Royal in 1688, and played similar
parts until, in 1693, as Araminta in _The Old Bachelor_, she made her
first appearance in a comedy by Congreve, with whose works and life her
name is most closely connected. In 1695 she went with Betterton and the
other seceders to Lincoln's Inn Fields, where, on its opening with
Congreve's _Love for Love_, she played Angelica. This part, and those of
Belinda in Vanbrugh's _Provoked Wife_, and Almira in Congreve's
_Mourning Bride_, were among her best impersonations, but she also
played the heroines of some of Nicholas Rowe's tragedies, and acted in
the contemporary versions of Shakespeare's plays. In 1705 she followed
Betterton to the Haymarket, where she found a serious competitor in Mrs
Oldfield, then first coming into public favour. The story runs that it
was left for the audience to determine which was the better comedy
actress, the test being the part of Mrs Brittle in Betterton's _Amorous
Widow_, which was played alternately by the two rivals on successive
nights. When the popular vote was given in favour of Mrs Oldfield, Mrs
Bracegirdle quitted the stage, making only one reappearance at
Betterton's benefit in 1709. Her private life was the subject of much
discussion. Colley Cibber remarks that she had the merit of "not being
unguarded in her private character," while Macaulay does not hesitate to
call her "a cold, vain and interested coquette, who perfectly understood
how much the influence of her charms was increased by the fame of a
severity which cost her nothing." She was certainly the object of the
adoration of many men, and she was the innocent cause of the killing of
the actor William Mountfort (q.v.), whom Captain Hill and Lord Mohun
regarded as a rival for her affections. During her lifetime she was
suspected of being secretly married to Congreve, whose mistress she is
also said to have been. He was at least always her intimate friend, and
left her a legacy. Rightly or wrongly, her reputation for virtue was
remarkably high, and Lord Halifax headed a subscription list of 800
guineas, presented to her as a tribute to her virtue. Her charity to the
poor in Clare Market and around Drury Lane was conspicuous, "insomuch
that she would not pass that neighbourhood without the thankful
acclamations of people of all degrees." She died in 1748, and was buried
in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey.
See Genest, _History of the Stage_; Colley Gibber, _Apology_ (edited
by Bellchambers); Egerton, _Life of Anne Oldfield_; Downes, _Roscius
Anglicanus._
BRACELET, or ARMLET, a personal ornament for the arm or wrist, made of
different materials, according to the fashion of the age and the rank of
the wearer. The word is the French _bracelet_, a diminutive of _bracel_,
from _brac(c)hiale_, formed from the Latin _bracchium_, the arm, on
which it was usually worn. By the Romans it was called _armilla,
brachiale, occabus_; and in the middle ages _bauga, armispatha_.
[Illustration: From _La Grande Encyclopedie._