FENTON, EDWARD FEUDALISM
FENTON, ELIJAH FEUERBACH, ANSELM
FENTON, SIR GEOFFREY FEUERBACH, LUDWIG ANDREAS
FENTON, LAVINIA FEUERBACH, PAUL JOHANN ANSELM
FENTON FEUILLANTS, CLUB OF THE
FENUGREEK FEUILLET, OCTAVE
FENWICK, SIR JOHN FEUILLETON
FEOFFMENT FEUQUIERES, ISAAC MANASSES DE PAS
FERDINAND FEVAL, PAUL HENRI CORENTIN
FERDINAND I. (Roman emperor) FEVER
FERDINAND II. (Roman emperor) FEYDEAU, ERNEST-AIME
FERDINAND III. (Roman emperor) FEZ
FERDINAND I. (emperor of Austria) FEZZAN
FERDINAND I. (king of Naples) FIACRE, SAINT
FERDINAND II. (king of Naples) FIARS PRICES
FERDINAND IV. (king of Naples) FIBRES
FERDINAND I. (king of Portugal) FIBRIN
FERDINAND I. (king of Castile) FICHTE, IMMANUEL HERMANN VON
FERDINAND II. (king of Leon) FICHTE, JOHANN GOTTLIEB
FERDINAND III. (king of Castile) FICHTELGEBIRGE
FERDINAND IV. (king of Castile) FICINO, MARSILIO
FERDINAND I. (king of Aragon) FICKSBURG
FERDINAND V. (of Castile & Leon) FICTIONS
FERDINAND VI. (king of Spain) FIDDES, RICHARD
FERDINAND VII. (king of Spain) FIDDLE
FERDINAND II. (king of Sicily) FIDENAE
FERDINAND III. (duke of Tuscany) FIDUCIARY
FERDINAND, MAXIMILIAN MARIA FIEF
FERDINAND (duke of Brunswick) FIELD, CYRUS WEST
FERDINAND (archbishop of Cologne) FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY
FERENTINO FIELD, EUGENE
FERENTUM FIELD, FREDERICK
FERETORY FIELD, HENRY MARTYN
FERGHANA FIELD, JOHN
FERGUS FALLS FIELD, MARSHALL
FERGUSON, ADAM FIELD, NATHAN
FERGUSON, JAMES FIELD, STEPHEN JOHNSON
FERGUSON, ROBERT FIELD, WILLIAM VENTRIS FIELD
FERGUSON, SIR SAMUEL FIELD
FERGUSSON, JAMES FIELDFARE
FERGUSSON, ROBERT FIELDING, ANTHONY VANDYKE COPLEY
FERGUSSON, SIR WILLIAM FIELDING, HENRY
FERINGHI FIELDING, WILLIAM STEVENS
FERISHTA, MAHOMMED KASIM FIELD-MOUSE
FERMANAGH FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD
FERMAT, PIERRE DE FIELDS, JAMES THOMAS
FERMENTATION FIENNES, NATHANIEL
FERMO FIERI FACIAS
FERMOY FIESCHI, GIUSEPPE MARCO
FERN FIESCO, GIOVANNI LUIGI
FERNANDEZ, ALVARO FIESOLE
FERNANDEZ, DIEGO FIFE (county of Scotland)
FERNANDEZ, JOHN FIFE (flute)
FERNANDEZ, JUAN FIFTH MONARCHY MEN
FERNANDEZ, LUCAS FIG
FERNANDINA FIGARO
FERNANDO DE NORONHA FIGEAC
FERNANDO PO FIGUEIRA DA FOZ
FERNEL, JEAN FRANCOIS FIGUERAS
FERNIE FIGULUS, PUBLIUS NIGIDIUS
FERNOW, KARL LUDWIG FIGURATE NUMBERS
FEROZEPUR FIJI
FEROZESHAH FILANDER
FERRAND, ANTOINE FRANCOIS CLAUDE FILANGIERI, CARLO
FERRAR, NICHOLAS FILANGIERI, GAETANO
FERRAR, ROBERT FILARIASIS
FERRARA FILDES, SIR LUKE
FERRARA-FLORENCE FILE
FERRARI, GAUDENZIO FILE-FISH
FERRARI, GIUSEPPE FILELFO, FRANCESCO
FERRARI, PAOLO FILEY
FERREIRA, ANTONIO FILIBUSTER
FERREL'S LAW FILICAJA, VINCENZO DA
FERRERS FILIGREE
FERRERS, LAURENCE SHIRLEY FILLAN, SAINT
FERRET FILLET
FERRI, CIRO FILLMORE, MILLARD
FERRI, LUIGI FILMER, SIR RORERT
FERRIER, ARNAUD DU FILMY FERNS
FERRIER, JAMES FREDERICK FILON, PIERRE MARIE AUGUSTIN
FERRIER, PAUL FILOSA
FERRIER, SUSAN EDMONSTONE FILTER
FERROL FIMBRIA, GAIUS FLAVIUS
FERRUCCIO, FRANCESCO FIMBRIATE
FERRULE FINALE
FERRY, JULES FRANCOIS CAMILLE FINANCE
FERRY FINCH, FINCH-HATTON
FERSEN, FREDRIK AXEL FINCH OF FORDWICH, JOHN FINCH
FERSEN, HANS AXEL FINCH
FESCA, FREDERIC ERNEST FINCHLEY
FESCENNIA FINCK, FRIEDRICH AUGUST VON
FESCENNINE VERSES FINCK, HEINRICH
FESCH, JOSEPH FINCK, HERMANN
FESSA FINDEN, WILLIAM
FESSENDEN, WILLIAM PITT FINDLATER, ANDREW
FESSLER, IGNAZ AURELIUS FINDLAY, SIR GEORGE
FESTA, CONSTANZO FINDLAY, JOHN RITCHIE
FESTINIOG FINDLAY
FESTOON FINE
FESTUS FINE ARTS
FESTUS, SEXTUS POMPEIUS FINGER
FETIS, FRANCOIS JOSEPH FINGER-AND-TOE
FETISHISM FINGER-PRINTS
FETTERCAIRN FINGO
FETTERS AND HANDCUFFS FINIAL
FEU FINIGUERRA, MASO
FEUCHERES, SOPHIE FINISHING
FEUCHTERSLEBEN, ERNST FINISTERE
FEUD
FENTON, EDWARD (d. 1603), English navigator, son of Henry Fenton and
brother of Sir Geoffrey Fenton (q.v.), was a native of Nottinghamshire.
In 1577 he sailed, in command of the "Gabriel," with Sir Martin
Frobisher's second expedition for the discovery of the north-west
passage, and in the following year he took part as second in command in
Frobisher's third expedition, his ship being the "Judith." He was then
employed in Ireland for a time, but in 1582 he was put in charge of an
expedition which was to sail round the Cape of Good Hope to the Moluccas
and China, his instructions being to obtain any knowledge of the
north-west passage that was possible without hindrance to his trade. On
this unsuccessful voyage he got no farther than Brazil, and throughout
he was engaged in quarrelling with his officers, and especially with his
lieutenant, William Hawkins, the nephew of Sir John Hawkins, whom he had
in irons when he arrived back in the Thames. In 1588 he had command of
the "Mary Rose," one of the ships of the fleet that was formed to oppose
the Armada. He died fifteen years afterwards.
FENTON, ELIJAH (1683-1730), English poet, was born at Shelton near
Newcastle-under-Lyme, of an old Staffordshire family, on the 25th of May
1683. He graduated from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1704, but was
prevented by religious scruples from taking orders. He accompanied the
earl of Orrery to Flanders as private secretary, and on returning to
England became assistant in a school at Headley, Surrey, being soon
afterwards appointed master of the free grammar school at Sevenoaks in
Kent. In 1710 he resigned his appointment in the expectation of a place
from Lord Bolingbroke, but was disappointed. He then became tutor to
Lord Broghill, son of his patron Orrery. Fenton is remembered as the
coadjutor of Alexander Pope in his translation of the _Odyssey_. He was
responsible for the first, fourth, nineteenth and twentieth books, for
which he received L300. He died at East Hampstead, Berkshire, on the
16th of July 1730. He was buried in the parish church, and his epitaph
was written by Pope.
Fenton also published _Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems_ (1707);
_Miscellaneous Poems_ (1717); _Mariamne_, a tragedy (1723); an edition
(1725) of Milton's poems, and one of Waller (1729) with elaborate
notes. See W.W. Lloyd, _Elijah Fenton, his Poetry and Friends_ (1894).
FENTON, SIR GEOFFREY (c. 1539-1608), English writer and politician, was
the son of Henry Fenton, of Nottinghamshire. He was brother of Edward
Fenton the navigator. He is said to have visited Spain and Italy in his
youth; possibly he went to Paris in Sir Thomas Hoby's train in 1566, for
he was living there in 1567, when he wrote _Certaine tragicall
discourses written oute of Frenche and Latin_. This book is a free
translation of Francois de Belleforest's French rendering of Matteo
Bandello's _Novelle_. Till 1579 Fenton continued his literary labours,
publishing _Monophylo_ in 1572, _Golden epistles gathered out of
Guevarae's workes as other authors_ ... 1575, and various religious
tracts of strong protestant tendencies. In 1579 appeared the _Historie
of Guicciardini, translated out of French by G.F._ and dedicated to
Elizabeth. Through Lord Burghley he obtained, in 1580, the post of
secretary to the new lord deputy of Ireland, Lord Grey de Wilton, and
thus became a fellow worker with the poet, Edmund Spenser. From this
time Fenton abandoned literature and became a faithful if somewhat
unscrupulous servant of the crown. He was a bigoted protestant, longing
to use the rack against "the diabolicall secte of Rome," and even
advocating the assassination of the queen's most dangerous subjects. He
won Elizabeth's confidence, and the hatred of all his fellow-workers, by
keeping her informed of every one's doings in Ireland. In 1587 Sir John
Perrot arrested Fenton, but the queen instantly ordered his release.
Fenton was knighted in 1589, and in 1590-1591 he was in London as
commissioner on the impeachment of Perrot. Full of dislike of the Scots
and of James VI. (which he did not scruple to utter), on the latter's
accession Fenton's post of secretary was in danger, but Burghley exerted
himself in his favour, and in 1604 it was confirmed to him for life,
though he had to share it with Sir Richard Coke. Fenton died in Dublin
on the 19th of October 1608, and was buried in St Patrick's cathedral.
He married in June 1585, Alice, daughter of Dr Robert Weston, formerly
lord chancellor of Ireland, and widow of Dr Hugh Brady, bishop of Meath,
by whom he had two children, a son, Sir William Fenton, and a daughter,
Catherine, who in 1603 married Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Harl. Soc. publications, vol. iv., Visitation of
Nottinghamshire, 1871; Roy. Hist. MSS. Comm. (particularly Hatfield
collection); Calendar of State papers, Ireland (very full), domestic,
Carew papers; Lismore papers, ed. A.B. Grosart (1886-1888); _Certaine
tragicall Discourses_, ed. R.L. Douglas (2 vols., 1898), Tudor
Translation series, vols. xix., xx. (introd.).
FENTON, LAVINIA (1708-1760), English actress, was probably the daughter
of a naval lieutenant named Beswick, but she bore the name of her
mother's husband. Her first appearance was as Monimia in Otway's
_Orphans_, in 1726 at the Haymarket. She then joined the company of
players at the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where her success and
beauty made her the toast of the beaux. It was in Gay's _Beggar's
Opera_, as Polly Peachum, that Miss Fenton made her greatest success.
Her pictures were in great demand, verses were written to her and books
published about her, and she was the most talked-of person in London.
Hogarth's picture shows her in one of the scenes, with the duke of
Bolton in a box. After appearing in several comedies, and then in
numerous repetitions of the _Beggar's Opera_, she ran away with her
lover Charles Paulet, 3rd duke of Bolton, a man much older than herself,
who, after the death of his wife in 1751, married her. Their three
children all died young. The duchess survived her husband and died on
the 24th of January 1760.
FENTON, a town of Staffordshire, England, on the North Staffordshire
railway, adjoining the east side of Stoke-on-Trent, in which
parliamentary and municipal borough it is included. Pop. (1891) 16,998;
(1901) 22,742. The manufacture of earthenware common to the district
(the Potteries) employs the bulk of the large industrial population.
FENUGREEK, in botany, _Trigonella Foenum-graecum_ (so called from the
name given to it by the ancients, who used it as fodder for cattle), a
member of a genus of leguminous herbs very similar in habit and in most
of their characters to the species of the genus _Medicago_. The leaves
are formed of three obovate leaflets, the middle one of which is
stalked; the flowers are solitary, or in clusters of two or three, and
have a campanulate, 5-cleft calyx; and the pods are many-seeded,
cylindrical or flattened, and straight or only slightly curved. The
genus is widely diffused over the south of Europe, West and Central
Asia, and the north of Africa, and is represented by several species in
Australia. Fenugreek is indigenous to south-eastern Europe and western
Asia, and is cultivated in the Mediterranean region, parts of central
Europe, and in Morocco, and largely in Egypt and in India. It bears a
sickle-shaped pod, containing from 10 to 20 seeds, from which 6% of a
fetid, fatty and bitter oil can be extracted by ether. In India the
fresh plant is employed as an esculent. The seed is an ingredient in
curry powders, and is used for flavouring cattle foods. It was formerly
much esteemed as a medicine, and is still in repute in veterinary
practice.
FENWICK, SIR JOHN (c. 1645-1697), English conspirator, was the eldest
son of Sir William Fenwick, or Fenwicke, a member of an old
Northumberland family. He entered the army, becoming major-general in
1688, but before this date he had been returned in succession to his
father as one of the members of parliament for Northumberland, which
county he represented from 1677 to 1687. He was a strong partisan of
King James II., and in 1685 was one of the principal supporters of the
act of attainder against the duke of Monmouth; but he remained in
England when William III. ascended the throne three years later. He
began at once to plot against the new king, for which he underwent a
short imprisonment in 1689. Renewing his plots on his release, he
publicly insulted Queen Mary in 1691, and it is practically certain that
he was implicated in the schemes for assassinating William which came to
light in 1695 and 1696. After the seizure of his fellow-conspirators,
Robert Charnock and others, he remained in hiding until the imprudent
conduct of his friends in attempting to induce one of the witnesses
against him to leave the country led to his arrest in June in 1696. To
save himself he offered to reveal all he knew about the Jacobite
conspiracies; but his confession was a farce, being confined to charges
against some of the leading Whig noblemen, which were damaging, but not
conclusive. By this time his friends had succeeded in removing one of
the two witnesses, and in these circumstances it was thought that the
charge of treason must fail. The government, however, overcame this
difficulty by introducing a bill of attainder, which after a long and
acrimonious discussion passed through both Houses of Parliament. His
wife persevered in her attempts to save his life, but her efforts were
fruitless, and Fenwick was beheaded in London on the 28th of January
1697, with the same formalities as were usually observed at the
execution of a peer. By his wife, Mary (d. 1708), daughter of Charles
Howard, 1st earl of Carlisle, he had three sons and one daughter.
Macaulay says that "of all the Jacobites, the most desperate characters
not excepted, he (Fenwick) was the only one for whom William felt an
intense personal aversion"; and it is interesting to note that Fenwick's
hatred of the king is said to date from the time when he was serving in
Holland, and was reprimanded by William, then prince of Orange.
FEOFFMENT, in English law, during the feudal period, the usual method of
granting or conveying a freehold or fee. For the derivation of the word
see FIEF and FEE. The essential elements were _livery of seisin_
(delivery of possession), which consisted in formally giving to the
feoffee on the land a clod or turf, or a growing twig, as a symbol of
the transfer of the land, and words by the feoffor declaratory of his
intent to deliver possession to the feoffee with a "limitation" of the
estate intended to be transferred. This was called livery _in deed_.
Livery _in law_ was made not on but in sight of this land, the feoffor
saying to the feoffee, "I give you that land; enter and take
possession." Livery in law, in order to pass the estate, had to be
perfected by entry by the feoffee during the joint lives of himself and
the feoffor. It was usual to evidence the feoffment by writing in a
charter or deed of feoffment; but writing was not essential until the
Statute of Frauds; now, by the Real Property Act 1845, a conveyance of
real property is void unless evidenced by deed, and thus feoffments
have been rendered unnecessary and superfluous. All corporeal
hereditaments were by that act declared to be _in grant_ as well as
_livery_, i.e. they could be granted by deed without livery. A feoffment
might be a tortious conveyance, _i.e._ if a person attempted to give to
the feoffee a greater estate than he himself had in the land, he
forfeited the estate of which he was seised. (See CONVEYANCING; REAL
PROPERTY.)
FERDINAND (Span. _Fernando_ or _Hernando_; Ital. _Ferdinando_ or
_Ferrante_; in O.H. Ger. _Herinand_, i.e. "brave in the host," from
O.H.G. Heri, "army," A.S. _here_, Mod. Ger. _Heer_, and the Goth,
_nanthjan_, "to dare"), a name borne at various times by many European
sovereigns and princes, the more important of whom are noticed below in
the following order: emperors, kings of Naples, Portugal, Spain
(Castile, Leon and Aragon) and the two Sicilies; then the grand duke of
Tuscany, the prince of Bulgaria, the duke of Brunswick and the elector
of Cologne.
FERDINAND I. (1503-1564), Roman emperor, was born at Alcala de Henares
on the 10th of March 1503, his father being Philip the Handsome, son of
the emperor Maximilian I., and his mother Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand
and Isabella, king and queen of Castile and Aragon. Philip died in 1506
and Ferdinand, educated in Spain, was regarded with especial favour by
his maternal grandfather who wished to form a Spanish-Italian kingdom
for his namesake. This plan came to nothing, and the same fate attended
a suggestion made after the death of Maximilian in 1519 that Ferdinand,
and not his elder brother Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles V.,
should succeed to the imperial throne. Charles, however, secured the
Empire and the whole of the lands of Maximilian and Ferdinand, while the
younger brother was perforce content with a subordinate position. Yet
some provision must be made for Ferdinand. In April 1521 the emperor
granted to him the archduchies and duchies of upper and lower Austria,
Carinthia, Styria and Carniola, adding soon afterwards the county of
Tirol and the hereditary possessions of the Habsburgs in south-western
Germany. About the same time the archduke was appointed to govern the
duchy of Wurttemberg, which had come into the possession of Charles V.;
and in May 1521 he was married at Linz to Anna (d. 1547), a daughter of
Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohemia, a union which had been arranged
some years before by the emperor Maximilian. In 1521 also he was made
president of the council of regency (_Reichsregiment_), appointed to
govern Germany during the emperor's absence, and the next five years
were occupied with imperial business, in which he acted as his brother's
representative, and in the government of the Austrian lands.
In Austria and the neighbouring duchies Ferdinand sought at first to
suppress the reformers and their teaching, and this was possibly one
reason why he had some difficulty in quelling risings in the districts
under his rule after the Peasants' War broke out in 1524. But a new
field was soon opened for his ambition. In August 1526 his childless
brother-in-law, Louis II., king of Hungary and Bohemia, was killed at
the battle of Mohacs, and the archduke at once claimed both kingdoms,
both by treaty and by right of his wife. Taking advantage of the
divisions among his opponents, he was chosen king of Bohemia in October
1526, and crowned at Prague in the following February, but in Hungary he
was less successful. John Zapolya, supported by the national party and
soon afterwards by the Turks, offered a sturdy resistance, and although
Ferdinand was chosen king at Pressburg in December 1526, and after
defeating Zapolya at Tokay was crowned at Stuhlweissenburg in November
1527, he was unable to take possession of the kingdom. The Bavarian
Wittelsbachs, incensed at not securing the Bohemian throne, were
secretly intriguing with his foes; the French, after assisting
spasmodically, made a formal alliance with Turkey in 1535; and Zapolya
was a very useful centre round which the enemies of the Habsburgs were
not slow to gather. A truce made in 1533 was soon broken, and the war
dragged on until 1538, when by the treaty of Grosswardein, Hungary was
divided between the claimants. The kingly title was given to Zapolya,
but Ferdinand was to follow him on the throne. Before this, in January
1531, he had been chosen king of the Romans, or German king, at Cologne,
and his coronation took place a few days later at Aix-la-Chapelle. He
had thoroughly earned this honour by his loyalty to his brother, whom he
had represented at several diets. In religious matters the king was now
inclined, probably owing to the Turkish danger, to steer a middle course
between the contending parties, and in 1532 he agreed to the religious
peace of Nuremberg, receiving in return from the Protestants some
assistance for the war against the Turks. In 1534, however, his prestige
suffered a severe rebuff. Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and his associates
had succeeded in conquering Wurttemberg on behalf of its exiled duke,
Ulrich (q.v.), and, otherwise engaged, neither Charles nor Ferdinand
could send much help to their lieutenants. They were consequently
obliged to consent to the treaty of Cadan, made in June 1534, by which
the German king recognized Ulrich as duke of Wurttemberg, on condition
that he held his duchy under Austrian suzerainty.
In Hungary the peace of 1538 was not permanent. When Zapolya died in
July 1540 a powerful faction refused to admit the right of Ferdinand to
succeed him, and put forward his young son John Sigismund as a candidate
for the throne. The cause of John Sigismund was espoused by the Turks
and by Ferdinand's other enemies, and, unable to get any serious
assistance from the imperial diet, the king repeatedly sought to make
peace with the sultan, but his envoys were haughtily repulsed. In 1544,
however, a short truce was made. This was followed by others, and in
1547 one was concluded for five years, but only on condition that
Ferdinand paid tribute for the small part of Hungary which remained in
his hands. The struggle was renewed in 1551 and was continued in the
same desultory fashion until 1562, when a truce was made which lasted
during the remainder of Ferdinand's lifetime. During the war of the
league of Schmalkalden in 1546 and 1547 the king had taken the field
primarily to protect Bohemia, and after the conclusion of the war he put
down a rising in this country with some rigour. He appears during these
years to have governed his lands with vigour and success, but in
imperial politics he was merely the representative and spokesman of the
emperor. About 1546, however, he began to take up a more independent
position. Although Charles had crushed the league of Schmalkalden he had
refused to restore Wurttemberg to Ferdinand; and he gave further offence
by seeking to secure the succession of his son Philip, afterwards king
of Spain, to the imperial throne. Ferdinand naturally objected, but in
1551 his reluctant consent was obtained to the plan that, on the
proposed abdication of Charles, Philip should be chosen king of the
Romans, and should succeed Ferdinand himself as emperor. Subsequent
events caused the scheme to be dropped, but it had a somewhat
unfortunate sequel for Charles, as during the short war between the
emperor and Maurice, elector of Saxony, in 1552 Ferdinand's attitude was
rather that of a spectator and mediator than of a partisan. There seems,
however, to be no truth in the suggestion that he acted treacherously
towards his brother, and was in alliance with his foes. On behalf of
Charles he negotiated the treaty of Passau with Maurice in 1552, and in
1555 after the conduct of imperial business had virtually been made over
to him, and harmony had been restored between the brothers, he was
responsible for the religious peace of Augsburg. Early in 1558 Charles
carried out his intention to abdicate the imperial throne, and on the
24th of March Ferdinand was crowned as his successor at Frankfort. Pope
Paul IV. would not recognize the new emperor, but his successor Pius IV.
did so in 1559 through the mediation of Philip of Spain. The emperor's
short reign was mainly spent in seeking to settle the religious
differences of Germany, and in efforts to prosecute the Turkish war more
vigorously. His hopes at one time centred round the council of Trent
which resumed its sittings in 1562, but he was unable to induce the
Protestants to be represented. Although he held firmly to the Roman
Catholic Church he sought to obtain tangible concessions to her
opponents; but he refused to conciliate the Protestants by abrogating
the clause concerning ecclesiastical reservation in the peace of
Augsburg, and all his efforts to bring about reunion were futile. He did
indeed secure the privilege of communion in both kinds from Pius IV. for
the laity in Bohemia and in various parts of Germany, but the hearty
support which he gave the Jesuits shows that he had no sympathy with
Protestantism, and was only anxious to restore union in the Church. In
November 1562 he obtained the election of his son Maximilian as king of
the Romans, and having arranged a partition of his lands among his three
surviving sons, died in Vienna on the 25th of July 1564. His family had
consisted of six sons and nine daughters.
In spite of constant and harassing engagements Ferdinand was fairly
successful both as king and emperor. He sought to consolidate his
Austrian lands, reformed the monetary system in Germany, and reorganized
the Aulic council (_Reichshofrat_). Less masterful but more popular than
his brother, whose character overshadows his own, he was just and
tolerant, a good Catholic and a conscientious ruler.
See the article on CHARLES V. and the bibliography appended thereto.
Also, A. Ulloa, _Vita del potentissimo e christianissimo imperatore
Ferdinando primo_ (Venice, 1565); S. Schard, _Epitome rerum in variis
orbis partibus a confirmatione Ferdinandi I_. (Basel, 1574); F.B. von
Bucholtz_, Geschichte der Regierung Ferdinands des Ersten_ (Vienna,
1831-1838); K. Oberleitner, _Osterreichs Finanzen und Kriegswesen
unter Ferdinand I_. (Vienna, 1859); A. Rezek, _Geschichte der
Regierung Ferdinands I. in Bohmen_ (Prague, 1878); E. Rosenthal, _Die
Behordenorganisation Kaiser Ferdinands I_. (Vienna, 1887); and W.
Bauer, _Die Anfange Ferdinands I_. (Vienna, 1907).
FERDINAND II. (1578-1637), Roman emperor, was the eldest son of Charles,
archduke of Styria (d. 1590), and his wife Maria, daughter of Albert
IV., duke of Bavaria and a grandson of the emperor Ferdinand I. Born at
Gratz on the 9th of July 1578, he was trained by the Jesuits, finishing
his education at the university of Ingolstadt, and became the pattern
prince of the counter-reformation. In 1596 he undertook the government
of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, and after a visit to Italy began an
organized attack on Protestantism which under his father's rule had made
great progress in these archduchies; and although hampered by the
inroads of the Turks, he showed his indifference to the material welfare
of his dominions by compelling many of his Protestant subjects to choose
between exile and conversion, and by entirely suppressing Protestant
worship. He was not, however, unmindful of the larger interest of his
family, or of the Empire which the Habsburgs regarded as belonging to
them by hereditary right. In 1606 he joined his kinsmen in recognizing
his cousin Matthias as the head of the family in place of the lethargic
Rudolph II.; but he shrank from any proceedings which might lead to the
deposition of the emperor, whom he represented at the diet of Regensburg
in 1608; and his conduct was somewhat ambiguous during the subsequent
quarrel between Rudolph and Matthias.
In the first decade of the 17th century the house of Habsburg seemed
overtaken by senile decay, and the great inheritance of Charles V. and
Ferdinand I. to be threatened with disintegration and collapse. The
reigning emperor, Rudolph II., was inert and childless; his surviving
brothers, the archduke Matthias (afterwards emperor), Maximilian
(1558-1618) and Albert (1559-1621), all men of mature age, were also
without direct heirs; the racial differences among its subjects were
increased by their religious animosities; and it appeared probable that
the numerous enemies of the Habsburgs had only to wait a few years and
then to divide the spoil. In spite of the recent murder of Henry IV. of
France, this issue seemed still more likely when Matthias succeeded
Rudolph as emperor in 1612. The Habsburgs, however, were not indifferent
to the danger, and about 1615 it was agreed that Ferdinand, who already
had two sons by his marriage with his cousin Maria Anna (d. 1616),
daughter of William V., duke of Bavaria, should be the next emperor, and
should succeed Matthias in the elective kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia.
The obstacles which impeded the progress of the scheme were gradually
overcome by the energy of the archduke Maximilian. The elder archdukes
renounced their rights in the succession; the claims of Philip III. and
the Spanish Habsburgs were bought off by a promise of Alsace; and the
emperor consented to his supercession in Hungary and Bohemia. In 1617
Ferdinand, who was just concluding a war with Venice, was chosen king of
Bohemia, and in 1618 king of Hungary; but his election as German king,
or king of the Romans, delayed owing to the anxiety of Melchior Klesl
(q.v.) to conciliate the protestant princes, had not been accomplished
when Matthias died in March 1619. Before this event, however, an
important movement had begun in Bohemia. Having been surprised into
choosing a devoted Roman Catholic as their king, the Bohemian
Protestants suddenly realized that their religious, and possibly their
civil liberties, were seriously menaced, and deeds of aggression on the
part of Ferdinand's representatives showed that this was no idle fear.
Gaining the upper hand they declared Ferdinand deposed, and elected the
elector palatine of the Rhine, Frederick V., in his stead; and the
struggle between the rivals was the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
At the same time other difficulties confronted Ferdinand, who had not
yet secured the imperial throne. Bethlen Gabor, prince of Transylvania,
invaded Hungary, while the Austrians rose and joined the Bohemians; but
having seen his foes retreat from Vienna, Ferdinand hurried to
Frankfort, where he was chosen emperor on the 28th of August 1619.
To deal with the elector palatine and his allies the new emperor allied
himself with Maximilian I., duke of Bavaria, and the Catholic League,
who drove Frederick from Bohemia in 1620, while Ferdinand's Spanish
allies devastated the Palatinate. Peace having been made with Bethlen
Gabor in December 1621, the first period of the war ended in a
satisfactory fashion for the emperor, and he could turn his attention to
completing the work of crushing the Protestants, which had already begun
in his archduchies and in Bohemia. In 1623 the Protestant clergy were
expelled from Bohemia; in 1624 all worship save that of the Roman
Catholic church was forbidden; and in 1627 an order of banishment
against all Protestants was issued. A new constitution made the kingdom
hereditary in the house of Habsburg, gave larger powers to the
sovereign, and aimed at destroying the nationality of the Bohemians.
Similar measures in Austria led to a fresh rising which was put down by
the aid of the Bavarians in 1627, and Ferdinand could fairly claim that
in his hereditary lands at least he had rendered Protestantism
innocuous.
The renewal of the Thirty Years' War in 1625 was caused mainly by the
emperor's vigorous championship of the cause of the counter-reformation
in northern and north-eastern Germany. Again the imperial forces were
victorious, chiefly owing to the genius of Wallenstein, who raised and
led an army in this service, although the great scheme of securing the
southern coast of the Baltic for the Habsburgs was foiled partly by the
resistance of Stralsund. In March 1629 Ferdinand and his advisers felt
themselves strong enough to take the important step towards which their
policy in the Empire had been steadily tending. Issuing the famous edict
of restitution, the emperor ordered that all lands which had been
secularized since 1552, the date of the peace of Passau, should be
restored to the church, and prompt measures were taken to enforce this
decree. Many and powerful interests were vitally affected by this
proceeding, and the result was the outbreak of the third period of the
war, which was less favourable to the imperial arms than the preceding
ones. This comparative failure was due, in the initial stages of the
campaign, to Ferdinand's weakness in assenting in 1630 to the demand of
Maximilian of Bavaria that Wallenstein should be deprived of his
command, and also to the genius of Gustavus Adolphus; and in its later
stages to his insistence on the second removal of Wallenstein, and to
his complicity in the assassination of the general. This deed was
followed by the peace of Prague, concluded in 1635, primarily with John
George I., elector of Saxony, but soon assented to by other princes; and
this treaty, which made extensive concessions to the Protestants, marks
the definite failure of Ferdinand to crush Protestantism in the Empire,
as he had already done in Austria and Bohemia. It is noteworthy,
however, that the emperor refused to allow the inhabitants of his
hereditary dominions to share in the benefits of the peace. During these
years Ferdinand had also been menaced by the secret or open hostility of
France. A dispute over the duchies of Mantua and Monferrato was ended
by the treaty of Cherasco in 1631, but the influence of France was
employed at the imperial diets and elsewhere in thwarting the plans of
Ferdinand and in weakening the power of the Habsburgs. The last
important act of the emperor was to secure the election of his son
Ferdinand as king of the Romans. An attempt in 1630 to attain this end
had failed, but in December 1636 the princes, meeting at Regensburg,
bestowed the coveted dignity upon the younger Ferdinand. A few weeks
afterwards, on the 15th of February 1637, the emperor died at Vienna,
leaving, in addition to the king of the Romans, a son Leopold William
(1614-1662), bishop of Passau and Strassburg. Ferdinand's reign was so
occupied with the Thirty Years' War and the struggle with the
Protestants that he had little time or inclination for other business.
It is interesting to note, however, that this orthodox and Catholic
emperor was constantly at variance with Pope Urban VIII. The quarrel was
due principally, but not entirely, to events in Italy, where the pope
sided with France in the dispute over the succession to Mantua and
Monferrato. The succession question was settled, but the enmity
remained; Urban showing his hostility by preventing the election of the
younger Ferdinand as king of the Romans in 1630, and by turning a deaf
ear to the emperor's repeated requests for assistance to prosecute the
war against the heretics. Ferdinand's character has neither
individuality nor interest, but he ruled the Empire during a critical
and important period. Kind and generous to his dependents, his private
life was simple and blameless, but he was to a great extent under the
influence of his confessors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The chief authorities for Ferdinand's life and reign
are F.C. Khevenhiller, _Annales Ferdinandei_ (Regensburg, 1640-1646);
F. van Hurter, _Geschichte Kaiser Ferdinands II_. (Schaffhausen,
1850-1855); _Korrespondenz Kaiser Ferdinands II. mit P. Becanus und
P.W. Lamormaini_, edited by B. Dudik (Vienna, 1848 fol.); and F.
Stieve, in the _Allegmeine deutsche Biographie_, Band vi. (Leipzig,
1877). See also the elaborate bibliography in the _Cambridge Modern
History_, vol. iv. (Cambridge, 1906).
FERDINAND III. (1608-1657), Roman emperor, was the elder son of the
emperor Ferdinand II., and was born at Gratz on the 13th of July 1608.
Educated by the Jesuits, he was crowned king of Hungary in December
1625, and king of Bohemia two years later, and soon began to take part
in imperial business. Wallenstein, however, refused to allow him to hold
a command in the imperial army; and henceforward reckoned among his
enemies, the young king was appointed the successor of the famous
general when he was deposed in 1634; and as commander-in-chief of the
imperial troops he was nominally responsible for the capture of
Regensburg and Donauworth, and the defeat of the Swedes at Nordlingen.
Having been elected king of the Romans, or German king, at Regensburg in
December 1636, Ferdinand became emperor on his father's death in the
following February, and showed himself anxious to put an end to the
Thirty Years' War. He persuaded one or two princes to assent to the
terms of the treaty of Prague; but a general peace was delayed by his
reluctance to grant religious liberty to the Protestants, and by his
anxiety to act in unison with Spain. In 1640 he had refused to entertain
the idea of a general amnesty suggested by the diet at Regensburg; but
negotiations for peace were soon begun, and in 1648 the emperor assented
to the treaty of Westphalia. This event belongs rather to the general
history of Europe, but it is interesting to note that owing to
Ferdinand's insistence the Protestants in his hereditary dominions did
not obtain religious liberty at this settlement. After 1648 the emperor
was engaged in carrying out the terms of the treaty and ridding Germany
of the foreign soldiery. In 1656 he sent an army into Italy to assist
Spain in her struggle with France, and he had just concluded an alliance
with Poland to check the aggressions of Charles X, of Sweden when he
died on the 2nd of April 1657. Ferdinand was a scholarly and cultured
man, an excellent linguist and a composer of music. Industrious and
popular in public life, his private life was blameless; and although a
strong Roman Catholic he was less fanatical than his father. His first
wife was Maria Anna (d. 1646), daughter of Philip III. of Spain, by whom
he had three sons: Ferdinand, who was chosen king of the Romans in
1653, and who died in the following year; Leopold, who succeeded his
father on the imperial throne; and Charles Joseph (d. 1664), bishop of
Passau and Breslau, and grand-master of the Teutonic order. The
emperor's second wife was his cousin Maria (d. 1649), daughter of the
archduke Leopold; and his third wife was Eleanora of Mantua (d. 1686).
His musical works, together with those of the emperors Leopold I. and
Joseph I., have been published by G. Adler (Vienna, 1892-1893).
See M. Koch, _Geschichte des deutschen Reiches unter der Regierung
Ferdinands III_. (Vienna, 1865-1866).
FERDINAND I. (1793-1875), emperor of Austria, eldest son of Francis I.
and of Maria Theresa of Naples, was born at Vienna on the 19th of April
1793. In his boyhood he suffered from epileptic fits, and could
therefore not receive a regular education. As his health improved with
his growth and with travel, he was not set aside from the succession. In
1830 his father caused him to be crowned king of Hungary, a pure
formality, which gave him no power, and was designed to avoid possible
trouble in the future. In 1831 he was married to Anna, daughter of
Victor Emmanuel I. of Sardinia. The marriage was barren. When Francis I.
died on the 2nd of March 1835, Ferdinand was recognized as his
successor. But his incapacity was so notorious that the conduct of
affairs was entrusted to a council of state, consisting of Prince
Metternich (q.v.) with other ministers, and two archdukes, Louis and
Francis Charles. They composed the _Staatsconferenz_, the
ill-constructed and informal regency which led the Austrian dominions to
the revolutionary outbreaks of 1846-1849. (See AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.) The
emperor, who was subject to fits of actual insanity, and in his lucid
intervals was weak and confused in mind, was a political nullity. His
personal amiability earned him the affectionate pity of his subjects,
and he became the hero of popular stories which did not tend to maintain
the dignity of the crown. It was commonly said that having taken refuge
on a rainy day in a farmhouse he was so tempted by the smell of the
dumplings which the farmer and his family were eating for dinner, that
he insisted on having one. His doctor, who knew them to be indigestible,
objected, and thereupon Ferdinand, in an imperial rage, made the
answer:--"Kaiser bin i', und Knudel muss i' haben" (I am emperor, and
will have the dumpling)--which has become a Viennese proverb. His
popular name of _Der Gutige_ (the good sort of man) expressed as much
derision as affection. Ferdinand had good taste for art and music. Some
modification of the tight-handed rule of his father was made by the
_Staatsconferenz_ during his reign. In the presence of the revolutionary
troubles, which began with agrarian riots in Galicia in 1846, and then
spread over the whole empire, he was personally helpless. He was
compelled to escape from the disorders of Vienna to Innsbruck on the
17th of May 1848. He came back on the invitation of the diet on the 12th
of August, but soon had to escape once more from the mob of students and
workmen who were in possession of the city. On the 2nd of December he
abdicated at Olmutz in favour of his nephew, Francis Joseph. He lived
under supervision by doctors and guardians at Prague till his death on
the 29th of June 1855.
See Krones von Marchland, _Grundriss der osterreichischen Geschichte_
(Vienna, 1882), which gives an ample bibliography; Count F. Hartig,
_Genesis der Revolution in Osterreich_ (Leipzig, 1850),--an enlarged
English translation will be found in the 4th volume of W. Coxe's
_House of Austria_ (London, 1862).
FERDINAND I. (1423-1494), also called Don Ferrante, king of Naples, the
natural son of Alphonso V. of Aragon and I. of Sicily and Naples, was
horn in 1423. In accordance with his father's will, he succeeded him on
the throne of Naples in 1458, but Pope Calixtus III. declared the line
of Aragon extinct and the kingdom a fief of the church. But although he
died before he could make good his claim (August 1458), and the new Pope
Pius II. recognized Ferdinand, John of Anjou, profiting by the
discontent of the Neapolitan barons, decided to try to regain the throne
conquered by his ancestors, and invaded Naples. Ferdinand was severely
defeated by the Angevins and the rebels at Sarno in July 1460, but with
the help of Alessandro Sforza and of the Albanian chief, Skanderbeg,
who chivalrously came to the aid of the prince whose father had aided
him, he triumphed over his enemies, and by 1464 had re-established his
authority in the kingdom. In 1478 he allied himself with Pope Sixtus IV.
against Lorenzo de' Medici, but the latter journeyed alone to Naples
when he succeeded in negotiating an honourable peace with Ferdinand. In
1480 the Turks captured Otranto, and massacred the majority of the
inhabitants, but in the following year it was retaken by his son
Alphonso, duke of Calabria. His oppressive government led in 1485 to an
attempt at revolt on the part of the nobles, led by Francesca Coppola
and Antonello Sanseverino and supported by Pope Innocent VIII.; the
rising having been crushed, many of the nobles, notwithstanding
Ferdinand's promise of a general amnesty, were afterwards treacherously
murdered at his express command. In 1493 Charles VIII. of France was
preparing to invade Italy for the conquest of Naples, and Ferdinand
realized that this was a greater danger than any he had yet faced. With
almost prophetic instinct he warned the Italian princes of the
calamities in store for them, but his negotiations with Pope Alexander
VI. and Ludovico il Moro, lord of Milan, having failed, he died in
January 1494, worn out with anxiety. Ferdinand was gifted with great
courage and real political ability, but his method of government was
vicious and disastrous. His financial administration was based on
oppressive and dishonest monopolies, and he was mercilessly severe and
utterly treacherous towards his enemies.
AUTHORITIES.--_Codice Aragonese_, edited by F. Trinchera (Naples,
1866-1874); P. Giannone, _Istoria Civile del Regno di Napoli_; J.
Alvini, _De gestis regum Neapol. ab Aragonia_ (Naples, 1588); S. de
Sismondi, _Histoire des republiques italiennes_, vols. v. and vi.
(Brussels, 1838); P. Villari, _Machiavelli_, pp. 60-64 (Engl. transl.,
London, 1892); for the revolt of the nobles in 1485 see Camillo
Porzio, _La Congiura dei Baroni_ (first published Rome, 1565; many
subsequent editions), written in the Royalist interest. (L. V.*)
FERDINAND II. (1469-1496), king of Naples, was the grandson of the
preceding, and son of Alphonso II. Alphonso finding his tenure of the
throne uncertain on account of the approaching invasion of Charles VIII.
of France and the general dissatisfaction of his subjects, abdicated in
his son's favour in 1495, but notwithstanding this the treason of a
party in Naples rendered it impossible to defend the city against the
approach of Charles VIII. Ferdinand fled to Ischia; but when the French
king left Naples with most of his army, in consequence of the formation
of an Italian league against him, he returned, defeated the French
garrisons, and the Neapolitans, irritated by the conduct of their
conquerors during the occupation of the city, received him back with
enthusiasm; with the aid of the great Spanish general Gonzalo de Cordova
he was able completely to rid his state of its invaders shortly before
his death, which occurred on the 7th of September 1496.
For authorities see under FERDINAND I. of Naples; for the exploits of
Gonzalo de Cordova see H.P. del Pulgar, _Cronica del gran capitano don
Gonzalo de Cordoba_ (new ed., Madrid, 1834).
FERDINAND IV. (1751-1825), king of Naples (III. of Sicily, and I. of the
Two Sicilies), third son of Don Carlos of Bourbon, king of Naples and
Sicily (afterwards Charles III. of Spain), was born in Naples on the
12th of January 1751. When his father ascended the Spanish throne in
1759 Ferdinand, in accordance with the treaties forbidding the union of
the two crowns, succeeded him as king of Naples, under a regency
presided over by the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci. The latter, an able,
ambitious man, wishing to keep the government as much as possible in his
own hands, purposely neglected the young king's education, and
encouraged him in his love of pleasure, his idleness and his excessive
devotion to outdoor sports. Ferdinand grew up athletic, but ignorant,
ill-bred, addicted to the lowest amusements; he delighted in the company
of the _lazzaroni_ (the most degraded class of the Neapolitan people),
whose dialect and habits he affected, and he even sold fish in the
market, haggling over the price.
His minority ended in 1767, and his first act was the expulsion of the
Jesuits. The following year he married Maria Carolina, daughter of the
empress Maria Theresa. By the marriage contract the queen was to have a
voice in the council of state after the birth of her first son, and she
was not slow to avail herself of this means of political influence.
Beautiful, clever and proud, like her mother, but cruel and treacherous,
her ambition was to raise the kingdom of Naples to the position of a
great power; she soon came to exercise complete sway over her stupid and
idle husband, and was the real ruler of the kingdom. Tanucci, who
attempted to thwart her, was dismissed in 1777, and the Englishman Sir
John Acton (1736), who in 1779 was appointed director of marine,
succeeded in so completely winning the favour of Maria Carolina, by
supporting her in her scheme to free Naples from Spanish influence and
securing a _rapprochement_ with Austria and England, that he became
practically and afterwards actually prime minister. Although not a mere
grasping adventurer, he was largely responsible for reducing the
internal administration of the country to an abominable system of
espionage, corruption and cruelty. On the outbreak of the French
Revolution the Neapolitan court was not hostile to the movement, and the
queen even sympathized with the revolutionary ideas of the day. But when
the French monarchy was abolished and the royal pair beheaded, Ferdinand
and Carolina were seized with a feeling of fear and horror and joined
the first coalition against France in 1793. Although peace was made with
France in 1796, the demands of the French Directory, whose troops
occupied Rome, alarmed the king once more, and at his wife's instigation
he took advantage of Napoleon's absence in Egypt and of Nelson's
victories to go to war. He marched with his army against the French and
entered Rome (29th of November), but on the defeat of some of his
columns he hurried back to Naples, and on the approach of the French,
fled on board Nelson's ship the "Vanguard" to Sicily, leaving his
capital in a state of anarchy. The French entered the city in spite of
the fierce resistance of the _lazzaroni_, who were devoted to the king,
and with the aid of the nobles and bourgeois established the
Parthenopaean Republic (January 1799). When a few weeks later the French
troops were recalled to the north of Italy, Ferdinand sent an expedition
composed of Calabrians, brigands and gaol-birds, under Cardinal Ruffo, a
man of real ability, great devotion to the king, and by no means so bad
as he has been painted, to reconquer the mainland kingdom. Ruffo was
completely successful, and reached Naples in May. His army and the
_lazzaroni_ committed nameless atrocities, which he honestly tried to
prevent, and the Parthenopaean Republic collapsed.
The savage punishment of the Neapolitan Republicans is dealt with in
more detail under NAPLES, NELSON and CARACCIOLO, but it is necessary to
say here that the king, and above all the queen, were particularly
anxious that no mercy should be shown to the rebels, and Maria Carolina
made use of Lady Hamilton, Nelson's mistress, to induce him to execute
her own spiteful vengeance. Her only excuse is that as a sister of Marie
Antoinette the very name of Republican or Jacobin filled her with
loathing. The king returned to Naples soon afterwards, and ordered
wholesale arrests and executions of supposed Liberals, which continued
until the French successes forced him to agree to a treaty in which
amnesty for members of the French party was included. When war broke out
between France and Austria in 1805, Ferdinand signed a treaty of
neutrality with the former, but a few days later he allied himself with
Austria and allowed an Anglo-Russian force to land at Naples. The French
victory at Austerlitz enabled Napoleon to despatch an army to southern
Italy. Ferdinand with his usual precipitation fled to Palermo (23rd of
January 1806), followed soon after by his wife and son, and on the 14th
of February the French again entered Naples. Napoleon declared that the
Bourbon dynasty had forfeited the crown, and proclaimed his brother
Joseph king of Naples and Sicily. But Ferdinand continued to reign over
the latter kingdom under British protection. Parliamentary institutions
of a feudal type had long existed in the island, and Lord William
Bentinck (q.v.), the British minister, insisted on a reform of the
constitution on English and French lines. The king indeed practically
abdicated his power, appointing his son Francis regent, and the queen,
at Bentinck's instance, was exiled to Austria, where she died in 1814.
After the fall of Napoleon, Joachim Murat, who had succeeded Joseph
Bonaparte as king of Naples in 1808, was dethroned, and Ferdinand
returned to Naples. By a secret treaty he had bound himself not to
advance further in a constitutional direction than Austria should at any
time approve; but, though on the whole he acted in accordance with
Metternich's policy of preserving the _status quo_, and maintained with
but slight change Murat's laws and administrative system, he took
advantage of the situation to abolish the Sicilian constitution, in
violation of his oath, and to proclaim the union of the two states into
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies (December 12th, 1816). He was now
completely subservient to Austria, an Austrian, Count Nugent, being even
made commander-in-chief of the army; and for four years he reigned as a
despot, every tentative effort at the expression of liberal opinion
being ruthlessly suppressed. The result was an alarming spread of the
influence and activity of the secret society of the Carbonari (q.v.),
which in time affected a large part of the army. In July 1820 a military
revolt broke out under General Pepe, and Ferdinand was terrorized into
subscribing a constitution on the model of the impracticable Spanish
constitution of 1812. On the other hand, a revolt in Sicily, in favour
of the recovery of its independence, was suppressed by Neapolitan
troops.
The success of the military revolution at Naples seriously alarmed the
powers of the Holy Alliance, who feared that it might spread to other
Italian states and so lead to that general European conflagration which
it was their main preoccupation to avoid (see EUROPE: _History_). After
long diplomatic negotiations, it was decided to hold a congress _ad hoc_
at Troppau (October 1820). The main results of this congress were the
issue of the famous Troppau Protocol, signed by Austria, Prussia and
Russia only, and an invitation to King Ferdinand to attend the adjourned
congress at Laibach (1821), an invitation of which Great Britain
approved "as implying negotiation" (see TROPPAU, LAIBACH, CONGRESSES
OF). At Laibach Ferdinand played so sorry a part as to provoke the
contempt of those whose policy it was to re-establish him in absolute
power. He had twice sworn, with gratuitous solemnity, to maintain the
new constitution; but he was hardly out of Naples before he repudiated
his oaths and, in letters addressed to all the sovereigns of Europe,
declared his acts to have been null and void. An attitude so indecent
threatened to defeat the very objects of the reactionary powers, and
Gentz congratulated the congress that these sorry protests would be
buried in the archives, offering at the same time to write for the king
a dignified letter in which he should express his reluctance at having
to violate his oaths in the face of irresistible force! But, under these
circumstances, Metternich had no difficulty in persuading the king to
allow an Austrian army to march into Naples "to restore order."
The campaign that followed did little credit either to the Austrians or
the Neapolitans. The latter, commanded by General Pepe (q.v.), who made
no attempt to defend the difficult defiles of the Abruzzi, were
defeated, after a half-hearted struggle at Rieti (March 7th, 1821), and
the Austrians entered Naples. The parliament was now dismissed, and
Ferdinand inaugurated an era of savage persecution, supported by spies
and informers, against the Liberals and Carbonari, the Austrian
commandant in vain protesting against the savagery which his presence
alone rendered possible.
Ferdinand died on the 4th of January 1825. Few sovereigns have left
behind so odious a memory. His whole career is one long record of
perjury, vengeance and meanness, unredeemed by a single generous act,
and his wife was a worthy helpmeet and actively co-operated in his
tyranny.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The standard authority on Ferdinand's reign is Pietro
Colletta's _Storia del Reame di Napoli_ (2nd ed., Florence, 1848),
which, although heavily written and not free from party passion, is
reliable and accurate; L. Conforti, _Napoli nel 1799_ (Naples, 1886);
G. Pepe, _Memorie_ (Paris, 1847), a most valuable book; C. Auriol, _La
France, l'Angleterre, et Naples_ (Paris, 1906); for the Sicilian
period and the British occupation, G. Bianco, _La Sicilia durante
l'occupazione Inglese_ (Palermo, 1902), which contains many new
documents of importance; Freiherr A. von Helfert has attempted the
impossible task of whitewashing Queen Carolina in his _Konigin
Karolina von Neapel und Sicilien_ (Vienna, 1878), and _Maria Karolina
von Oesterreich_ (Vienna, 1884); he has also written a useful life of
_Fabrizio Ruffo_ (Italian edit., Florence, 1885); for the Sicilian
revolution of 1820 see G. Bianco's _La Rivoluzione in Sicilia del
1820_ (Florence, 1905), and M. Amari's _Carteggio_ (Turin, 1896).
(L. V.*)
FERDINAND I., king of Portugal (1345-1383), sometimes referred to as _el
Gentil_ (the Gentleman), son of Pedro I. of Portugal (who is not to be
confounded with his Spanish contemporary Pedro the Cruel), succeeded his
father in 1367. On the death of Pedro of Castile in 1369, Ferdinand, as
great-grandson of Sancho IV. by the female line, laid claim to the
vacant throne, for which the kings of Aragon and Navarre, and afterwards
the duke of Lancaster (married in 1370 to Constance, the eldest daughter
of Pedro), also became competitors. Meanwhile Henry of Trastamara, the
brother (illegitimate) and conqueror of Pedro, had assumed the crown and
taken the field. After one or two indecisive campaigns, all parties were
ready to accept the mediation of Pope Gregory XI. The conditions of the
treaty, ratified in 1371, included a marriage between Ferdinand and
Leonora of Castile. But before the union could take place the former had
become passionately attached to Leonora Tellez, the wife of one of his
own courtiers, and having procured a dissolution of her previous
marriage, he lost no time in making her his queen. This strange conduct,
although it raised a serious insurrection in Portugal, did not at once
result in a war with Henry; but the outward concord was soon disturbed
by the intrigues of the duke of Lancaster, who prevailed on Ferdinand to
enter into a secret treaty for the expulsion of Henry from his throne.
The war which followed was unsuccessful; and peace was again made in
1373. On the death of Henry in 1379, the duke of Lancaster once more put
forward his claims, and again found an ally in Portugal; but, according
to the Continental annalists, the English proved as offensive to their
companions in arms as to their enemies in the field; and Ferdinand made
a peace for himself at Badajoz in 1382, it being stipulated that
Beatrix, the heiress of Ferdinand, should marry King John of Castile,
and thus secure the ultimate union of the crowns. Ferdinand left no male
issue when he died on the 22nd of October 1383, and the direct
Burgundian line, which had been in possession of the throne since the
days of Count Henry (about 1112), became extinct. The stipulations of
the treaty of Badajoz were set aside, and John, grand-master of the
order of Aviz, Ferdinand's illegitimate brother, was proclaimed. This
led to a war which lasted for several years.
FERDINAND I., _El Magno_ or "the Great," king of Castile (_d._ 1065),
son of Sancho of Navarre, was put in possession of Castile in 1028, on
the murder of the last count, as the heir of his mother Elvira, daughter
of a previous count of Castile. He reigned with the title of king. He
married Sancha, sister and heiress of Bermudo, king of Leon. In 1038
Bermudo was killed in battle with Ferdinand at Tamaron, and Ferdinand
then took possession of Leon by right of his wife, and was recognized in
Spain as emperor. The use of the title was resented by the emperor Henry
IV. and by Pope Victor II. in 1055, as implying a claim to the headship
of Christendom, and as a usurpation on the Holy Roman Empire. It did
not, however, mean more than that Spain was independent of the Empire,
and that the sovereign of Leon was the chief of the princes of the
peninsula. Although Ferdinand had grown in power by a fratricidal strife
with Bermudo of Leon, and though at a later date he defeated and killed
his brother Garcia of Navarre, he ranks high among the kings of Spain
who have been counted religious. To a large extent he may have owed his
reputation to the victories over the Mahommedans, with which he began
the period of the great reconquest. But there can be no doubt that
Ferdinand was profoundly pious. Towards the close of his reign he sent a
special embassy to Seville to bring back the body of Santa Justa. The
then king of Seville, Motadhid, one of the small princes who had divided
the caliphate of Cordova, was himself a sceptic and poisoner, but he
stood in wholesome awe of the power of the Christian king. He favoured
the embassy in every way, and when the body of Santa Justa could not be
found, helped the envoys who were also aided by a vision seen by one of
them in a dream, to discover the body of Saint Isidore, which was
reverently carried away to Leon. Ferdinand died on the feast of Saint
John the Evangelist, the 24th of June 1065, in Leon, with many
manifestations of ardent piety--having laid aside his crown and royal
mantle, dressed in the frock of a monk and lying on a bier, covered with
ashes, which was placed before the altar of the church of Saint Isidore.
FERDINAND II., king of Leon only (d. 1188), was the son of Alphonso VII.
and of Berenguela, of the house of the counts of Barcelona. On the
division of the kingdoms which had obeyed his father, he received Leon.
His reign of thirty years was one of strife marked by no signal success
or reverse. He had to contend with his unruly nobles, several of whom he
put to death. During the minority of his nephew Alphonso VIII. of
Castile he endeavoured to impose himself on the kingdom as regent. On
the west he was in more or less constant strife with Portugal, which was
in process of becoming an independent kingdom. His relations to the
Portuguese house must have suffered by his repudiation of his wife
Urraca, daughter of Alphonso I. of Portugal. Though he took the king of
Portugal prisoner in 1180, he made no political use of his success. He
extended his dominions southward in Estremadura at the expense of the
Moors. Ferdinand, who died in 1188, left the reputation of a good knight
and hard fighter, but did not display political or organizing faculty.
FERDINAND III., _El Santo_ or "the Saint," king of Castile (1199-1252),
son of Alphonso IX. of Leon, and of Berengaria, daughter of Alphonso
VIII. of Castile, ranks among the greatest of the Spanish kings. The
marriage of his parents, who were second cousins, was dissolved as
unlawful by the pope, but the legitimacy of the children was recognized.
Till 1217 he lived with his father in Leon. In that year the young king
of Castile, Henry, was killed by accident. Berengaria sent for her son
with such speed that her messenger reached Leon before the news of the
death of the king of Castile, and when he came to her she renounced the
crown in his favour. Alphonso of Leon considered himself tricked, and
the young king had to begin his reign by a war against his father and a
faction of the Castilian nobles. His own ability and the remarkable
capacity of his mother proved too much for the king of Leon and his
Castilian allies. Ferdinand, who showed himself docile to the influence
of Berengaria, so long as she lived, married the wife she found for him,
Beatrice, daughter of the emperor Philip (of Hohenstaufen), and followed
her advice both in prosecuting the war against the Moors and in the
steps which she took to secure his peaceful succession to Leon on the
death of his father in 1231. After the union of Castile and Leon in that
year he began the series of campaigns which ended by reducing the
Mahommedan dominions in Spain to Granada. Cordova fell in 1236, and
Seville in 1248. The king of Granada did homage to Ferdinand, and
undertook to attend the cortes when summoned. The king was a severe
persecutor of the Albigenses, and his formal canonization was due as
much to his orthodoxy as to his crusading by Pope Clement X. in 1671. He
revived the university first founded by his grandfather Alphonso VIII.,
and placed it at Salamanca. By his second marriage with Joan (d. 1279),
daughter of Simon, of Dammartin, count of Ponthieu, by right of his wife
Marie, Ferdinand was the father of Eleanor, the wife of Edward I. of
England.
FERDINAND IV., _El Emplazado_ or "the Summoned," king of Castile (_d_.
1312), son of Sancho El Bravo, and his wife Maria de Molina, is a figure
of small note in Spanish history. His strange title is given him in the
chronicles on the strength of a story that he put two brothers of the
name of Carvajal to death tyrannically, and was given a time, a _plazo_,
by them in which to answer for his crime in the next world. But the tale
is not contemporary, and is an obvious copy of the story told of Jacques
de Molay, grand-master of the Temple, and Philippe Le Bel. Ferdinand IV.
succeeded to the throne when a boy of six. His minority was a time of
anarchy. He owed his escape from the violence of competitors and nobles,
partly to the tact and undaunted bravery of his mother Maria de Molina,
and partly to the loyalty of the citizens of Avila, who gave him refuge
within their walls. As a king he proved ungrateful to his mother, and
weak as a ruler. He died suddenly in his tent at Jaen when preparing for
a raid into the Moorish territory of Granada, on the 7th of September
1312.
FERDINAND I., king of Aragon (1373-1416), called "of Antequera," was the
son of John I. of Castile by his wife Eleanor, daughter of the third
marriage of Peter IV. of Aragon. His surname "of Antequera" was given
him because he was besieging that town, then in the hands of the Moors,
when he was told that the cortes of Aragon had elected him king in
succession to his uncle Martin, the last male of the old line of Wilfred
the Hairy. As infante of Castile Ferdinand had played an honourable
part. When his brother Henry III. died at Toledo, in 1406, the cortes
was sitting, and the nobles offered to make him king in preference to
his nephew John. Ferdinand refused to despoil his brother's infant son,
and even if he did not act on the moral ground he alleged, his sagacity
must have shown him that he would be at the mercy of the men who had
chosen him in such circumstances. As co-regent of the kingdom with
Catherine, widow of Henry III. and daughter of John of Gaunt by his
marriage with Constance, daughter of Peter the Cruel and Maria de
Padilla, Ferdinand proved a good ruler. He restrained the follies of his
sister-in-law, and kept the realm quiet, by firm government, and by
prosecuting the war with the Moors. As king of Aragon his short reign of
two years left him little time to make his mark. Having been bred in
Castile, where the royal authority was, at least in theory, absolute, he
showed himself impatient under the checks imposed on him by the
_fueros_, the chartered rights of Aragon and Catalonia. He particularly
resented the obstinacy of the Barcelonese, who compelled the members of
his household to pay municipal taxes. His most signal act as king was to
aid in closing the Great Schism in the Church by agreeing to the
deposition of the antipope Benedict XIV., an Aragonese. He died at
Ygualada in Catalonia on the 2nd of April 1416.
FERDINAND V. of Castile and Leon, and II. of Aragon (1452-1516), was the
son of John I. of Aragon by his second marriage with Joanna Henriquez,
of the family of the hereditary grand admirals of Castile, and was born
at Sos in Aragon on the 16th of March 1452. Under the name of "the
Catholic" and as the husband of Isabella, queen of Castile, he played a
great part in Europe. His share in establishing the royal authority in
all parts of Spain, in expelling the Moors from Granada, in the conquest
of Navarre, in forwarding the voyages of Columbus, and in contending
with France for the supremacy in Italy, is dealt with elsewhere (see
SPAIN: _History_). In personal character he had none of the attractive
qualities of his wife. It may fairly be said of him that he was purely a
politician. His marriage in 1469 to his cousin Isabella of Castile was
dictated by the desire to unite his own claims to the crown, as the head
of the younger branch of the same family, with hers, in case Henry IV.
should die childless. When the king died in 1474 he made an ungenerous
attempt to procure his own proclamation as king without recognition of
the rights of his wife. Isabella asserted her claims firmly, and at all
times insisted on a voice in the government of Castile. But though
Ferdinand had sought a selfish political advantage at his wife's
expense, he was well aware of her ability and high character. Their
married life was dignified and harmonious; for Ferdinand had no common
vices, and their views in government were identical. The king cared for
nothing but dominion and political power. His character explains the
most ungracious acts of his life, such as his breach of his promises to
Columbus, his distrust of Ximenez and of the Great Captain. He had given
wide privileges to Columbus on the supposition that the discoverer would
reach powerful kingdoms. When islands inhabited by feeble savages were
discovered, Ferdinand appreciated the risk that they might become the
seat of a power too strong to be controlled, and took measures to avert
the danger. He feared that Jimenez and the Great Captain would become
too independent, and watched them in the interest of the royal
authority. Whether he ever boasted, as he is said to have boasted, that
he had deceived Louis XII. of France twelve times, is very doubtful; but
it is certain that when Ferdinand made a treaty, or came to an
understanding with any one, the contract was generally found to contain
implied meanings favourable to himself which the other contracting party
had not expected. The worst of his character was prominently shown after
the death of Isabella in 1504. He endeavoured to lay hands on the
regency of Castile in the name of his insane daughter Joanna, and
without regard to the claims of her husband Philip of Habsburg. The
hostility of the Castilian nobles, by whom he was disliked, baffled him
for a time, but on Philip's early death he reasserted his authority. His
second marriage with Germaine of Foix in 1505 was apparently contracted
in the hope that by securing an heir male he might punish his Habsburg
son-in-law. Aragon did not recognize the right of women to reign, and
would have been detached together with Catalonia, Valencia and the
Italian states if he had had a son. This was the only occasion on which
Ferdinand allowed passion to obscure his political sense, and lead him
into acts which tended to undo his work of national unification. As king
of Aragon he abstained from inroads on the liberties of his subjects
which might have provoked rebellion. A few acts of illegal violence are
recorded of him--as when he invited a notorious demagogue of Saragossa
to visit him in the palace, and caused the man to be executed without
form of trial. Once when presiding over the Aragonese cortes he found
himself sitting in a thorough draught and ordered the window to be shut,
adding in a lower voice, "If it is not against the _fueros_." But his
ill-will did not go beyond such sneers. He was too intent on building up
a great state to complicate his difficulties by internal troubles. His
arrangement of the convention of Guadalupe, which ended the fierce
Agrarian conflicts of Catalonia, was wise and profitable to the country,
though it was probably dictated mainly by a wish to weaken the
landowners by taking away their feudal rights. Ferdinand died at
Madrigalejo in Estremadura on the 23rd of February 1516.
The lives of the kings of this name before Ferdinand V. are contained
in the chronicles, and in the _Anales de Aragon_ of Zurita, and the
History of Spain by Mariana. Both deal at length with the life of
Ferdinand V. Prescott's _History of the Reign of Ferdinand and
Isabella_, in any of its numerous editions, gives a full life of him
with copious references to authorities.
FERDINAND VI., king of Spain (1713-1759), second son of Philip V.,
founder of the Bourbon dynasty, by his first marriage with Maria Louisa
of Savoy, was born at Madrid on the 23rd of September 1713. His youth
was depressed. His father's second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, was a
managing woman, who had no affection except for her own children, and
who looked upon her stepson as an obstacle to their fortunes. The
hypochondria of his father left Elizabeth mistress of the palace.
Ferdinand was married in 1729 to Maria Magdalena Barbara, daughter of
John V. of Portugal. The very homely looks of his wife were thought by
observers to cause the prince a visible shock when he was first
presented to her. Yet he became deeply attached to his wife, and proved
in fact nearly as uxorious as his father. Ferdinand was by temperament
melancholy, shy and distrustful of his own abilities. When complimented
on his shooting, he replied, "It would be hard if there were not
something I could do." As king he followed a steady policy of neutrality
between France and England, and refused to be tempted by the offers of
either into declaring war on the other. In his life he was orderly and
retiring, averse from taking decisions, though not incapable of acting
firmly, as when he cut short the dangerous intrigues of his able
minister Ensenada by dismissing and imprisoning him. Shooting and music
were his only pleasures, and he was the generous patron of the famous
singer Farinelli (q.v.), whose voice soothed his melancholy. The death
of his wife Barbara, who had been devoted to him, and who carefully
abstained from political intrigue, broke his heart. Between the date of
her death in 1758 and his own on the 10th of August 1759 he fell into a
state of prostration in which he would not even dress, but wandered
unshaven, unwashed and in a night-gown about his park. The memoirs of
the count of Fernan Nunez give a shocking picture of his death-bed.
A good account of the reign and character of Ferdinand VI. will be
found in vol. iv. of Coxe's _Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the
House of Bourbon_ (London, 1815). See also _Vida de Carlos III._, by
the count of Fernan Nunez, ed. M. Morel Fatio and Don A. Paz y Melia
(1898).
FERDINAND VII., king of Spain (1784-1833), the eldest son of Charles
IV., king of Spain, and of his wife Maria Louisa of Parma, was born at
the palace of San Ildefonso near Balsain in the Somosierra hills, on the
14th of October 1784. The events with which he was connected were many,
tragic and of the widest European interest. In his youth he occupied the
painful position of an heir apparent who was carefully excluded from all
share in government by the jealousy of his parents, and the prevalence
of a royal favourite. National discontent with a feeble government
produced a revolution in 1808 by which he passed to the throne by the
forced abdication of his father. Then he spent years as the prisoner of
Napoleon, and returned in 1814 to find that while Spain was fighting for
independence in his name a new world had been born of foreign invasion
and domestic revolution. He came back to assert the ancient doctrine
that the sovereign authority resided in his person only. Acting on this
principle he ruled frivolously, and with a wanton indulgence of whims.
In 1820 his misrule provoked a revolt, and he remained in the hands of
insurgents till he was released by foreign intervention in 1823. When
free, he revenged himself with a ferocity which disgusted his allies. In
his last years he prepared a change in the order of succession
established by his dynasty in Spain, which angered a large part of the
nation, and made a civil war inevitable. We have to distinguish the part
of Ferdinand VII. in all these transactions, in which other and better
men were concerned. It can confidently be said to have been uniformly
base. He had perhaps no right to complain that he was kept aloof from
all share in government while only heir apparent, for this was the
traditional practice of his family. But as heir to the throne he had a
right to resent the degradation of the crown he was to inherit, and the
power of a favourite who was his mother's lover. If he had put himself
at the head of a popular rising he would have been followed, and would
have had a good excuse. His course was to enter on dim intrigues at the
instigation of his first wife, Maria Antonietta of Naples. After her
death in 1806 he was drawn into other intrigues by flatterers, and, in
October 1807, was arrested for the conspiracy of the Escorial. The
conspiracy aimed at securing the help of the emperor Napoleon. When
detected, Ferdinand betrayed his associates, and grovelled to his
parents. When his father's abdication was extorted by a popular riot at
Aranjuez in March 1808, he ascended the throne--not to lead his people
manfully, but to throw himself into the hands of Napoleon, in the
fatuous hope that the emperor would support him. He was in his turn
forced to make an abdication and imprisoned in France, while Spain, with
the help of England, fought for its life. At Valancay, where he was sent
as a prisoner of state, he sank contentedly into vulgar vice, and did
not scruple to applaud the French victories over the people who were
suffering unutterable misery in his cause. When restored in March 1814,
on the fall of Napoleon, he had just cause to repudiate the
impracticable constitution made by the cortes without his consent. He
did so, and then governed like an evil-disposed boy--indulging the
merest animal passions, listening to a small _camarilla_ of low-born
favourites, changing his ministers every three months, and acting on the
impulse of whims which were sometimes mere buffoonery, but were at times
lubricous, or ferocious. The autocratic powers of the Grand Alliance,
though forced to support him as the representative of legitimacy in
Spain, watched his proceedings with disgust and alarm. "The king," wrote
Gentz to the hospodar Caradja on the 1st of December 1814, "himself
enters the houses of his first ministers, arrests them, and hands them
over to their cruel enemies"; and again, on the 14th of January 1815,
"The king has so debased himself that he has become no more than the
leading police agent and gaoler of his country." When at last the
inevitable revolt came in 1820 he grovelled to the insurgents as he had
done to his parents, descending to the meanest submissions while fear
was on him, then intriguing and, when detected, grovelling again. When
at the beginning of 1823, as a result of the congress of Verona, the
French invaded Spain,[1] "invoking the God of St Louis, for the sake of
preserving the throne of Spain to a descendant of Henry IV., and of
reconciling that fine kingdom with Europe," and in May the revolutionary
party carried Ferdinand to Cadiz, he continued to make promises of
amendment till he was free. Then, in violation of his oath to grant an
amnesty, he revenged himself for three years of coercion by killing on a
scale which revolted his "rescuers," and against which the duke of
Angouleme, powerless to interfere, protested by refusing the Spanish
decorations offered him for his services. During his last years
Ferdinand's energy was abated. He no longer changed ministers every few
months as a sport, and he allowed some of them to conduct the current
business of government. His habits of life were telling on him. He
became torpid, bloated and horrible to look at. After his fourth
marriage in 1829 with Maria Christina of Naples, he was persuaded by his
wife to set aside the law of succession of Philip V., which gave a
preference to all the males of the family in Spain over the females. His
marriage had brought him only two daughters. When well, he consented to
the change under the influence of his wife. When ill, he was terrified
by priestly advisers, who were partisans of his brother Don Carlos. What
his final decision was is perhaps doubtful. His wife was mistress by his
death-bed, and she could put the words she chose into the mouth of a
dead man--and could move the dead hand at her will. Ferdinand died on
the 29th of September 1833. It had been a frequent saying with the more
zealous royalists of Spain that a king must be wiser than his ministers,
for he was placed on the throne and directed by God. Since the reign of
Ferdinand VII. no one has maintained this unqualified version of the
great doctrine of divine right.
King Ferdinand VII. kept a diary during the troubled years 1820-1823,
which has been published by the count de Casa Valencia.