See RENAISSANCE.
HUMAS, OR OUMAS, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: MUSKHOGEAN FAMILY.
{1667}
HUMAYUN, Moghul Emperor or Padischah of India, A. D. 1530-1556.
HUMBERT, King of Italy, A. D. 1878-.
HUMBLE PETITION AND ADVICE, The.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1654-1658.
HUMBLEDON, Battle of.
See HOMILDON HILL, BATTLE OF.
HUNDRED, The.
"The union of a number of townships for the purpose of
judicial administration, peace, and defence, formed what is
known as the 'hundred,' or 'wapentake'; a district answering
to the 'pagus' of Tacitus, the 'hærred' of Scandinavia, the
'huntari' or 'gau' of Germany. … The name of the hundred,
which, like the wapentake, first appears in the laws of Edgar,
has its origin far back in the remotest antiquity, but the use
of it as a geographical expression is discoverable only in
comparatively late evidences. The 'pagus' of the Germania sent
its hundred warriors to the host, and appeared by its hundred
judges in the court of the 'princeps.' The Lex Salica contains
abundant evidence that in the fifth century the administration
of the hundred was the chief, if not the only, machinery of
the Frank judicial system; and the word in one form or other
enters into the constitution of all the German nations. It may
be regarded then as a certain vestige of primitive
organisation. But the exact relation of the territorial
hundred to the hundred of the Germania is a point which is
capable of, and has received, much discussion. It has been
regarded as denoting simply a division of a hundred hides of
land; as the district which furnished a hundred warriors to
the host; as representing the original settlement of the
hundred warriors; or as composed of a hundred hides, each of
which furnished a single warrior. The question is not peculiar
to English history, and the same result may have followed from
very different causes as probably as from the same causes,
here and on the continent. It is very probable, as already
stated, that the colonists of Britain arranged themselves in
hundreds of warriors; it is not probable that the country was
carved into equal districts. The only conclusion that seems
reasonable is that, under the name of geographical hundreds,
we have the variously sized pagi or districts in which the
hundred warriors settled. … The hundred-gemot, or wapentake
court, was held every month; it was called six days before the
day of meeting, and could not be held on Sunday. It was
attended by the lords of lands within the hundred, or their
stewards representing them, and by the parish priest, the
reeve, and four best men of each township. … The criminal
jurisdiction of the hundred is perpetuated in the manorial
court leet."
_W. Stubbs,
Constitutional History of England,
chapter 5, section 45 (volume 1)._
"By the 13th century the importance of the hundred had much
diminished. The need for any such body, intermediate between
township and county, ceased to be felt, and the functions of
the hundred were gradually absorbed by the county. Almost
everywhere in England, by the reign of Elizabeth, the hundred
had fallen into decay. It is curious that its name and some of
its peculiarities should have been brought to America, and
should in one state have remained to the present day. Some of
the early settlements in Virginia were called hundreds, but
they were practically nothing more than parishes, and the name
soon became obsolete, except upon the map, where we still see,
for example, Bermuda Hundred. But in Maryland the hundred
flourished and became the political unit, like the township in
New England. The hundred was the militia district, and the
district for the assessment of taxes. In the earliest times it
was also the representative district. … The hundred had also
its assembly of all the people, which was in many respects
like the New England town-meeting. These hundred-meetings
enacted by-laws, levied taxes, appointed committees, and often
exhibited a vigorous political life. But after the Revolution
they fell into disuse, and in 1824 the hundred became extinct
in Maryland; its organization was swallowed up in that of the
county. In Delaware, however, the hundred remains to this
day."
_J. Fiske,
Civil Government in the United States,
chapter 4, section 1._
HUNDRED DAYS, The.
The period of Napoleon's recovery of power in France, on his
return from the Isle of Elba, and until his overthrow at
Waterloo and final abdication, is often referred to as The
Hundred Days.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814-1815, to 1815 (JUNE-AUGUST).