[1] See his portrait in the earl of Arlington's _Letters to Sir W.
Temple_, by Tho. Babington (1701).
[2] Clarendon's _Life and Continuation_, 397.
[3] _Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland_, by Sir John Dalrymple
(1790), i. 125.
[4] _Ibid._ 114 et seq.
[5] Arlington to Sir B. Gascoyn, in J.T. Brown's _Miscellanea Aulica_
(1702), 66.
[6] On the authority of Colbert, 20th November 1673; Dalrymple's
_Memoirs_, i. 131.
[7] James's statement in Macpherson's _Orig. Pap._ i. 67.
[8] Eachard's _History of England_ (1720), 911.
[9] _Memoirs of W. Temple_, ed. by T.P. Courtenay, ii. 27.
[10] _Life and Con._ 404.
[11] Cf. North's _Examen_, 26; Dalrymple's _Mem._ (1790) i. 40;
Pepys's _Diary_ (Feb. 17, 1663); _Cat. of Clarendon St. Pap._ iii.
295; T. Carte's _Life of the Duke of Ormonde_ (1851), iv. 109.
ARLINGTON, a township of Middlesex county in E. Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Pop. (1890) 5629; (1900) 8603, of whom 2387 were foreign-born; (1910
census) 11,187. Area, 5-1/2 sq. m. It is served by the Boston & Maine
railway. It has pleasant residential villages (Arlington, Arlington
Heights, &c.) with attractive environs, and there is an excellent public
library (the Robbins library). At Arlington Heights there are several
well-known sanatoriums. Spy Pond (about 100 acres) is one of the
prettiest bodies of water in the vicinity of Boston. Arlington is an
important centre for market-gardening (in hot-houses), and along Mill
Brook, in the township, are several factories, including chrome works, a
large mill and a manufactory of pianoforte cases. In 1762 Arlington was
made a "precinct" of Cambridge (of which it was a part from 1635 to
1807) under the name of Menotomy. In 1807 it became a separate township
under the name (retained until 1867) of West Cambridge.
See B. and W.R. Cutter, _History of the Town of Arlington ...
1637-1879_ (Boston, 1880); and C.S. Parker, _The Town of Arlington,
Past and Present_ (Arlington, 1907).
ARLON, the chief town of the Belgian province of Luxemburg, situated on
a hill about 1240 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1904) 10,894. It is a very
ancient town, and in the time of the Romans was called Orolaunum, being
a station on the Antoninian way connecting Reims and Treves. Authorities
dispute as to the origin of the name, some tracing it to _Ara Lunae_, a
temple of Diana having been erected here, while others more plausibly
derive it from the Celtic words _ar_ (mount) and _lun_ (wooded).
Nowadays the woods have disappeared, and Arlon is chiefly notable for
the extensive views obtainable from the church of St Donat which crowns
the peak. Arlon is no longer fortified. When Vauban by order of Louis
XIV. turned it into a fortress in 1671 great damage was done to the old
Roman wall, the foundations of which were practically intact. In the
local museum are many Roman antiquities collected on the spot, including
several large sculptural stones similar to the celebrated monument at
Igel near Treves. In the middle ages Arlon was the seat of a powerful
countship (later marquisate), held after 1235 by the dukes of Luxemburg.
As an important strategic position it was several times seized by the
French, e.g. in 1647 and 1651.
ARM (a common Teutonic word; the Indo-European root is _ar_, to join or
fit; cf. the Lat. _armus_, shoulder, and the plural word _arma_,
weapons, Gr. [Greek: armos], joint, and the reduplicated [Greek:
arariskein], to join), the human upper limb from the shoulder to the
wrist, and the fore limb of an animal. (See ANATOMY: _Superficial and
Artistic_, and SKELETON: _Appendicular._) The word is also used of any
projecting limb, as of a crane, or balance, of a branch of a tree, and
so, in a transferred sense, of the branch of a river or a nerve. Through
the Fr. _armes_, from the Lat. _arma_, and so in English usually in the
plural "arms," comes the use of the word for weapons of offence and
defence, and in many expressions such as "men-at-arms,"
"assault-at-arms," and the like, and for the various branches,
artillery, cavalry, infantry, of which an army is composed, the "arms of
the service." "Arms" or "armorial bearings" are the heraldic devices
displayed by knights in battle on the defensive armour or embroidered on
the surcoat worn over the armour and hence called "coats of arms." These
became hereditary and thus are borne by families, and similar insignia
are used by nations, cities, episcopal sees and corporations generally.
(See HERALDRY.)
ARMADA, THE. The Spanish or Invincible Armada was the great fleet (in
Spanish, _armada_) sent against England by Philip II. in 1588. The
marquis of Santa Cruz, to whom the command had first been given, died on
the 9th of February 1588 (according to the Gregorian calendar then used
by Spain; on the 31st of January by the Julian calendar used in England;
the other dates given in this article will be in Old Style, or Julian
calendar). Santa Cruz was succeeded by Don Alonso Perez de Guzman, duke
of Medina Sidonia, a noble of large estate, but of no experience or
capacity, who took the command unwillingly, and only on the reiterated
order of the king. The fleet was collected at Lisbon, after many delays,
and sailed on the 20th of May 1588. Its nominal strength was 132
vessels, of 59,190 tons, carrying 21,621 soldiers and 8066 sailors. But
from a third to a half of the vessels were transports, galleys or very
small boats, and some of them never reached the Channel. The effective
force was far below the paper strength. On the 10th of June, when the
Armada had rounded Cape Finisterre, it was scattered by squalls. Some of
the vessels went on to the appointed rendezvous at the Scilly Isles, but
the majority anchored on the north coast of Spain. Medina Sidonia, who
found many defects in his fleet, did not finally sail till the 12th of
July. On the English side all the royal navy, and such armed merchant
ships as could be obtained from the ports, had been collected under the
command of the lord high admiral Howard of Effingham, who had with him
Hawkins, Drake and Frobisher as subordinate admirals. The number of
vessels is put at 197, but the majority were very small. It is
impossible to state with confidence what were the relative numbers of
guns carried by the two fleets. The Spaniards had more pieces, but their
gunnery was inferior. The English fleet carried 16,000 or 17,000 men, of
whom the large majority were sailors. About 100 of their ships were at
Plymouth with the lord high admiral. The others were in the Downs with
Lord Henry Seymour and Sir William Winter, to co-operate with a Dutch
squadron under Justinus of Nassau in blockading the Flemish ports, then
occupied by the Spanish army of the duke of Parma. The object was to
prevent the proposed junction of the forces of Medina Sidonia and Parma.
On the 20th of July the Armada was seen off the Lizard. It sailed past
Plymouth, and was followed by the English fleet. The Spaniards, who were
heavy sailers, and were hampered by the transports, were much harassed
by the more active English, and were defeated in all their attempts to
board, which it was their wish to do in order to make use of their
superior numbers of men. The flagship of the squadron of Andalucia,
"Nuestra Senora del Rosario," commanded by Don Pedro de Valdes, was
crippled, fell behind and had to surrender. On the 25th of July, when
the fleets were near the Isle of Wight, a shift of the wind offered the
Spaniards a chance of bringing on a close action, but it soon changed
again. The English fleet, of which part had been in some danger, escaped
uninjured, and the Spaniards stood on. They anchored on the 26th of July
at Calais. The duke of Medina Sidonia now sent an officer to Parma,
calling on him to come to sea and join in a landing on the shore of
England. But Parma could not leave port in face of Justinus of Nassau's
squadron. While these messages were going and coming, Lord Howard had
been joined by Lord Henry Seymour and Sir William Winter from the Downs.
A council of war was held, to decide on the measures to be taken to
assail the Spaniards at Calais. The course taken was to send fireships
among them. On the night of the 28th of July the fireships were sent in,
and produced an utter panic in the Armada. Most of the Spanish vessels
slipped their cables and ran to sea. Others weighed anchor, and escaped
in a more orderly style. One great vessel ran ashore and was taken
possession of by the English, who were however compelled to give her up
by the French governor of Calais. On the 29th of July the scattered
Spaniards, who were quite unable to restore order, were attacked by the
English off Gravelines. The engagement was hot, and, though the English
did not succeed in taking any of the Spaniards, they destroyed some of
them, and their superiority in sailing force and gunnery was now so
obvious that the duke of Medina Sidonia lost heart. His large vessels
were indeed so helpless that only a timely shift of the wind saved many
of them from drifting on to the banks of Flanders. Officers and men
alike were completely discouraged. It was now recognized that an
invasion of England could not be carried out in face of the more active
English fleet and the proved impossibility of bringing about the
proposed union with Parma's army. Suggestions were made that the Armada
should sail to Hamburg, refit there, and renew the attack. But by this
time the Spanish force was incapable of energetic action. Medina Sidonia
and his council could think of nothing but of a return to Spain. As the
wind was westerly, and the English fleet barred the way, it was
impossible to sail down the Channel. The only alternative was to take
the route between the north of Scotland and Norway. So the Armada sailed
to the north. Lord Howard followed, after detaching Lord Henry Seymour
to remain in the Downs. He watched the Spaniards to the Firth of Forth.
The English had at that time little knowledge of the seas beyond the
Firth, and they were beginning to run short of food and ammunition. On
the 2nd of August, therefore, they gave up the pursuit. Medina Sidonia
continued to the north, till his pilots told him that it was safe to
turn to the west. Up to this time the loss of the Spaniards in ships had
not been considerable. If the weather had been that of a normal summer,
they would probably have reached home with no greater loss of men than
was usually inflicted on all fleets of the age by scurvy and fever. But
the summer of 1588 was marked by a succession of gales of unprecedented
violence. The damaged and weakened Spanish ships, which were from the
first greatly undermanned in sailors, were unable to contend with the
storms. It is not possible to give the details of the disasters which
overtook them. Nineteen of them are known to have been wrecked on the
coasts of Scotland and Ireland. The crews who fell into the hands of the
English officers in Ireland were put to the sword. Many more of them
disappeared at sea. Of the total number of the vessels originally
collected for the invasion of England one-half, if not more, perished,
and the crews of those which escaped were terribly diminished by scurvy
and starvation.
The failure of the Armada was mainly due to its own interior weakness,
and as a military operation the English victory was less glorious than
some other less renowned achievements of the British fleet. But the
repulse of the great Spanish armament was an event of the first
historical importance. It marked the final failure of King Philip II. of
Spain to establish the supremacy of the Habsburg dynasty and of the
Church of Rome, which he considered as being in a peculiar sense his
charge, in Europe. From that time forward no serious attempt to invade
England was, or could be, made. It became therefore the unconquerable
supporter of that part of Europe which had thrown off the authority of
the pope. The Armada had much of the character of a crusade. Though
Philip II. had political reasons for hostility to Queen Elizabeth, they
were so intimately bound up with the struggle between the Reformation
and the Counter Reformation that the secular and the religious elements
of the conflict cannot be separated from one another. The struggle was
therefore not one between armed forces in national rivalry alone. It was
a trial of strength between two widely different conceptions of life and
of the state--between the medieval and the modern worlds. The volunteers
of all ranks who came forward in large numbers on both sides were
fighting for a religious cause as well as for the interests of their
respective peoples.
AUTHORITIES.--The English side of the story of the Armada can best be
studied in the _State Papers relating to the Defeat of the Spanish
Armada_, edited by Sir J.K. Laughton, and printed for the Navy
Records Society (London, 1894). The Spanish side will be found in _La
Armada Invencible_, by Captain Cesareo Fernandez Duro (Madrid, 1884).
Froude summarized the work of Captain Fernandez Duro in his brilliant
_Spanish Story of the Armada_ (London, 1892). (D. H.)
ARMADILLO, the Spanish designation for the small mail-clad Central and
South American mammals of the order Edentata, constituting the family
_Dasypodidae_. The armature consists of a bony case, partly composed of
solid buckler-like plates, and partly of movable transverse bands, the
latter differing in number with the species, and giving to the body a
considerable degree of flexibility. The bony plates are overlain by
horny scales. Armadillos are omnivorous, feeding on roots, insects,
worms, reptiles and carrion, and are mostly, though not universally,
nocturnal. They are harmless and inoffensive creatures, offering no
resistance when caught; their principal means of escape being the
extraordinary rapidity with which they burrow in the ground, and the
tenacity with which they retain their hold in their subterranean
retreats. Notwithstanding the shortness of their limbs they run with
rapidity. Most of the species are esteemed good eating by the natives of
the countries in which they live. They are all inhabitants of the open
plains or the forests of the tropical and temperate parts of South
America, with the exception of a few species which range as far north as
Texas. The largest species is the giant armadillo (_Priodon gigas_),
measuring nearly a yard long, from the forests of Surinam and Brazil;
while one of the smallest is _Dasypus minutus_, a near ally of the
larger _D. sexcinctus_. The peba (_Tatusia novemcincta_) represents a
group with a large number of movable bands in the armour; while the apar
(_Tolypeutes tricinctus_) and the other members of the same genus are
remarkable for their power of rolling themselves up into balls. For the
distinctive characters of these and the other genera see EDENTATA.
[Illustration: Peba Armadillo (_Tatusia novemcincta_).]
ARMAGEDDON, a name occurring in the Authorized Version of the English
Bible in Rev. xvi. 16. The Revised Version has Harmagedon. The form is
commonly regarded as the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew _har megiddon_,
the mountain district of Megiddo. The writer is describing the place
where the last decisive battle was to be fought at the Day of Judgment,
and Harmagedon may have been chosen as the name because the district
about Megiddo had been on several occasions the scene of great battles
(cf. Judg. iv. 6 ff., v. 19). It has, however, been suggested in the
_Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft_, vii. 170 (1887),
that the name is for _har migdo_, "his fruitful mountain"--the mountain
land of Israel. Prof. Cheyne (_Encyc. Bibl._ s.v.) again, following
suggestions of H. Gunkel, H. Zimmern and P. Jensen, compares the dragon
of the Apocalypse with the Babylonian Tiamat, thinks that some myth is
referred to, and finds the [Greek: magedon] of [Greek: Harmagedon] in
the divine name [Greek: Yesemmigadon], a Babylonian god of the
underworld. The name of the place where Tiamat was defeated by Marduk
perhaps included that of a god of the underworld. (See ANTICHRIST.) From
the application of the word Armageddon to the great battle of the End of
Time comes the use of the phrase "an Armageddon" to express any great
slaughter or final conflict.
ARMAGH, an inland county of Ireland, in the province of Ulster, bounded
N. by Lough Neagh, E. by Co. Down, S. by Louth and W. by Monaghan and
Tyrone. The area is 327,704 acres, or about 512 sq. m. The general
surface of the county is gently undulating and pleasantly diversified;
but in the northern extremity, on the borders of Lough Neagh, there is a
considerable tract of low, marshy land, and the southern border of the
county is occupied by a barren range of hills, the highest of which,
Slieve Gullion, attains an elevation of 1893 ft. In the western portion
of the county are the Few Mountains, a chain of abrupt hills mostly
incapable of cultivation. The county is well watered by numerous
streams. The principal are the Callan, the Tynan and the Tallwater,
flowing into the Blackwater, which, after forming the boundary between
this county and Tyrone, empties itself into the south-western angle of
Lough Neagh. The Tara and Newtown-Hamilton, the Creggan and the Fleury,
flow into the bay of Dundalk. The Cam or Camlin joins the Bann, which,
crossing the north-western corner of the county, falls into Lough Neagh
to the east of the Blackwater. The Newry Canal, communicating with
Carlingford Lough at Warrenpoint, 6 m. below Newry, proceeds northward
through Co. Armagh for about 21 m., joining the Bann at Whitecoat. The
Ulster Canal begins at Charlemont on the river Blackwater, near its
junction with Lough Neagh, proceeding through the western border of the
county, and passing thence to the south-west by Monaghan and Clones into
Upper Lough Erne, after a course of 48 m. Part of Lough Neagh is in the
county, and there are many small loughs, such as Gullion, Cam and Ross.
_Geology._--The flat shore of Lough Neagh in the north is due to the
thick deposit of pale-coloured clays with lignites, which are probably
of Pliocene age, and indicate a reduction of the area of the lake in
still later times. Between this lowland and Armagh city, the early
Cainozoic basalts form slightly higher ground, while on the west a strip
of Trias appears, overlying Carboniferous Limestone. A rough
conglomerate containing blocks of this latter rock forms the hills on
which Armagh itself is built; this outlier is probably Permian. The
Carboniferous Limestone beneath it and around it is red-brown instead of
grey, and is famous for its richness in fish remains. A hummocky
irregular country spreads southward, where the Silurian axis is
encountered, in continuation of the southern uplands of Scotland. Slates
and fine-grained sandstones appear here freely through the glacial
drift. In the south the granite core of this upland is revealed, and is
quarried extensively about Bessbrook. It is penetrated by far younger
intrusive masses at Slieve Gullion and Forkill. These rocks, which
include some highly siliceous lavas, form part of the Eocene series that
is so conspicuously displayed above Carlingford in Co. Louth. Lead-veins
have been worked in various parts of the county from time to time.
_Industries._--The soil of the northern portion of the county is a rich
brown loam, on a substratum of clay or gravel. Towards Charlemont there
is much reclaimable bog resting on a limestone substratum. The eastern
portion of the county is generally of a light friable soil; the southern
portion rocky and barren, with but little bog except in the
neighbourhood of Newtown-Hamilton. The climate of Armagh is considered
to be one of the most genial in Ireland, and less rain is supposed to
fall in this than in any other county. Only about one-twentieth of the
land is naturally barren, and Armagh offers a relatively large area of
cultivable soil. Agriculture, however, is not far advanced, yet owing to
the linen industry the inhabitants are generally in circumstances of
comparative comfort. The principal crops are oats and potatoes, but all
grain crops are decreasing, and flax, formerly grown to a considerable
extent, is now practically neglected. The acreage under pasture slightly
exceeds that of tillage. Cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry show a general
increase in numbers. The principal manufacture, and that which has given
a peculiar tone to the character of the population, is that of linen,
though it has somewhat declined in modern times. It is not necessary to
the promotion of this manufacture that the spinners and weavers should
be congregated in large towns, or united in crowded and unwholesome
factories. On the contrary, most of its branches can be carried on in
the cottages of the peasantry. The men devote to the loom those hours
which are not required for the cultivation of their little farms; the
women spin and reel the yarn during the intervals of their other
domestic occupations. Smooth lawns, pure springs and the open sky are
necessary for perfecting the bleaching process. Hence the numerous
bleachers dwell in the country with their assistants and machinery. Such
is the effect of this combination of agricultural occupations with
domestic manufactures that the farmers are more than competent to supply
the resident population of the county with vegetable, though not with
animal food; and some of the less crowded and less productive parts of
Ulster receive from Armagh a considerable supply of oats, barley and
flour. Apples are grown in such quantities as to entitle the county to
the title applied to it, the orchard of Ireland.
Communications are monopolized by the Great Northern railway company,
whose main line from Belfast divides at Portadown, sending off lines to
Omagh, to Clones and to Dublin. A branch from Omagh joins the Dublin
line to Goraghwood, and from this line there is a branch to Newry in Co.
Down. An electric tram-way connects Bessbrook, a town with important
linen manufactures and granite quarries, with Newry.
_Population and Administration._--The population (72,286 in 1891; 65,619
in 1901) shows a heavy decrease, though emigration affects it less
seriously than the majority of Irish counties. Of the total about 45%
are Roman Catholics, 32% Protestant Episcopalians, and 16%
Presbyterians, the Roman Catholic faith prevailing in the mountainous
districts and the Protestant in the towns and lowlands. About 74% of the
whole constitutes the rural population. The chief towns are Armagh (a
city and the county town, pop. 7588), Lurgan (11,782), Portadown
(10,092), Tanderagee (1427), Bessbrook (2977) and Keady (1466). Armagh
is divided into eight baronies, and contains twenty-five parishes and
parts of parishes, the greater number of which are in the Protestant and
Roman Catholic dioceses of Armagh, and a few in the Roman Catholic
diocese of Dromore. The constabulary has its headquarters at Armagh, the
county being divided into five districts. Assizes are held at Armagh,
and quarter sessions at Armagh, Ballybot, Lurgan, Markethill and
Newtown-Hamilton. The parliamentary divisions are three: mid, north and
south, each returning one member.
_History and Antiquities._--Armagh, together with Louth, Monaghan and
some smaller districts, formed part of a territory called Orgial or
Urial, which was long subject to the occasional incursions of the Danes.
The county was made shire ground in 1586, and called Armagh after the
city by Sir John Perrott. When James I. proceeded to plant with English
and Scottish colonists the vast tracts escheated to the crown in Ulster,
the whole of the arable and pasture land in Armagh, estimated at 77,800
acres, was to have been allotted in sixty-one portions. Nineteen of
these, comprising 22,180 acres, were to have been allotted to the
church, and forty-two, amounting to 55,620 acres, to English and
Scottish colonists, servitors, native Irish and four corporate
towns--the swordsmen to be dispersed throughout Connaught and Munster.
This project was not strictly adhered to in Co. Armagh, nor were the
Irish swordsmen or soldiers transplanted into Connaught and Munster from
this and some other counties. The antiquities consist of cairns and
tumuli; the remains of the fortress of Emain near the city of Armagh
(q.v.), once the residence of the kings of Ulster; and Danes Cast, an
extensive fortification in the south-east of the county, near
Poyntzpass, extending into Co. Down. Spears, battle-axes, collars,
rings, amulets, medals of gold, ornaments of silver, jet and amber, &c.,
have also been found in various places. The religious houses were at
Armagh, Killevy, Kilmore, Stradhailloyse and Tahenny. Of military
antiquities the most remarkable are Tyrone's ditches, near Poyntzpass;
and the pass of Moyry, the entry into the county from the south, which
was fiercely contested by the Irish in 1595 and 1600, is defended by a
castle. The summit of Slieve Gullion is crowned by a large cairn, which
forms the roof of a singular cavern of artificial construction, probably
an early burial-place.
ARMAGH, a city and market town, and the county town of Co. Armagh,
Ireland, in the mid parliamentary division, 89-1/2 m. N.N.W. of Dublin
by the Great Northern railway, at the junction of the Belfast-Clones
line. Pop. (1901) 7588. It is said to derive its name of _Ard-macha_,
the Hill of Macha, from Queen Macha of the Golden Hair, who flourished
in the middle of the 4th century B.C. but earlier it was named from its
situation on the sides of a steep hill called Drumsailech, or the Hill
of Sallows, which rises in the midst of a fertile plain near the Callan
stream. Of high antiquity, and, like many other Irish towns, claiming
(with considerable probability) to have been founded by St Patrick in
the 5th century, it long possessed the more important distinction of
being the metropolis of Ireland; and, as the seat of a flourishing
college, was greatly frequented by students from other lands, among whom
the English and Scots were said to have been so numerous as to give the
name of Trian-Sassanagh, or Saxon Street, to one of the quarters of the
city. St Patrick's bell, long preserved at Armagh, the oldest Irish
relic of its kind, is now, with its shrine of the year 1091, preserved
in the museum of the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin. Of a synod that was
held at Armagh as early as 448, there is an interesting memorial in the
_Book of Armagh_, an Irish MS. dating about A.D. 800. Exposed to the
successive calamities of the Danish incursions, the English conquest and
the English wars, and at last deserted by its bishops, who retired to
Drogheda, the venerable city sank into an insignificant collection of
cabins, with a dilapidated cathedral. From this state of decay, however,
it was raised, in the second half of the 18th century, by the unwearied
exertions of Archbishop Richard Robinson, 1st Lord Rokeby (1709-1794),
which, seconded by similar devotion on the part of succeeding
archbishops of the Beresford family, notably Archbishop Lord John George
Beresford (1773-1862), made of Armagh one of the best built and most
respectable towns in the country. As the ecclesiastical metropolis and
seat of an archbishop (Primate of all Ireland) in both the Protestant
and Roman organizations, it possesses two cathedrals and two
archiepiscopal palaces. As the county town Armagh has a court-house, a
prison, a lunatic asylum and a county infirmary. Besides these there is
a fever hospital, erected by Lord John George Beresford; a college,
which Primate Robinson was anxious to raise to the rank of a university;
a public library founded by him, an observatory, which has become famous
from the efficiency of its astronomers; a number of churches and
schools, and barracks. Almost all the buildings are built of the
limestone of the district, but the Anglican cathedral is of red
sandstone. It stands boldly on the top of the hill, a cruciform
structure dating from the 13th, but practically rebuilt in the 18th
century, in accordance with its original plan. The Roman Catholic
cathedral is in the Decorated style, and was consecrated in 1873. Armagh
was a parliamentary borough until 1885; and, having been incorporated in
1613, so remained until 1835. The administration is in the hands of an
urban district council. Two miles W. of Armagh is Emain, Emania, or
Navan Fort, with large entrenchments and mounds, the site of a royal
palace of Ulster, founded by that Queen Macha who gave her name to the
city. In A.D. 335 it was destroyed during the inroad on the defeat of
the king of Ulster by the three brothers Colla, cousins of Muredach,
king of Ireland. Armagh itself fell before the king Brian Boroime, who
was buried here; and before Edward Bruce in 1315, while previous to the
English war after the Reformation, it had witnessed the struggles of
Shane O'Neill (1564).
ARMAGNAC, formerly a province of France and the most important fief of
Gascony, now wholly comprised in the department of Gers (q.v.). In the
15th century, when it attained its greatest extent, it included, besides
Armagnac, the neighbouring territories of Fezensac, Fezensaguet,
Pardiac, Pays de Gaure, Riviere Basse, Eauzan and Lomagne, and stretched
from the Garonne to the Adour. Armagnac is a region of hills ranging to
a height of 1000 ft., watered by the river Gers and other rivers which
descend fanwise from the plateau of Lannemezan. On the slope of its
hills grow the grapes from which the famous Armagnac brandy is made. In
Roman Gaul this territory formed part of the diocese of Auch (_civitas
Ausciorum_), which corresponded roughly with the later duchy of Gascony
(q.v.). About the end of the 9th century Fezensac (_comitatus
Fedentiacus_), in circumstances of which no trustworthy record remains,
was erected into an hereditary countship. This latter was in its turn
divided, the south-western portion becoming, about 960, the countship of
Armagnac (_pagus Armaniacus_). The domain of this countship, at first
very limited in extent, continued steadily to increase in size, and
about 1140 Count Gerald III. added the whole of Fezensac to his
possessions. Under the English rule the counts of Armagnac were
turbulent and untrustworthy vassals; and the administration of the Black
Prince, tending to favour the towns of Aquitaine at the expense of the
nobles, drove them to the side of France. The complaint against the
English prince which Count John I., in defiance of the treaty of
Bretigny, himself carried to Paris, was the principal cause of the
resumption of hostilities of 1369, and of the incessant defeats
sustained by the English until the accession of their king Henry V.
At that moment Count Bernard VII. was all-powerful at the French court;
and Charles of Orleans, in order to be able to avenge his father, Louis
of Orleans, who had been assassinated in 1407 by John the Fearless, duke
of Burgundy, married Bonne, Bernard's daughter. This was the origin of
the political party known as "the Armagnacs." With the object of
combating the duke of Burgundy's preponderant influence, a league was
formed at Gien, including the duke of Orleans and his father-in-law, the
dukes of Berry, Bourbon and Brittany, the count of Alencon and all the
other discontented nobles. Bernard VII. ravaged the environs of Paris;
and the treaty of Bicetre (November 2, 1410) only suspended hostilities
for a few months, war breaking out afresh in the spring of 1411. Paris
sided with the duke of Burgundy, and at his instigation Charles VII.
collected an army to besiege the allies in Bourges. The peace of
Bourges, confirmed at Auxerre on the 22nd of August, put an end to the
war. Paris was dominated at that time by the party of the "butchers," or
_Cabochiens_, which had been organized and armed by the count of
Saint-Pol, brother-in-law of John the Fearless. But their excesses, and
in particular the Cabochien ordinance of the 25th of May 1413, aroused
public indignation; a reaction took place, and in the month of August
the Armagnacs in their turn became masters of the government and of the
king. The duke of Burgundy, besieged in Arras, only obtained peace
(treaty of Arras, September 4, 1414), on condition of not returning to
Paris.
Several months later Henry V. declared war against France; and when, in
August 1415, the English landed in Normandy, the Armagnacs and
Burgundians united against them, but were defeated in the battle of
Agincourt (October 25, 1415). John the Fearless then began negotiations
with the English, while Bernard VII., appointed constable in place of
the count of Saint-Pol, who had been killed at Agincourt, returned to
defend Paris. However, the excesses committed by the Armagnacs incensed
the populace, and John the Fearless, who was ravaging the surrounding
districts, re-entered the capital on the 29th of May 1418, in
consequence of the treason of Perrinet Leclerc. On the 12th of June
Bernard VII. and the members of his party were massacred. From this time
onward the Armagnac party, with the dauphin, afterwards King Charles
VII., at its head, was the national party, while the Burgundians united
with the English. This division in France continued until the treaty of
Arras, on the 21st of September 1435. The rivalry of the Burgundians and
Armagnacs brought terrible disasters upon France, and for many years
afterwards the name of "Armagnacs" was bestowed upon the bands of
adventurers who were as much to be feared as the _Grandes Compagnies_ of
the preceding age.
In 1444-45 the emperor Frederick III. of Germany obtained from Charles
VII. a large army of Armagnacs to enforce his claims in Switzerland,
and the war which ensued took the name of the Armagnac war
(_Armagnakenkrieg_). In Germany the name of the foreigners, who were
completely defeated in the battle of St Jakob on the Birs, not far from
Basel, was mockingly corrupted into _Arme Jacken_, Poor Jackets, or
_Arme Gecken_, Poor Fools.
On the death of Charles of Armagnac, in 1497, the countship was united
to the crown by King Charles VII., but was again bestowed on Charles,
the nephew of that count, by Francis I., who at the same time gave him
his sister Margaret in marriage. After the death of her husband, by whom
she had no children, she married Henry of Albret, king of Navarre; and
thus the countship of Armagnac came back to the French crown along with
the other dominions of Henry IV. In 1645 Louis XIV. erected a countship
of Armagnac in favour of Henry of Lorraine, count of Harcourt, in whose
family it continued till the Revolution. James of Armagnac, grandson of
Bernard VII., was made duke of Nemours in 1462, and was succeeded in the
dukedom by his second son, John, who died without issue, and his third
son, Louis, in whom the house of Armagnac became extinct in 1503.
In 1789 Armagnac was a province forming part of the
_Gouvernement-general_ of Guienne and Gascony; it was divided into two
parts, High or White Armagnac, with Auch for capital, and Low or Black
Armagnac. At the Revolution the whole of the original Armagnac was
included in the department of Gers.
For authorities see U. Chevalier, _Repertoire des sources hist, du
moyen age_, s. Armagnac (Montbeliard, 1894). For the Armagnacs see
Paul Dognon, "Les Armagnacs et les Bourguignons, le comte de Foix et
le dauphin en Languedoc" (1416-1420) in _Annales du Midi_ (1889);
Rameau, "Guerre des Armagnacs dans le Maconnais" (1418-1435) in the
_Rev. soc. lit. de l'Ain_ (1884); Berthold Zeller, _Les Armagnacs et
les Bourguignons, la Commune de 1413_; E. Wulcker, _Urkunden und
Schreiben betreffend den Zug der Armagnaken_ (Frankfort, 1873); Witte,
_Die Armagnaken im Elsass, 1439-1445_ (Strassburg, 1889).
ARMATOLES (Gr. [Greek: armatolos], a man-at-arms), the name given to
some Greeks who discharged certain military and police functions under
the Turkish government. When the Turks under Sultan Mahommed II.
conquered Greece in the 15th century, many of the Greeks fled into the
mountainous districts of Macedonia and northern Greece, and maintained a
harassing warfare with the conquerors of their country. These men were
called _Klephts_ (modern Gr. [Greek: klephtaes], ancient [Greek:
kleptaes], a thief, a brigand), and during the 16th century the Turkish
pashas came to terms with some of them, and these men were allowed to
retain their local customs, and were confirmed in the possession of
certain districts, while in return they undertook some duties, such as
the custody of the highroads. Those who accepted these terms were called
_armatoles_, and the districts in which they lived _armatoliks_.
Strengthened by a considerable number of Christian Albanians, they
rendered good service in defending Greece, and to some extent repressed
the ravages of the _Klephts_; but their power and independence were
disliked by the Turks. After the peace of Belgrade in 1739 (between
Austria and Turkey), the Turkish government sought to weaken the
position of the _armatoles_. Their privileges were restricted,
Mahommedan Albanians were introduced into the _armatoliks_, and towards
the end of the 18th century their numbers were seriously reduced.
Irritated by this policy the _armatoles_ rendered considerable service
to Ali Pasha of Iannina in his struggle with the Turks in 1820-22, and
afforded valuable assistance to their countrymen during the Greek war of
independence in 1830.
ARMATURE (from Lat. _armatura_, armour), a covering for defence. In
zoology the word is used of the bony shell of the armadillo. In
architecture it is applied to the iron stays by which the lead lights
are secured in windows. (See STANCHION and SADDLE: _Saddle-Bars_.) In
magnetism Dr William Gilbert applied the term to the piece of soft iron
with which he "armed" or capped the lodestone in order to increase its
power. It is also used for the "keeper" or piece of iron which is placed
across the poles of a horse-shoe magnet, and held in place by magnetic
attraction, in order to complete the magnetic circuit and preserve the
magnetism of the steel; and hence, in dynamo-electric machinery, for the
portion which is attracted by the electromagnet, as the moving part of
an electric motor, or, by extension, the moving part of a dynamo (q.v.).
ARMAVIR, (1) The ruins of the old capital of Armenia, on the S.E. slope
of the extinct volcano Ala-geuz, according to legend, built by Armais, a
grandson of Haik, in 1980 B.C., and the capital of the Armenian kings
till the 2nd century A.D. Now a small village, Tapadibi, occupies its
seat. (2) A district town of Russia, northern Caucasia, province of
Kuban, on Kuban river, and on the main line of the Caucasian railway, 40
m. by rail west of Stavropol, built in 1848 for the settlement of
Armenian mountaineers, and now a well-built, growing town with 8000
inhabitants, the merchants of which carry on a lively trade.
ARMENIA (old Persian _Armina_, Armenian _Hayasdan_, or _Hayq_), the
popular modern name of a district south of the Caucasus and Black Sea,
which formed part of the ancient Armenian kingdom. The name, which first
occurs in the cuneiform inscriptions of Darius Hystaspis, supplanted the
earlier Urardhu, or Ararat, but its origin is unknown. In its widest
extent Armenia stretched from 37 deg. to 49 deg. E. long., and from
37-1/2 deg. to 41-1/2 deg. N. lat.; but this area was never, or only for
a brief period, united under one king. Armenia is now divided between
Persia, Russia and Turkey, and the three boundaries have a common point
on Little Ararat.
Geographically, Armenia is a continuation westward of the great Iranian
plateau. On the north it descends abruptly to the Black Sea; on the
south it breaks down in rugged terraces to the lowlands of Mesopotamia;
and on the east and west it sinks more gradually to the lower plateaus
of Persia and Asia Minor. Above the general level of the plateau, 6000
ft., rise bare ranges of mountains, which run from north-east to
south-west at an altitude of 8000-12,000 ft., and culminate in Ararat,
17,000 ft. Between the ranges are broad elevated valleys, through which
the rivers of the plateau flow before entering the rugged gorges that
convey their waters to lower levels. Geologically, Armenia consists of
archaic rocks upon which, towards the north, are superimposed
Palaeozoic, and towards the south later sedimentary rocks. The last have
been pierced by volcanic outbursts that extend southward to Lake Van.
Amongst the higher mountains are the two Ararats; Ala-geuz Dagh, north
of the Aras; Bingeul Dagh, south of Erzerum; and the peaks near Lake
Van. The rivers are the Euphrates, Tigris, Aras, Churuk Su (Chorokh) and
Kelkit Irmak, all rising on the plateau. The more important lakes are
Van, 5100 ft., about twice the size of the Lake of Geneva, and Urmia,
4000 ft., both salt; Gokcha or Sevan, 5870 ft., discharging into the
Aras; and Chaldir, into the Kars Chai. The aspect of the plateau is
dreary and monotonous. The valleys are wide expanses of arable land, and
the hills are for the most part grass-covered and treeless. But the
gorges of the Euphrates and Tigris, and their tributaries, cannot be
surpassed in wildness and grandeur. The climate is varied. In the higher
districts the winter is long and the cold severe; whilst the summer is
short, dry and hot. In Erzerum the temperature ranges from -22 deg. to
84 deg. F., and snow sometimes falls in June. In the valley of the Aras,
and in the western and southern districts, the climate is more moderate.
Most of the towns lie high, from 4000 to 6000 ft. The villages are
usually built on gentle slopes, in which the houses are partially
excavated as a protection against the severity of the weather. Many of
the early towns were on or near the Araxes, and amongst their ruins are
the remains of churches which throw light on the history of Christian
architecture in the East. Armenia is rich in mineral wealth, and there
are many hot and cold mineral springs. The vegetation varies according
to the locality. Cereals and hardy fruits grow on the higher ground,
whilst rice is cultivated in the hot, well-watered valley of the Araxes.
The summer is so hot that the vine grows at much higher altitudes than
it does in western Europe, and the cotton tree and all southern fruit
trees are cultivated in the deeper valleys. On the fine pasture lands
which now support the flocks of the Kurds, the horses and mules, so
celebrated in ancient times, were reared. Trout are found in the rivers,
and a small herring in Lake Van. The country abounds in romantic
scenery; that of the district of Ararat especially has been celebrated
by patriotic historians like Moses of Chorene and Lazarus of Pharb.
_Population._--Accurate statistics cannot be obtained; but it is
estimated that in the nine vilayets, which include Turkish Armenia,
there are 925,000 Gregorian, Roman Catholic and Protestant Armenians,
645,000 other Christians, 100,000 Jews, Gypsies, &c., and 4,460,000
Moslems. The Armenians, taking the most favourable estimate, are in a
majority in nine kazas or sub-districts only (seven near Van, and two
near Mush) out of 159. In Russian Armenia there are 960,000 Armenians,
and in Persian Armenia 130,000. According to an estimate made by General
Zelenyi for the Caucasus Geographical Society (_Zapiski_, vol. xviii.,
Tiflis, 1896, with map), the population of the nine Turkish vilayets,
Erzerum, Van, Bitlis, Kharput (Mamuret-el-Aziz). Diarbekr, Sivas,
Aleppo, Adana and Trebizond, was 6,000,000 (Armenians, 913,875, or 15%;
other Christians, 632,875, or 11%; and Moslems, 4,453,250, or 74%). In
the first five vilayets which contain most of the Armenians, the
population was 2,642,000 (Armenians, 633,250, or 24%; other Christians,
179,875, or 7%; and Moslems, 1,828,875, or 69%); and in the seven
Armenian kazas the population was 282,375 (Armenians, 184,875, or 65%;
other Christians, 1000, or 0.3%; and Moslems, 96,500, or 34.7%). In 1897
there were 970,656 Armenians in Russia, of whom 827,634 were in the
provinces of Erivan, Elisavetpol and Tiflis.
The total number of Armenians is estimated at 2,900,000 (in Turkey,
1,500,000; Russia, 1,000,000; Persia, 150,000; Europe, America and East
Indies, 250,000).
_History._--The history of Armenia has been largely influenced by its
physical features. The isolation of the valleys, especially in winter,
encouraged a tendency to separation, which invariably showed itself when
the central power was weak. The rugged mountains have always been the
home of hardy mountaineers impatient of control, and the sanctuary to
which the lowlanders fled for safety in times of invasion. The country
stands as an open doorway between the East and the West. Through its
long valleys run the roads that connect the Iranian plateau with the
fertile lands and protected harbours of Asia Minor, and for its
possession nations have contended from the remotest past.
Ethnology.
The original inhabitants of Armenia are unknown, but, about the middle
of the 9th century B.C., the mass of the people belonged to that great
family of tribes which seems to have been spread over western Asia and
to have had a common non-Aryan language. Mixed with these
proto-Armenians, there was an important Semitic element of Assyrian and
Hebrew origin. In the 7th century B.C., between 640 and 600, the country
was conquered by an Aryan people, who imposed their language, and
possibly their name, upon the vanquished, and formed a military
aristocracy that was constantly recruited from Persia and Parthia.
Politically the two races soon amalgamated, but, except in the towns,
there was apparently little intermarriage, for the peasants in certain
districts closely resemble the proto-Armenians, as depicted on their
monuments. After the Arab and Seljuk invasions, there was a large
emigration of Aryan and Semitic Armenians to Constantinople and Cilicia;
and all that remained of the aristocracy was swept away by the Mongols
and Tatars. This perhaps explains the diversity of type and
characteristics amongst the modern Armenians. In the recesses of Mount
Taurus the peasants are tall, handsome, though somewhat sharp-featured,
agile and brave. In Armenia and Asia Minor they are robust, thick-set
and coarse-featured, with straight black hair and large hooked noses.
They are good cultivators of the soil, but are poor, superstitious,
ignorant and unambitious, and they live in semi-subterranean houses as
their ancestors did 800 years B.C. The townsmen, especially in the large
towns, have more regular features--often of the Persian type. They are
skilled artisans, bankers and merchants, and are remarkable for their
industry, their quick intelligence, their aptitude for business, and for
that enterprising spirit which led their ancestors, in Roman times, to
trade with Scythia, China and India. The upper classes are polished and
well educated, and many have occupied high positions in the public
service in Turkey, Russia, Persia and Egypt. The Armenians are
essentially an Oriental people, possessing, like the Jews, whom they
resemble in their exclusiveness and widespread dispersion, a remarkable
tenacity of race and faculty of adaptation to circumstances. They are
frugal, sober, industrious and intelligent, and their sturdiness of
character has enabled them to preserve their nationality and religion
under the sorest trials. They are strongly attached to old manners and
customs, but have also a real desire for progress which is full of
promise. On the other hand they are greedy of gain, quarrelsome in small
matters, self-seeking and wanting in stability; and they are gifted with
a tendency to exaggeration and a love of intrigue which has had an
unfortunate influence on their history. They are deeply separated by
religious differences, and their mutual jealousies, their inordinate
vanity their versatility and their cosmopolitan character must always
be an obstacle to the realization of the dreams of the nationalists. The
want of courage and self-reliance, the deficiency in truth and honesty
sometimes noticed in connexion with them, are doubtless due to long
servitude under an unsympathetic government.
[Illustration: Map of Armenia.]
Ancient kingdom.
The early history of Armenia, more or less mythical, is partly based on
traditions of the Biainian kings (see ARARAT), and is interwoven with
the Bible narrative, of which a knowledge was possibly obtained from
captive Jews settled in the country by Assyrian and Babylonian monarchs.
The legendary kings are but faint echoes of the kings of Biainas; the
story of Semiramis and Ara is but another form of the myth of Venus and
Adonis; and tradition has clothed Tigranes, the reputed friend of Cyrus,
with the transient glory of the opponent of Lucullus. The fall of the
Biainian kingdom, perhaps overthrown by Cyaxares, was apparently soon
followed by an immigration of Aryan (Medo-Persian) races, including the
progenitors of the Armenians. But they spread slowly, for the "Ten
Thousand," when crossing the plateau to Trebizond, 401-400 B.C., met no
Armenians after leaving the villages four days' march beyond the
Teleboas, now Kara Su. Under the Medes and Persians Armenia was a
satrapy governed by a member of the reigning family; and after the
battle of Arbela, 331 B.C., it was ruled by Persian governors appointed
by Alexander and his successors. Ardvates, 317-284 B.C., freed himself
from Seleucid control; and after the defeat of Antiochus the Great by
the Romans, 190 B.C., Artaxias (Ardashes), and Zadriades, the governors
of Armenia Major and Armenia Minor, became independent kings, with the
concurrence of Rome. (See TIGRANES.) Artaxias established his capital at
Artaxata on the Araxes, and his most celebrated successor was Tigranes
(Dikran), 94-56 B.C., the son-in-law of Mithradates VI., the Great.
Tigranes founded a new capital, Tigranocerta, in northern Mesopotamia,
which he modelled on Nineveh and Babylon, and peopled with Greek and
other captives. Here, and at Antioch, he played the part of "great king"
in Asia until his refusal to surrender his father-in-law involved him in
war with Rome. Defeated, 69 B.C., by Lucullus beneath the walls of his
capital, he surrendered his conquests to Pompey, 66 B.C., who had driven
Mithradates across the Phasis, and was permitted to hold Armenia as a
vassal state of Rome.
Under later Empire.
Medieval Partition.
The campaigns of Lucullus and Pompey brought Rome into delicate
relations with Parthia. Armenia, although politically dependent upon
Rome, was connected with Parthia by geographical position, a common
language and faith, intermarriage and similarity of arms and dress. It
had never been Hellenized, as the provinces of Asia Minor had been; the
Roman provincial system was never applied to it; and the policy of Rome
towards it was never consistent. The country became the field upon which
the East and West contended for mastery, and the struggle ended for a
time in the partition of Armenia, A.D. 387, between Rome and Persia. The
Roman portion was soon added to the Diocesis Pontica. The Persian
portion, Pers-Armenia, remained a vassal state under an Arsacid prince
until 428. It was afterwards governed by Persian and Armenian noblemen
selected by the "great king," and entitled _marzbans_. Before the
partition, Tiridates, converted by St Gregory, "the Illuminator," had
established Christianity as the religion of the state, and set an
example followed later by Constantine. After the partition, the
invention of the Armenian alphabet, and the translation of the Bible
into the vernacular, 410, drew the Armenians together, and the
discontinuance of Greek in the Holy Offices relaxed the ecclesiastical
dependence on Constantinople, which ceased entirely when the Patriarch,
491, refused to accept the decrees of the council of Chalcedon. The rule
of the _marzbans_ was marked by relentless persecution of the
Christians, forced conversions to Magism, frequent insurrections and the
rise to importance of the great families founded by men of Assyrian,
Parthian, Persian, Syrian and Jewish origin, and in some cases of royal
blood, who had been governors of districts, or holders of fiefs under
the Arsacids. Amongst the _marzbans_ were Jewish Bagratids and Persian
Mamegonians; and one of the latter family, Vartan, made himself
independent (571-578), with Byzantine aid. In 632 the victories of
Heraclius restored Armenia to the Byzantines; but the war that followed
the Arab invasion, 636, left the country in the hands of the caliphs,
who set over it Arab and Armenian governors (_ostikans_). One of the
governors, the Bagratid Ashod I., was crowned king of Armenia by the
caliph Motamid, 885, and founded a dynasty which ended with Kagig II. in
1079. A little later the Ardzrunian Kagig, governor of Vaspuragan or
Van, was crowned king of that province by the caliph Moktadir, 908, and
his descendants ruled at Van and Sivas until 1080. The Bagratids founded
dynasties at Kars, 962-1080, and in Georgia, which they held until its
absorption, 1801, by Russia. From 984 to 1085 the country from Diarbekr
to Melasgerd was ruled under the suzerainty first of Arabs then of
Byzantines and Seljuks, by the Mervanid dynasty of Kurds, called princes
of Abahuni ([Greek: Apachouvaes]). The Arab invasion drove many Armenian
noblemen to Constantinople, where they intermarried with the old Roman
families or became soldiers of fortune. Artavasdes, an Arsacid, usurped
the Byzantine throne for two years; Leo V., an Ardzrunian, and John
Zimisces, became emperors; whilst Manuel, the Mamegonian, and others
were amongst the best generals of the empire. In 991, and again in 1021,
Basil II. invaded Armenia, and in the latter year Senekherim, king of
Vaspuragan, exchanged his kingdom for Sivas and its territory, where he
settled down with many Armenian emigrants. Basil's policy was to make
the great Armenian fortresses, garrisoned by imperial troops, the first
line of defence on his eastern frontier; but it failed in the hands of
his feeble successors, who thought more of converting heretical Armenia
than of defending its frontier. The king of Ani, Kagig II., was
compelled to exchange his kingdom for estates in Cappadocia. The country
was raided by Seljuks and harried by Byzantine soldiers, and the
miseries of the people were regarded as gain to the Orthodox church.
After the defeat and capture of Romanus IV. by Alp Arslan, 1071, Armenia
formed part of the Seljuk empire until it split up, 1157, into petty
states, ruled by Arabs, Kurds and Seljuks, who were in turn swept away
by the Mongol invasion, 1235. For more than three centuries after the
appearance of the Seljuks, Armenia was traversed by a long succession of
nomad tribes whose one aim was to secure good pasturage for their flocks
on their way to the richer lands of Asia Minor. The cultivators were
driven from the plains, agriculture was destroyed, and the country was
seriously impoverished when its ruin was completed by the ravages and
wholesale butcheries of Timur. Many Armenians fled to the mountains,
where they embraced Islam, and intermarried with the Kurds, or purchased
security by paying blackmail to Kurdish chiefs. Others migrated to
Cappadocia or to Cilicia, where the Bagratid Rhupen had founded, 1080, a
small principality which, gradually extending its limits, became the
kingdom of Lesser Armenia. This Christian kingdom in the midst of Moslem
states, hostile to the Byzantines, giving valuable support to the
leaders of the crusades, and trading with the great commercial cities of
Italy, had a stormy existence of about 300 years. Internal disorders,
due to attempts by the later Lusignan kings to make their subjects
conform to the Roman Church, facilitated its conquest by Egypt, 1375.
The memory of Kiligia (Cilicia) is enshrined in a popular song, and at
Zeitun, in the recesses of Mount Taurus, a small Armenian community has
hitherto maintained almost complete independence. After the death of
Timur, Armenia formed part of the territories of the Turkoman dynasties
of Ak- and Kara-Kuyunli, and under their milder rule the seat of the
Catholicus, which, during the Seljuk invasion, had been moved first to
Sivas, and then to Lesser Armenia, was re-established, 1441, at
Echmiadzin.
Under Turkey.
In 1514, the Persian campaign of Selim I. gave Armenia to the Osmanli
Turks, and its reorganization was entrusted to Idris, the historian, who
was a Kurd of Bitlis. Idris found the rich arable lands almost deserted,
and the mountains bristling with the castles of independent chieftains,
of Kurd, Arab and Armenian descent, between whom there were
long-standing feuds. He compelled the Kurds to settle on the vacant
lands, and divided the country into small sanjaks which in the plains
were governed by Turkish officials, and in the mountains by local
chiefs. This policy gave rest to the country, but favoured the growth of
Kurd influence and power, which by 1534 had spread westwards to Angora.
Armenia was invaded by the Persians in 1575, and again in 1604, when
Shah Abbas transplanted many thousand Armenians from Julfa to his new
capital Isfahan. In 1639, the province of Erivan, which included
Echmiadzin, was assigned by treaty to Persia, and it remained in her
hands until it passed to Russia, 1828, under the treaty of Turkman-chai.
The Turko-Russian War of 1828-29, which advanced the Russian frontier to
the Arpa Chai, was followed by a large emigration of Armenians from
Turkish to Russian territory, and a smaller exodus took place after the
war of 1877-78, which gave Batum, Ardahan and Kars to Russia. In 1834
the independent power of the Kurds in Armenia was greatly curtailed; and
risings under Bedr Khan Bey in 1843, and Sheik Obeidullah in 1880, were
firmly suppressed.
Gregorian Armenians.
After the capture of Constantinople, 1453, Mahommed II. organized his
non-Moslem subjects in communities, or _millets_, under ecclesiastical
chiefs to whom he gave absolute authority in civil and religious
matters, and in criminal offences that did not come under the Moslem
religious law. Under this system the Armenian bishop of Brusa, who was
appointed patriarch of Constantinople by the sultan, became the civil,
and practically the ecclesiastical head of his community (_Ermeni
millet_), and a recognized officer of the imperial government with the
rank of vizier. He was assisted by a council of bishops and clergy, and
was represented in each province by a bishop. This _imperium in imperio_
secured to the Armenians a recognized position before the law, the free
enjoyment of their religion, the possession of their churches and
monasteries, and the right to educate their children and manage their
municipal affairs. It also encouraged the growth of a community life,
which eventually gave birth to an intense longing for national life. On
the other hand it degraded the priesthood. The priests became political
leaders rather than spiritual guides, and sought promotion by bribery
and intrigue. Education was neglected and discouraged, servility and
treachery were developed, and in less than a century the people had
become depraved and degraded to an almost incredible extent. After the
issue, 1839, of the _hatt-i-skerif_ of Gul-khaneh, the tradesmen and
artisans of the capital freed themselves from clerical control. Under
regulations, approved by the sultan in 1862, the patriarch remained the
official representative of the community, but all real power passed into
the hands of clerical and lay councils elected by a representative
assembly of 140 members. The "community," which excluded Roman Catholics
and Protestants, was soon called the "nation," "domestic" became
"national" affairs, and the "representative" the "national" assembly.
Roman Catholics.
The connexion of "Lesser Armenia" with the Western powers led to the
formation, 1335, of an Armenian fraternity, "the Unionists," which
adopted the dogmas of the Roman church, and at the council of Florence,
1439, was entitled the "United Armenian Church." Under the millet system
the unionists were frequently persecuted by the patriarchs, but this
ended in 1830, when, at the intervention of France, they were made a
community (_Katoluk millet_), with their own ecclesiastical head. The
Roman Catholics, through the works issued by the Mechitharists at
Venice, have greatly promoted the progress of education and the
development of Armenian literature. They are most numerous at
Constantinople, Angora and Smyrna.
Protestants.
The Protestant movement, initiated at Constantinople by American
missionaries in 1831, was opposed by the patriarchs and Russia. In 1846
the patriarch anathematized all Armenians with Protestant sympathies,
and this led to the formation of the "Evangelical Church of the
Armenians," which was made, after much opposition from France and
Russia, a community (_Protestant millet_), at the instance of the
British ambassador. The missionaries afterwards founded colleges on the
Bosporus, at Kharput, Marsivan and Aintab, to supply the needs of higher
university education, and they opened good schools for both sexes at all
their stations. Everywhere they supplied the people with pure, wholesome
literature, and represented progress and religious liberty.
Modern Armenian question.
When Abd-ul-Hamid came to the throne of Turkey in 1876, the condition of
the Armenians was better than it had ever been under the Osmanlis; but
with the close of the war of 1877-78 came the "Armenian Question." By
the treaty of San Stefano, Turkey engaged to Russia to carry out reforms
"in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and to guarantee their
security against the Kurds and Circassians." By the treaty of Berlin,
13th of July 1878, a like engagement to the six signatory powers was
substituted for that to Russia. By the Cyprus convention, 4th of June
1878, the sultan promised Great Britain to introduce necessary reforms
"for the protection of the Christians and other subjects of the Porte"
in the Turkish territories in Asia. The Berlin treaty encouraged the
Armenians to look to the powers, and not to Russia for protection; and
the convention, which did not mention the Armenians, was regarded as
placing them under the special protection of Great Britain. This
impression was strengthened by the action of England at Berlin in
insisting that Russia should evacuate the occupied territory before
reforms were introduced, and so removing the only security for their
introduction. The presentation of identic and collective notes to the
Porte by the powers, in 1880, produced no result, and in 1882 it was
apparent that Turkey would only yield to compulsion. In 1881 a circular
note from the British ministry to the five powers was evasively
answered, and in 1883 Prince Bismarck intimated to the British
government that Germany cared nothing about Armenian reforms and that
the matter had better be allowed to drop. Russia had changed her policy
towards the Armenians, and the other powers were indifferent. The
so-called "Concert of Europe" was at an end, but British ministries
continued to call the attention of the sultan to his obligations under
the treaty of Berlin.
Russian policy.
Russia began to interest herself in the Armenians when she acquired
Georgia in 1801; but it was not until 1828-1829 that any appreciable
number of them became her subjects. She found them necessary to the
development of her new territories, and allowed them much freedom. They
were permitted, within certain limits, to develop their national life;
many became wealthy, and many rose to high positions in the military and
civil service of the state. After the war of 1877-78 the Russian consuls
in Turkey encouraged the formation of patriotic committees in Armenia,
and a project was formed to create a separate state, under the supremacy
of Russia, which was to include Russian, Persian and Turkish Armenia.
The project was favoured by Loris-Melikov, then all-powerful in Russia,
but in 1881 Alexander II. was assassinated, and shortly afterwards a
strongly anti-Armenian policy was adopted. The schools were closed, the
use of the Armenian language was discouraged, and attempts were made to
Russify the Armenians and bring them within the pale of the Russian
Church. All hope of practical self-government under Russian protection
now ceased, and the Armenians of Tiflis turned their attention to
Turkish Armenia. They had seen the success of the Slav committees in
treating disturbances in the Balkans, and became the moving spirit in
the attempts to produce similar troubles in Armenia. Russia made no real
effort to check the action of her Armenian subjects, and after 1884 she
steadily opposed any active interference by Great Britain in favour of
the Turkish Armenians. When Echmiadzin passed to Russia, in 1828, the
Catholicus began to claim spiritual jurisdiction over the whole Armenian
Church, and the submission of the patriarch of Constantinople was
obtained by Russia when she helped the sultan against Mehemet Ali.
Subsequently Russia secured the submission of the independent catholicus
of Sis, and thus acquired a power of interference in Armenian affairs in
all parts of the world. During 1900 Russia showed renewed interest in
Turkish Armenia by securing the right to construct all railways in it,
and in the Armenians by pressing the Porte to restore order and
introduce reforms.
Revolutionary movement.
The Berlin treaty was a disappointment to the Gregorian Armenians, who
had hoped that Armenia and Cilicia would have been formed into an
autonomous province administered by Christians. But the formation of
such a province was impossible. The Gregorians were scattered over the
empire, and, except in a few small districts, were nowhere in a
majority. Nor were they bound together by any community of thought or
sentiment. The Turkish-speaking Armenians of the south could scarcely
converse with the Armenian-speaking people of the north; and the
ignorant mountaineers of the east had nothing in common, except
religion, with the highly educated townsmen of Constantinople and
Smyrna. After the change in Russian policy and the failure of the powers
to secure reforms, the advanced party amongst the Armenians, some of
whom had been educated in Europe and been deeply affected by the free
thought and Nihilistic tendencies of the day, determined to secure their
object by the production of disturbances such as those that had given
birth to Bulgaria. Societies were formed at Tiflis and in several
European capitals for the circulation of pamphlets and newspapers, and
secret societies, such as the Huntchagist, were instituted for more
revolutionary methods. An active propaganda was carried on in Turkish
Armenia by emissaries, who tried to introduce arms and explosives, and
represented the ordinary incidents of Turkish misrule to Europe as
serious atrocities. The revolutionary movement was joined by some of the
younger men, who formed local committees on the Nihilist plan, but it
was strongly opposed by the Armenian clergy and the American
missionaries, who saw the impossibility of success; and its irreligious
tendency and the self-seeking ambition of its leaders made it
unacceptable to the mass of the people. Exasperated at their failure,
the emissaries organized attacks on individuals, wrote threatening
letters, and at last posted revolutionary placards, 5th of January 1893,
at Yuzgat, and on the walls of the American College at Marsivan. In the
last case the object of the Huntchagists was to compromise the
missionaries, and in this they succeeded. The Americans were accused of
issuing the placards; two Armenian professors were imprisoned; and the
girls' school was burned down. Outbreaks, easily suppressed, followed at
Kaisarieh and other places.
One of the revolutionary dreams was to make the ancient Daron the centre
of a new Armenia. But the movement met with no encouragement, either
amongst the prosperous peasants on the rich plain of Mush or in the
mountain villages of Sasun. In the summer of 1893, an emissary was
captured near Mush, and the governor, hoping to secure others, ordered
the Kurdish Irregular Horse to raid the mountain district. The Armenians
drove off the Kurds,[1] and, when attacked in the spring of 1894, again
held their own. The vali now called up regular troops from Erzingan; and
the sultan issued a firman calling upon all loyal subjects to aid in
suppressing the revolt. A massacre of a most brutal character, in which
Turkish soldiers took part, followed; and aroused deep indignation in
Europe. In November 1894 a Turkish commission of inquiry was sent to
Armenia, and was accompanied by the consular delegates of Great Britain,
France and Russia, who elicited the fact that there had been no attempt
at revolt to justify the action of the authorities. Throughout 1894 the
state of the country bordered upon anarchy, and during the winter of
1894-1895 the British government, with lukewarm support from France and
Russia, pressed for administrative reforms in the vilayets of Erzerum,
Van, Bitlis, Sivas, Memuret-el-Aziz (Kharput) and Diarbekr. The Porte
made counter-proposals, and officials concerned in the Sasun massacres
were decorated and rewarded. On the 11th of May 1895 the three powers
presented to the sultan a complicated scheme of reforms which was more
calculated to increase than to lessen the difficulties connected with
the government of Armenia; but it was the only one to which Russia would
agree. The sultan delayed his answer. Great Britain was in favour of
coercion, but Russia, when sounded, replied that she "would certainly
not join in any coercive measures" and she was supported by France. At
this moment, 21st of June 1895, Lord Rosebery's cabinet resigned, and
when Lord Salisbury's government resumed the negotiations in August, the
sultan appealed to France and Russia against England. During the
negotiations the secret societies had not been inactive. Disturbances
occurred at Tarsus; Armenians who did not espouse the "national" cause
were murdered; the life of the patriarch was threatened; and a report
was circulated that the British ambassador wished some Armenians killed
to give him an excuse for bringing the fleet to Constantinople. On the
1st of October 1895 a number of Armenians, some armed, went in
procession with a petition to the Porte and were ordered by the police
to disperse. Shots were fired, and a riot occurred in which many
Armenian and some Moslem lives were lost. The British ambassador now
pressed the scheme of reforms upon the sultan, who accepted it on the
17th of October. Meanwhile there had been a massacre at Trebizond
(October 8), in which armed men from Constantinople took part, and it
had become evident that no united action on the part of the powers was
to be feared. The sultan refused to publish the scheme of reforms, and
massacre followed massacre in Armenia in quick succession until the 1st
of January 1896. Nothing was done. Russia refused to agree to any
measure of coercion, and declared (December 19) that she would take no
action except such as was needed for the protection of foreigners. Great
Britain was not prepared to act alone. In the summer of 1896 (June
14-22) there were massacres at Van, Egin, and Niksar; and on the 26th of
August the Imperial Ottoman Bank at Constantinople was seized by
revolutionists as a demonstration against the Christian powers who had
left the Armenians to their fate. The project was known to the Porte,
and the rabble, previously armed and instructed, were at once turned
loose in the streets. Two days' massacre followed, during which from
6000 to 7000 Gregorian Armenians perished.
The massacres.
The massacres were apparently organized and carried out in accordance
with a well-considered plan. They occurred, except in six places, in the
vilayets to which the scheme of reforms was to apply. At Trebizond they
took place just before the sultan accepted that scheme, and after his
acceptance of it they spread rapidly. They were confined to Gregorian
and Protestant Armenians. The Roman Catholics were protected by France,
the Greek Christians by Russia. The massacre of Syrians, Jacobites and
Chaldees at Urfa and elsewhere formed no part of the original plan.
Orders were given to protect foreigners, and in some cases guards were
placed over their houses. The damage to the American buildings at
Kharput was due to direct disobedience of orders. The attacks on the
bazars were made without warning, during business hours, when the men
were in their shops and the women in their houses. Explicit promises
were given, in some instances, that there would be no danger to those
who opened their shops, but they were deliberately broken. Nearly all
those who, from their wealth, education and influence, would have had a
share in the government under the scheme of reforms, were killed and
their families ruined by the destruction of their property. Where any
attempt at defence was made the slaughter was greatest. The only
successful resistance was at Zeitun, where the people received
honourable terms after three months' fighting. In some towns the troops
and police took an active part in the massacres. At Kharput artillery
was used. In some the slaughter commenced and ended by bugle-call, and
in a few instances the Armenians were disarmed beforehand. Wherever a
superior official or army officer intervened the massacre at once
ceased, and wherever a governor stood firm there was no disturbance. The
actual perpetrators of the massacres were the local Moslems, aided by
Lazis, Kurds and Circassians. A large majority of the Moslems
disapproved of the massacres, and many Armenians were saved by Moslem
friends. But the lower orders were excited by reports that the
Armenians, supported by the European powers, were plotting the overthrow
of the sultan; and their cupidity was aroused by the prospect of wiping
out their heavy debts to Armenian pedlars and merchants. No one was
punished for the massacres, and many of those implicated in them were
rewarded. In some districts, especially in the Kharput vilayet, the cry
of "Islam or death" was raised. Gregorian priests and Protestant pastors
were tortured, but preferred death to apostasy. Men and women were
killed in prison and in churches in cold blood. Churches, monasteries,
schools and houses were plundered and destroyed. In some places there
was evidence of the previous activity of secret societies, in others
none. The number of those who perished, excluding Constantinople, was
20,000 to 25,000.[2] Many were forced to embrace Islam, and numbers were
reduced to poverty. The destruction of property was enormous, the
hardest-working and best tax-paying element in the country was
destroyed, or impoverished, and where the breadwinners were killed the
women and children were left destitute. Efforts by Great Britain and the
United States to alleviate the distress were opposed by the authorities,
but met with some success. After the massacres the number of students in
the American schools and colleges increased, and many Gregorian
Armenians became Roman Catholics in order to obtain the protection of
France.
The Armenian revolutionary societies continued their propaganda down to
the granting of the Turkish constitution in 1908; and meanwhile further
massacres occurred here and there, notably at Mush (1904) and Van
(1908).
See Abich, _Geologie d. armenischen Hochlandes_ (Wien, 1882); Bishop,
_Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan_ (Lond., 1891); Bliss, _Turkey and
the Armenian Atrocities_ (Lond., 1896); Bryce, _Transcaucasia and
Ararat_ (4th ed., Lond., 1896); De Coursous, _La Rebellion armenienne_
(Paris, 1895); Lepsius, _Armenia and Europe_ (Lond., 1897); Murray,
_Handbook for Asia Minor_ (Lond., 1895); Parly. Papers, _Turkey_, I.
(1895); _Turkey_, I., II. (1896); Supan, "Die Verbreitung d. Armenier
in der asiatischen Turkei, u. in Transkaukasien," in Pet. _Mitt_. vol.
xlii. (1896); Tozer, _Turkish Armenia and Eastern Asia Minor_ (Lond.,
1881); Cholet, _Armenie, Kurdistan, et Mesopotamie_ (1892); Lynch,
_Armenia_ (2 vols., 1901). (C. W. W.)