Angela di Brescia, about the year 1537, though the Saint from
whom it received its name, Ursula Benincasa, a native of
Naples, was born ten years afterwards. … The duties of those
holy sisters were the purest within the circle of human
benevolence—to minister to the sick, to relieve the poor, to
console the miserable, to pray with the penitent. These
charitable offices they undertook to execute without the bond
of any community, without the obligation of any monastic vow,
without any separation from society, any renouncement of their
domestic duties and virtues."
_G. Waddington,
History of the Church,
chapter 19, section 6._
----------URUGUAY: Start--------
URUGUAY:
The name.
"The Uruguay is called so after a bird, the Uru, which is
found in the woods on its banks, and the term Uruguay
signifies the country of the Uru."
_T. J. Hutchinson,
The Parana,
page 44._
URUGUAY: A. D. 1714-1777.
The settlement.
The contest for, between Spain and Portugal.
Relinquishment by the latter.
Inclusion in the viceroyalty of Buenos Ayres.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1580-1777.
{3589}
URUGUAY: A. D. 1826-1828.
The subject of war between Brazil and the Argentine Republic.
Independence established and recognized.
See ARGENTINE REPUBLIC: A. D. 1819-1874.
----------URUGUAY: End--------
USCOCKS, The.
"During the reign of Ferdinand [Emperor, 1558-1564], several
bodies of Christians, quitting the provinces which had been
recently conquered by the Turks, obtained from the Austrian
sovereigns a refuge at Clissa, in Dalmatia, under the
condition of forming themselves into a frontier militia
continually in arms against the infidels, and, from their
emigration, received the name of Uscocks, which, in the
language of the country, signifies wanderers. They fulfilled
the purpose of their establishment; and, being at length
expelled by the Turks, received a new asylum at Senga, a
ruined fortress in Croatia, on the coast of the Adriatic
gulph. Here, their numbers increasing by the accession of
Italian banditti and other marauders, they were rendered more
formidable than before; for they no longer confined their
predatory incursions to the land, but became pirates by sea. …
Their audacity increasing with success and plunder, they
pillaged, without distinction, the vessels of all the nations
who traded in the Adriatic." They were attacked by the Turks
and the Venetians, and the latter, at length, in the early
part of the 17th century, forced the Duke of Styria, who had
protected the freebooters, to allow their stronghold at Segna
to be demolished. "The Uscocks, being transplanted to
Carlstadt, soon lost their name and distinction."
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 42 (volume 2)._
USDIÆ, The.
See IRELAND: TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
USES, The Statute of.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1535, and 1557.
USHANT, Naval battle off (1794).
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (MARCH-JULY).
USIPETES AND TENCTHERI, Cæsar's overthrow of the.
The Usipetes and Tenctheri, two German tribes, whose home was
on the lower course of the Rhine, north and south of the
Lippe, being hard pressed by the Suevi, crossed the Rhine, B.
C. 55, and began to spread themselves along the Valley of the
Meuse. Cæsar marched against them with great promptitude,
refused to parley with them, accused them of treacherous
attempts to gain time, and was himself charged with wicked
treachery, in seizing their chiefs who met him with pacific
propositions. It is certain, at all events, that he was able
to attack them when they were deprived of leaders, and to
slaughter them with so little resistance that not one Roman
soldier was killed. Those who escaped the sword were driven
into the Rhine (probably at its point of junction with the
Moselle) and almost the entire mass of 180,000 are said to
have perished. The remnant took refuge with the Sicambri or
Sigambri, on the farther shore of the Rhine. Cæsar demanded
the surrender of them, and, when refused, he caused his
engineers to bridge the river in ten days, led his army across
it and laid waste the country of the Sigambri. This was the
first crossing of the Rhine by the Romans. The Suevi offered
battle to the Roman invaders, but Cæsar prudently returned,
and destroyed the bridge.
_Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 4, chapters 1-19._
ALSO IN:
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 10 (volume 1)._
----------UTAH: Start--------
UTAH: A. D. 1847.
Migration of Mormons from Nauvoo and their settlement on the
Great Salt Lake.
See MORMONISM: A. D. 1846-1848.
UTAH: A. D. 1848.
Acquisition from Mexico.
See MEXICO: A. D. 1848.
UTAH: A. D. 1849-1850.
The proposed State of Deseret.
Organization of the Territory of Utah.
Its name.
"Until the year 1849 the Mormons were entirely under the
control of their ecclesiastical leaders, regarding the
presidency not only as their spiritual head, but as the source
of law in temporal matters. … There was already in their midst
a small percentage of gentile citizens, gathered … from nearly
all the civilized nations of the earth. … Not infrequently
litigation arose among the gentiles, or between Mormon and
gentile; and though strict justice may have been done by the
bishops, it was difficult for the latter to believe that such
was the case. … Thus it became advisable to establish for the
benefit of all some judicial authority that could not be
questioned by any, whether members of the church or not, and
this authority must be one that, being recognized by the
government of the United States, would have the support of its
laws and the shield of its protection. Further than this, if
the Mormons neglected to establish such government, the
incoming gentiles would do so ere long. Early in 1849,
therefore, a convention was summoned of 'the inhabitants of
that portion of Upper California lying east of the Sierra
Nevada Mountains,' and on the 4th of March assembled at Salt
Lake City. A committee was appointed to draught a
constitution, under which the people might govern themselves
until congress should otherwise provide by law. A few days
later the constitution was adopted, and a provisional
government organized, under the name of the State of Deseret.
An immense tract of country was claimed, extending from
latitude 33° to the border of Oregon, and from the Rocky
Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, together with a section of the
territory now included in southern California, and the strip
of coast lying between Lower California and 118° 30' of west
longitude. The seat of government was to be at Salt Lake
City." In July Almon W. Babbitt was elected delegate to
Congress, and that body was petitioned to admit the
provisionally organized State into the Union. The delegate and
his petition met with a cool reception at Washington; but in
September, 1850, Congress passed an act organizing the
Territory of Utah, and Brigham Young was appointed Governor.
"The act to establish a territorial government for Utah placed
the southern boundary at the 37th parallel, the section
between that limit and the 33d parallel being included in the
Territory of New Mexico [organized at the same time], with the
exception of the part transferred to California, by which
State Utah was to be bounded on the west. On the north, Oregon
was to remain as the boundary, and on the east the Rocky
Mountains." "The word Utah originated with the people
inhabiting that region. Early in the 17th century, when New
Mexico was first much talked of by the Spaniards, the
principal nations of frequent mention as inhabiting the
several sides of the locality about that time occupied were
the Navajos, the Yutas, the Apaches, and the Comanches. Of the
Utah nation, which belongs to the Shoshone family, there were
many tribes. … The early orthography of the word Utah is
varied." "Yuta" "was a common spelling by the early
Spaniards, and might be called the proper one. Later we have
'Youta,' 'Eutaw,' 'Utaw,' and 'Utah.'"
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 21 (Utah), chapter 17, and foot-note, page 34._
See, also, AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.
{3590}
UTAH: A. D. 1857-1859.
The Mormon Rebellion.
"To this would-be 'State of Deseret' President Fillmore had
assigned Brigham Young, the spiritual head of the church, as
territorial governor; and by 1857, when a Democratic President
showed the disposition to apply the usual temporal rule of
rotation to the office, Young was rebellious, and the whole
Mormon population, refusing allegiance to anyone but their
consecrated head, began to drill and gird on their armor for
resistance. Judges of the territorial courts had to flee for
their lives; justice, which had long been tampered with to
absolve church members from punishment, was deprived of
process. It was charged that the Mormon hierarchy had leagued
with Indian tribes to impel them to atrocities against the
Gentile inhabitants, while their own Danites, or destroying
angels, were secretly set apart and bound by horrid oath to
pillage and murder such as made themselves obnoxious to the
theocracy. … President Buchanan appointed as the new governor
of Utah Alfred Cumming, a man combining courage with
discretion, and filled the judicial and other vacancies which
existed. To protect those new officers and aid them in
discharging their functions, he ordered a detachment of
regulars to accompany them to the Salt Lake region. The need
of this was soon apparent. Early in September, 1857, a part of
the troops left Fort Laramie, and on the 15th of the same
month Brigham Young, parading audaciously the commission he
still held from the United States, forbade all armed forces
from entering the territory, and called upon his people to
defend themselves against the 'armed mercenary mob' of
invaders. His legislature, meeting later, sustained him in his
bitter diatribe against the 'profane, drunken, and corrupt
officials,' which a Washington administration was trying to
force upon Utah territory at the point of the bayonet. A
Mormon force had meanwhile advanced to impede the approach of
our regulars, capturing and burning three supply trains of
wagons laden with tents and provisions, stampeding the horses,
and so crippling Fort Bridger, which was distant some twelve
days' march from Salt Lake city, as to deprive our army, on
its arrival, of a proper winter's shelter after its long and
fatiguing march, and compel General Johnston, who commanded
this important post, to despatch part of his forces upon a
dreary and hazardous expedition to New Mexico for further
supplies. Johnston's despatches in October showed the
President that unless a large force was quickly sent out, a
long conflict would be inevitable. Buchanan and his Secretary
of War asked from the present Congress ten new regiments, of
which five might be used to bring the Mormons to subjection.
But the Lecompton controversy was raging; and the use of
Federal troops to put down the free-State movement in Kansas
had caused such mistrust and irritation that none but the
President's unshaken supporters felt inclined to place more
troops at his disposal. The bill for an army increase was
lost, though both Houses passed a measure authorizing the
President to accept for the Utah disturbances two regiments of
volunteers. The volunteers were not called out; but Buchanan
mustered a military force out of the regulars strong enough to
overawe and overpower Utah's rebellious inhabitants. Two peace
commissioners also bore to Utah a proclamation from the
President, dated April 6th, which offered free pardon, except
to those who persisted still in disloyal resistance. Governor
Cumming, upon his arrival, made a like announcement. These
conciliatory efforts, backed by an irresistible show of
military strength, brought the Mormons to a speedy
acknowledgment of allegiance. They fought not a battle, but
manifested a purpose to burn their houses and make a new and
peaceable retreat into the wilderness. From this purpose,
after some conferences, they were at length dissuaded; and it
was agreed in June between the Mormon leaders and our
commissioners that the United States soldiery should be kept
out of sight as much as possible while Utah remained tranquil.
On the last day of the same month the new governor,
accompanied by Brigham Young, came back to Salt Lake city to
assume functions which were fully recognized. A few days
earlier, and before the Mormons had begun to return to their
homes, General Johnston and his troops, leaving Fort Bridger,
reached the desolate city, marched through its streets, and,
crossing its river Jordan, encamped on the opposite bank.
While abandoning all further effort at violent resistance, the
Mormons still clung to the hope of being left to govern
themselves and preserve their institutions against the world's
contaminating touch, by gaining the indispensable condition of
practical isolation and independence. To this Congress in its
next winter's session they renewed the former petitions they
had presented for immediate admission to the Union as the
'State of Deseret.' And should this request be denied, they
prayed that the organic act of the territory might be so
amended as to give the inhabitants the right to choose their
own governor, judges, and other officers. All this Congress
quietly ignored; and in military circles it was still
generally believed that, for all this outward show of loyal
acquiescence, the Mormons felt at heart no more affection for
the United States than for any foreign nation; that the only
rule they really recognized was that of their religion and the
will of their hierarchy; and that force must still be used to
compel them. Such views were entertained by General Albert
Sidney Johnston, the military commander at Utah, destined to
later distinction in the art of war. But Cumming, the
governor, who had the temporizing instincts of a civilian,
thought differently. The two came into collision when Mormons
were brought to trial in the courts for a slaughter of
emigrants in 1857, known as the Mountain Meadow massacre.
[This was the massacre, by Indians and Mormons, of a party of
136 emigrants, from Arkansas and Missouri, who were passing
through Utah to California; it occurred in September, 1857, in
a valley called the Mountain Meadows, about 300 miles south of
Salt Lake city; only 17 young children were saved from the
slaughter.] At the request of the Federal judge, Johnston
furnished a military detachment to guard the prisoners; and
when Cumming, the governor, interposed because of the angry
remonstrance of the people, Johnston would not remove them.
Buchanan, being appealed to, sustained the governor's
authority."
_J. Schouler,
History of the United States,
chapter 22 (volume 5)._
ALSO IN:
_H. H. Bancroft,
History of the Pacific States,
volume 21, chapters 18-21._
_W. P. Johnston,
Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston,
chapter 13._
_Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse,
Tell it All,
chapter 23._
_Report of United States Secretary of the Interior,
36th Congress, 1st session,
Senate Ex. Doc., number 42 (volume 11)._
{3591}
UTAH: A. D. 1882-1893.
The Edmunds Act and its enforcement.
Abandonment of Polygamy by the Mormons.
Proclamation of Amnesty for past offenses against the law.
In March, 1882, an Act of Congress (known as the Edmunds Act)
was passed for the purpose of making efficient the law against
polygamy in the territories, which had stood among the
statutes of the United States for twenty years, without power
on the part of the federal courts or officials in Utah to
enforce it, as against Mormon juries. Besides repeating the
penalties prescribed In the Act of 1862, the Act of 1882
provides, in its eighth section, that "no polygamist,
bigamist, or any person cohabiting with more than one woman,
and no woman cohabiting with any of the persons described as
aforesaid in this section, in any Territory or other place
over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction,
shall be entitled to vote at any election held in any such
Territory or other place, or be eligible for election or
appointment to or be entitled to hold any office or place of
public trust, honor, or emolument in, under, or for any such
Territory or place, or under the United States." The ninth and
last section is as follows: "Section 9. That all the
registration and election offices of every description in the
Territory of Utah are hereby declared vacant, and each and
every duty relating to the registration of voters, the conduct
of elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, and the
canvassing and returning of the same, and the issuing of
certificates or other evidence of election, in said Territory,
shall, until other provisions be made by the legislative
assembly of said Territory, as is hereinafter by this section
provided, be performed, under the existing laws of the United
States and said Territory, by proper persons, who shall be
appointed to execute such offices and perform such duties by a
Board of five persons, to be appointed by the President, by
and with the advice and consent of the Senate, not more than
three of whom shall be members of one political party, and a
majority of whom shall be a quorum. The members of said Board
so appointed by the President shall each receive a salary at
the rate of three thousand dollars per annum, and shall
continue in office until the legislative assembly of said
Territory shall make provision for filling said offices as
herein authorized. The Secretary of the Territory shall be the
secretary of said Board and keep a journal of its proceedings,
and attest the action of said Board under this section. The
canvass and return of all the votes at elections in said
Territory for members of the legislative assembly thereof
shall also be returned to said Board, which shall canvass all
such returns and issue certificates of election for those
persons who, being eligible for such election, shall appear to
have been lawfully elected, which certificates shall be the
only evidence of the right of such persons to sit in such
assembly: Provided, That said Board of five persons shall not
exclude any person otherwise eligible to vote from the polls
on account of any opinion such person may entertain on the
subject of bigamy or polygamy, nor shall they refuse to count
any such vote on account of the opinion of the person casting
it on the subject of bigamy or polygamy, but each house of
such assembly, after its organization, shall have power to
decide upon the elections and qualifications of its members.
And at or after the first meeting of said legislative assembly
whose members shall have been elected and returned according
to the provisions of this act, said legislative assembly may
make such laws, conformable to the organic act of said
Territory, and not inconsistent with other laws of the United
States, as it shall deem proper concerning the filling of the
offices in said Territory declared vacant by this act."—The
following Proclamation, issued by the President of the United
States on the 4th day of January, 1893, may be looked upon as
the sequel and consequence of the legislation recorded above:
"Whereas Congress, by a statute approved March 22, 1882, and
by statutes in furtherance and amendment thereof, defined the
crimes of bigamy, polygamy, and unlawful cohabitation in the
Territories and other places within the exclusive jurisdiction
of the United States and prescribed a penalty for such crimes;
and Whereas, on or about the 6th day of October, 1890, the
Church of the Latter-Day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon
Church, through its president, issued a manifesto proclaiming
the purpose of said church no longer to sanction the practice
of polygamous marriages and calling upon all members and
adherents of said church to obey the laws of the United States
in reference to said subject-matter; and Whereas it is
represented that since the date of said declaration the
members and adherents of said church have generally obeyed
said laws and have abstained from plural marriages and
polygamous cohabitation; and Whereas, by a petition dated
December 19, 1891, the officials of said church, pledging the
membership thereof to a faithful obedience to the laws against
plural marriage and unlawful cohabitation, have applied to me
to grant amnesty for past offenses against said laws, which
request a very large number of influential non-Mormons,
residing in the Territories, have also strongly urged; and
Whereas, the Utah Commission, in their report bearing date
September 15, 1892, recommended that said petition be granted
and said amnesty proclaimed, under proper conditions as to the
future observance of the law, with a view to the encouragement
of those now disposed to become law abiding citizens; and
Whereas, during the past two years such amnesty has been
granted to individual applicants in a very large number of
cases, conditioned upon the faithful observance of the laws of
the United States against unlawful cohabitation; and there are
now pending many more such applications: Now therefore, I,
Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States, by virtue
of the power in me vested, do hereby declare and grant a full
amnesty and pardon to all persons liable to the penalties of
said act by reason of unlawful cohabitation under the color of
polygamous or plural marriage, who have since November 1, 1890,
abstained from such unlawful cohabitation; but upon the
express condition that they shall in the future faithfully
obey the laws of the United States hereinbefore named, and not
otherwise. Those who shall fail to avail themselves of the
clemency hereby offered will be vigorously prosecuted. In
witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of
Washington this 4th day of January, in the year of our Lord
1893, and of the Independence of the United States the 117th.
Benjamin Harrison."
{3592}
UTAH: A. D. 1894-1895.
Provision for admission to the Union as a State.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1894-1895.
----------UTAH: End--------
UTAHS, UTES, PIUTES, etc.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: SHOSHONEAN FAMILY.
----------UTICA: Start--------
UTICA:
Origin.
"The most ancient Phœnician colonies were Utica, nearly on the
northern-most point of the coast of Africa, and in the same
gulf (now known as the gulf of Tunis) as Carthage, over
against Cape Lilybæum in Sicily,—and Gades, or Gadeira, on
the south-western coast of Spain; a town which, founded
perhaps near one thousand years before the Christian era, has
maintained a continuous prosperity, and a name (Cadiz)
substantially unaltered, longer than any town in Europe. How
well the site of Utica was suited to the circumstances of
Phœnician colonists may be inferred from the fact that
Carthage was afterwards established in the same gulf and near
to the same spot, and that both the two cities reached a high
pitch of prosperity."
_G. Grote,
History of Greece,
part 2, chapter 18._
[Transcriber's note: The meaning of the phrase
'…name (Cadiz)…' appears to be ambiguous.
"The site of … Utica is … about 30 km from Tunis and 30 km
from Bizerte and near … Zhana, … Ghar El Melh, … El Alia,
… Metline."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utica%2C_Tunisia]
UTICA:
Relations to Carthage.
See CARTHAGE, THE DOMINION OF.
UTICA:
Curio's defeat.
Curio, the legate or lieutenant sent first by Cæsar to Africa
(B. C. 49), to attack the Pompeian forces in that quarter,
undertook with two legions to reduce the city of Utica, which
had became the capital of the Roman Province. Juba, king of
Numidia, who was personally hostile to both Curio and Cæsar,
came to the assistance of the Pompeians and forced Curio to
withdraw from its besieging lines into the neighboring
Cornelian camp, which was a famous military entrenchment left
by Scipio Africanus. There he might have waited in safety for
re-enforcements; but the wily Numidian tempted him out by a
feigned retreat and then overwhelmed him. Curio and most of
his men were slain.
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 16._
ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 5, chapter 7._
UTICA:
Last stand of the opponents of Cæsar.
See ROME: B. C. 47-46.
----------UTICA: End--------
UTRAQUISTS, The.
See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1419-1434.
----------UTRECHT: Start--------
UTRECHT:
The Episcopal Principality.
"At the last ford of the Rhine a hamlet had in Roman times
been built, possibly a fort also. Nothing is preserved
regarding it but the name, which, in the mutations of
language, passed from Ultrajectum into Utrecht. Towards the
conclusion of the 7th century, Clement Willebrod, an English
priest, who had been educated at the monastery of Ripon,
coming as a missionary into those parts, succeeded, with the
aid of eleven of his fellow-countrymen, in winning over the
Frisian people to the Christian faith. He fixed his abode at
Utrecht, of which he was afterwards appointed bishop; and
gifts of land, at the time of little worth, were made to his
successors by Pepin and Charlemagne. Such was the commencement
of the temporal grandeur of the prince-bishops, whose dynasty
attained to a power little less than sovereign during the
middle ages. … With ready access to the sea, and not without
an early disposition towards these pursuits which their
kinsmen of the Rhineland towns were beginning to follow, the
inhabitants of Utrecht soon became good sailors and good
weavers, and their city throve apace. Enriched by successive
grants of privileges and lands, the bishops of Utrecht
gradually became powerful feudal lords."
_W. T. McCullagh,
Industrial History of Free Nations,
chapter 8 (volume 2)._
UTRECHT: A. D. 1456.
The bishopric grasped by the House of Burgundy.
"Utrecht was still a separate state, governed by its sovereign
bishop, who was elected by the votes of the chapter, subject
to the approval of the Pope. On the vacancy which occurred
towards the end of the year 1455, the choice of the canons
fell upon Gisbert van Brederode, who had previously been
archdeacon of the cathedral, and was held in general esteem
amongst the people as well as the clergy. The Duke of Burgundy
coveted so rich a prize, rather for its political importance,
however, … than for any direct or immediate gain." The Duke
appealed to Rome; Gisbert was put back into his archdeaconry,
with an annuity for life, and David, a natural son of Duke
Philip, was made bishop. "Thus the foundation was laid for the
permanent union of Utrecht to the other provinces, although
its final accomplishment was destined to be deferred yet many
years."
_W. T. McCullagh,
Industrial History of Free Nations,
chapter 10 (volume 2)._
UTRECHT: A. D. 1576.
The Spanish Fury.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1575-1577.
UTRECHT: A. D. 1579.
The Union of the Seven Provinces.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1577-1581.
UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
The Treaties which ended the War of the Spanish Succession,
forming the Peace of Utrecht and the Treaty of Rastadt.
The long War of the Spanish Succession was brought to a close
(except as between Germany and France) by negotiations at
Utrecht, which resulted in the concluding of a number of
treaties between the several powers concerned, constituting
collectively what is known as the Peace of Utrecht.
Negotiations to this end were begun by England and France
early in 1711, and preliminaries were settled between them and
signed in October of that year. This action of the English
compelled the other allies to consent to a general conference,
which opened at Utrecht January 20, 1712. The discussion of
terms lasted more than a year, while the war went on. Between
Germany and France the war still continued and it was at
Rastadt (March, 1714), not Utrecht, that the last named powers
came to their agreement of peace. The several treaties
concluded at Utrecht were most of them signed on the 31st day
of March. O. S., or April 11, N. S., in the year 1713, "by the
plenipotentiaries of France, England, Portugal, Prussia,
Savoy, and the United Provinces; the emperor resolving to
continue the war, and the king of Spain refusing to sign the
stipulations until a principality should be provided in the
Low Countries for the princess Ursini, the favourite of his
queen [a demand which he subsequently withdrew].
{3593}
The chief articles of this memorable pacification were to the
following purport: It was stipulated that, … Philip, now
established on the Spanish throne; should renounce all right
to the crown of France; that the dukes of Berry and Orleans,
the next heirs to the French monarchy after the infant
dauphin, should in like manner renounce all right to the crown
of Spain, in the event of their accession to the French
throne; that, on the death of Philip, and in default of his
male issue, the succession of Spain and the Indies should be
secured to the duke of Savoy; that the island of Sicily should
be instantly ceded by his Catholic majesty to the same prince,
with the title of king; that France should also cede to him
the valleys of Pragelas, Oulx, Sezanne, Bardonache, and
Château-Dauphin, with the forts of Exilles and Fenestrelles,
and restore to him the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice;
and that the full property and sovereignty of both banks and
the navigation of the Marañan, or river of Amazons, in South
America, should belong to the king of Portugal. It was
declared that the king of Prussia should receive Spanish
Guelderland, with the sovereignty of Neufchâtel and Valengin,
in exchange for the principality of Orange and the lordship of
Châlons, and that his regal title should be acknowledged; that
the Rhine should form the boundary of the German empire on the
side of France; and that all fortifications, beyond that
river, claimed by France, or in the possession of his most
Christian majesty, should either be relinquished to the
emperor or destroyed; that the kingdom of Naples, the duchy of
Milan, and the Spanish territories on the Tuscan shore, should
be ceded to the house of Austria; that the sovereignty of the
Spanish Netherlands should likewise be secured to that family;
but that the elector of Bavaria (to whom they had been granted
by Philip) should retain such places as were still in his
possession, until he should be reinstated in all his German
dominions, except the Upper Palatinate, and also be put in
possession of the island of Sardinia, with the title of king:
that Luxemburg, Namur, and Charleroy should be given to the
states-general as a barrier, together with Mons, Menin,
Tournay, and other places; and that Lisle, Aire, Bethune, and
St. Venant, should be restored to France. It was agreed that
the French monarch should acknowledge the title of queen Anne,
and the eventual succession of the family of Hanover to the
British throne; that the fortifications of Dunkirk (the cause
of much jealousy to England, and raised at vast expense to
France) should be demolished, and the harbour filled up; that
the island of St. Christopher (which had long been possessed
jointly by the French and English, but from which the French
had been expelled in 1702) should be subject to this country
[England]; that Hudson's Bay and Straits (where the French had
founded a settlement, but without dispossessing the English,
and carried on a rival trade during the war), the town of
Placentia, and other districts of the island of Newfoundland
(where the French had been suffered to establish themselves,
through the negligence of government), and the long-disputed
province of Nova Scotia (into which the French had early
intruded, out of which they had been frequently driven, and
which had been finally conquered by an army from New England
in 1710), should be considered as the dependencies of the
British crown: that Minorca and the fortress of Gibraltar
(conquered from Spain) should remain in the possession of
Great Britain; and that the Assiento, or contract for
furnishing the Spanish colonies in South America with negroes,
should belong to the subjects of Great Britain for the term of
thirty years. That these conditions, especially on the part of
Great Britain, were very inadequate to the success and expense
of the war, will be allowed by every intelligent man, whose
understanding is not warped by political prejudices. … The
other confederates had greater cause to be satisfied, and the
emperor [Charles VI.] as much as any of them; yet was he
obstinate in refusing to sign the general pacification, though
two months were allowed him to deliberate on the terms. But he
had soon reason to repent his rashness in resolving to
continue the war alone. … The imperial army on the Rhine,
commanded by prince Eugene, was not in a condition to face the
French under Villars, who successively took Worms, Spire,
Keiserlautern, and the important fortress of Landau. He forced
the passage of the Rhine … and reduced Freyburg, the capital
of the Breisgau. Unwilling to prosecute a disastrous war, the
emperor began seriously to think of peace; and conferences,
which afterward terminated in a pacific treaty, were opened
between prince Eugene and Villars, at Ranstadt. The terms of
this treaty, concluded on the 6th of March (N. S.) 1714 [but
ratified at Baden the next September, and sometimes called the
Treaty of Baden], were less favourable to the emperor than
those which had been offered at Utrecht. The king of France
retained Landau, which he had before proposed to cede, with
several fortresses behind the Rhine, which he had agreed to
demolish [but restored Freiburg]. He procured the full
re-establishment of the electors of Bavaria and Cologne in
their dominions and dignities; the former prince consenting to
relinquish Sardinia to the emperor, in return for the Upper
Palatinate. … The principal articles in regard to Italy and
the Low Countries were the same with those settled at Utrecht.
Relaxing in his obstinacy, the king of Spain also acceded to
the general pacification."
_W. Russell,
History of Modern Europe,
part 2, letter 23 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_J. W. Gerard,
The Peace of Utrecht,
chapters 24-29._
_T. Macknight,
Life of Bolingbroke,
chapters 8-9._
_G. W. Cooke,
Memoirs of Bolingbroke,
volume 1, chapter 13._
_W. Coxe,
Memoirs of Marlborough,
chapters 108-110._
_J. C. Collins,
Bolingbroke,
section 1._
_A. Hassall,
Life of Bolingbroke,
chapter 3._
See, also,
ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713;
SLAVERY, NEGRO: A. D. 1698-1776;
CANADA: A. D.1711-1713;
and NEWFOUNDLAND: A. D. 1713.
----------UTRECHT: End--------
UTRECHT SCHOOL OF ST. MARTIN.
See EDUCATION, MEDIÆVAL: NETHERLANDS.
UXBRIDGE, Attempted Treaty of.
See ENGLAND: A. D. 1645 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY).
UXELLODUNUM, Siege of.
See GAUL: B. C. 58-51.
UXMAL, Ruins of.
See MEXICO: ANCIENT, THE MAYA AND NAHUA PEOPLES.
UZES, The.
See PATCHINAKS.
{3594}
V.
VACALUS, The.
The ancient name of the river Waal.
VACCÆI, The.
One of the tribes of the Celtiberians in ancient Spain.
_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 4, chapter 1._
VACCINATION, The discovery of.
See MEDICAL SCIENCE: 18TH CENTURY.
VACOMAGI, The.
A tribe in ancient Caledonia, whose territory extended along
the border of the Highlands, from the Moray Firth to the Tay.
See BRITAIN: CELTIC TRIBES.
VACSLAV.
See WENCESLAUS.
VADIMONIAN LAKE, Battle of the.
See ROME: B. C. 295-191.
VAISYAS.
See CASTE SYSTEM OF INDIA.
VALDEMAR I. (called The Great), King of Denmark, A. D. 1157-1182.
Valdemar I., King of Sweden, 1266-1275.
Valdemar II., King of Denmark, 1202-1241.
Valdemar III., King of Denmark, 1340-1375.
VALDEVEZ, The Tourney of.
See PORTUGAL: A. D. 1095-1325.
VALEA ALBA, Battle of (1476).
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES:
14-18TH CENTURIES (ROUMANIA, ETC.)
VALENCIA: A. D. 1031-1092.
The seat of a Moorish kingdom.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1031-1086.
----------VALENCIENNES: Start--------
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1566.
Crushing of the first revolt against Spanish tyranny in the
Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1566-1568.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1576.
The Spanish Fury.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1575-1577.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1583.
Submission to Spain.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1584-1585.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1656.
Siege and failure of Turenne.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1653-1656.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1677.
Taken by Louis XIV.
See NETHERLANDS (HOLLAND): A. D. 1674-1678.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1679.
Cession to France.
See NIMEGUEN, THE PEACE OF.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1793.
Siege and capture by the Austrians.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (JULY-DECEMBER) PROGRESS OF THE WAR.
VALENCIENNES: A. D. 1794.
Recovery by the French.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1794 (JANUARY-JULY).
----------VALENCIENNES: End--------
VALENS, Roman Emperor (Eastern), A. D. 364-378.
VALENTIA.
One of the Roman provinces formed in Britain, extending from
the wall of Hadrian to the wall of Antoninus, covering
southern Scotland. It was named in honor of the Emperor
Valentinian.
See BRITAIN: A. D. 323-337; and 367-370.
VALENTINE, Pope, A. D. 827, September to October.
VALENTINIAN I., Roman Emperor (Western), A. D. 364-375.
Valentinian II., Roman Emperor (Western), 375-392.
Valentinian III., Roman Emperor (Western), 425-455.
VALERIAN, Roman Emperor, A. D. 253-260.
VALERIAN LAWS.
See ROME: B. C. 509.
VALERIO-HORATIAN LAWS, The.
See ROME: B. C. 449.
VAL-ES-DUNES, Battle of (1047).
See NORMANDY: A. D. 1035-1063.
VALLACHIA.
See BALKAN AND DANUBIAN STATES.
VALLACHS, The.
See WALLACHS.
VALLADOLID, Battle of (1813).
See MEXICO: A. D. 1810-1819.
VALLANDIGHAM, Clement L., The arrest of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1863 (MAY-JUNE).
VALLEY FORGE:
Washington's army in winter quarters.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1777 (JANUARY-DECEMBER).
VALLI.
VALLUM.
See CASTRA.
VALMY, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1792 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER).
VALOIS, The House of.
The direct line of the Capetian kings of France, descendants
of Hugh Capet, ended in 1328, with the death of Charles IV.
The crown then passed to the late king's cousin, Philip of
Valois, son of Charles Count of Valois, who was the second son
of Philip III. He became Philip VI. in the series of French
kings, and with him began the royal dynasty or House of
Valois, which came to an end in 1589, on the assassination of
Henry III., yielding the throne to the Bourbon family.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1314-1328.
For source of the name.
See BOURBON, THE HOUSE OF.
VALOUTINA, Battle of.
See RUSSIA: A. D. 1812 (JUNE-SEPTEMBER).
VALTELINE, Annexation to the Cisalpine Republic.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1797 (MAY-OCTOBER).
VALTELINE WAR.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1624-1626.
VAN BUREN, Martin.
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1836, to 1841.
Defeat in Presidential Election.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1840.
The Free Soil Movement.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1848.
VANCOUVER'S ISLAND.
See BRITISH COLUMBIA.
VANDALIA, The proposed western colony of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
----------VANDALS: Start--------
VANDALS:
Origin and early movements.
"Gibbon declares that a striking resemblance, in manners,
complexion, religion, and language, indicates that the Goths
and Vandals were originally one great people; and he cites the
testimony of Pliny and Procopius in support of this belief.
According to this theory, therefore, the Vandals are of the
Teutonic stock. Other learned men have endeavoured to identify
them with the Wendes; and the Wendes, as we have seen,
according to the authority of Jornandes and others, were
members of the Slavic race. The question has been examined,
with great learning and ingenuity, by M. L. Marcus, Professor
at the College of Dijon, in a work upon Vandal history. His
conclusion, drawn from a comparison of what Tacitus, Pliny,
Procopius, and Jornandes have left us upon the subject, is
favourable to the hypothesis of Gibbon. Between the Wendes and
the Vindili of Pliny, who were undoubtedly Vandals, he
considers that no nearer point of union can be found than that
of the Asiatic origin common to all nations of Slavic and
Teutonic blood.
{3595}
He accounts for the fact that some confusion upon the subject
subsists in ancient writers, by the supposition that the
Slaves, after the great migration of Goths and Vandals to the
South, occupied the locality they had abandoned on the coasts
of the Baltic, and became inheritors of the name, as well as
of the land, of their predecessors. Hence they were commonly,
though incorrectly, called Vindili, or Vandals. … The earliest
locality of the tribe, so far as authentic history can trace
them, seems to have been the district between the Vistula and
the Elbe. Here they were found by the Langobardi, in their
migration towards the South. … In the time of Pliny, we have
that writer's testimony to the fact that the Vandals were
still to be found between the two rivers. But during the next
two centuries their unwarlike habits must have tended to
diminish their importance among their fierce and active
neighbours, of whom the Goths were the most formidable, and
probably the most aggressive. Tacitus, at any rate, in his
tractate upon the Germans [A. D. 100], merely notices them by
name. … Another half-century finds them in a strong position
among the mountains which form the northern frontier of
Bohemia. It is certain that they took part in the great
Marcomannic war [A. D. 168-180]. … In the treaty made by
Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, with the Marcomanni [A.
D. 180], the Vandals are one of the tribes secured from the
hostility of those persevering enemies of the Roman empire. At
this time, Ptolemy informs us that the Vandals occupied the
districts lying around the sources of the Elbe; and all other
investigation confirms the statement." A hundred years later,
the Vandals appear to have been planted in a district on the
Danube, east of the Theiss; from which they were soon
afterwards driven by the Goths. They were then permitted by
the emperor Constantine to pass the frontiers of the empire
and settle in Pannonia, where they accepted Christianity and
exhibited "the greatest aptitude for commerce and the arts of
peace." Despite their Christianity, however, and despite their
aptitude for the "arts of peace," the Vandals, after seventy
years of friendly neighboring with the Romans, joined the
savage pack of Alans, Sueves and Burgundians which, on the
last day of the year 406, broke into Gaul and shattered the
empire and the civilization of Rome beyond the Alps.
_J. G. Sheppard,
The Fall of Rome,
lecture 7._
ALSO IN:
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and her Invaders,
book 3, chapter 2 (volume 2)._
VANDALS: A. D. 406-409.
Final Invasion of Gaul.
See GAUL: A. D. 406-409.
A. D. 409-414.
Settlement in Spain.
See SPAIN: A. D. 409-414.
VANDALS: A. D. 428.
Conquests in Spain.
"After the retreat of the Goths [A. D. 418] the authority of
Honorius had obtained a precarious establishment in Spain,
except only in the province of Gallicia, where the Suevi and
the Vandals had fortified their camps in mutual discord and
hostile independence. The Vandals prevailed, and their
adversaries were besieged in the Nervasian hills, between Leon
and Oviedo, till the approach of Count Asterius compelled, or
rather provoked, the victorious barbarians to remove the scene
of war to the plains of Bætica. The rapid progress of the
Vandals soon required a more effectual opposition, and the
master-general Castinus marched against them with a numerous
army of Romans and Goths. Vanquished in battle by an inferior
enemy, Castinus fled with dishonour to Tarragona. … Seville
and Carthagena became the reward, or rather the prey, of the
ferocious conquerors."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 33._
Southern Spain, the ancient Bætica, acquired from the Vandals
the name Vandalusia, which became Andalusia.
_R. G. Latham,
Ethnology of Europe,
chapter 2._
VANDALS: A. D. 429-439.
Conquests in Africa.
In May, A. D. 429, the Vandals passed from Spain into Africa,
invited by Count Boniface, the Roman governor of the African
province. The latter had been deceived by an intriguing rival,
Count Aetius, who persuaded him that the imperial Court at
Ravenna were planning his disgrace and death. Thus incited to
rebellion, as an act of self defense, he called the Vandals to
his help. The latter had just fallen under the leadership of a
new and terrible king—the bold and ruthless Genseric, who was
destined to make the name of his people a proverb through all
time for ferocity and barbarism. To the Vandals were united
the Alans, and Genseric invaded Africa with some 80,000 men.
He was joined, moreover, by great numbers of disaffected
native Mauritanians, or Moors, and was welcomed by swarms of
the fanatical Donatists, whose "vandalism" could quite equal
his own. Count Boniface shrank aghast from the terrible
invasion he had summoned, and learning, too late, how foully
he had been played upon, returned to his allegiance with
penitent energy and zeal. He turned his arms against Genseric;
but it was in vain. "The victorious barbarians insulted the
open country; and Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo Regius were the
only cities that appeared to rise above the general
inundation. … The seven fruitful provinces, from Tangier to
Tripoli, were overwhelmed. … The Vandals, where they found
resistance, seldom gave quarter; and the deaths of their
valiant countrymen were expiated by the ruin of the cities
under whose walls they had fallen. Careless of the
distinctions of age or sex or rank, they employed every
species of indignity and torture to force from the captives a
discovery of their hidden wealth." Defeated in a battle which
he ventured, Boniface retired into Hippo Regius and stood a
siege of fourteen months. A second battle, won by the Vandals,
decided the fate of the city, but its inhabitants escaped, for
the most part, by sea, before the barbarians broke in. The
great Bishop of Hippo, the venerable St. Augustine, was in the
city when the siege began, but died before it ended, in his
seventy-sixth year. "When the city, some months after his
death, was burned by the Vandals, the library was fortunately
saved which contained his voluminous writings." Hippo fell in
the summer of A. D. 431. It was not until eight years later
that Carthage succumbed,—taken treacherously, by surprise, on
the 9th of October, 439; being 585 years after the destruction
of the ancient city by the younger Scipio. The provinces of
Africa were now fully in the possession of the Vandals, and
the loss of their cor
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 33._
ALSO IN:
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 7._
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 3, chapter 2._
VANDALS: A. D. 429-477.
In Sicily.
See SICILY: A. D. 429-525.
{3596}
VANDALS: A. D. 431-533.
Ruin of Africa under their dominion.
"The Vandals were bigoted Arians and their government was
peculiarly tyrannical; they always treated the Roman
inhabitants of Africa as political enemies, and persecuted
them as religious opponents. The Visigoths in Spain had
occupied two thirds of the subjugated lands, the Ostrogoths in
Italy had been satisfied with one third; and both these people
had acknowledged the civil rights of the Romans as citizens
and Christians. The Vandals adopted a different policy.
Genseric reserved immense domains to himself and to his sons.
He divided the densely peopled and rich districts of Africa
proper among the Vandal warriors, exempting them from taxation
and binding them to military service. … They seized all the
richest lands, and the most valuable estates, and exterminated
the higher class of the Romans. Only the poorer proprietors
were permitted to preserve the arid and distant parts of the
country. Still, the number of the Romans excited the fears of
the Vandals, who destroyed the walls of the provincial towns
in order to prevent the people from receiving succours from
the Eastern Empire. … When Genseric conquered Carthage, his
whole army amounted only to 50,000 warriors; yet this small
horde devoured all the wealth of Africa in the course of a
single century, and, from an army of hardy soldiers, it was
converted Into a caste of luxurious nobles living in splendid
villas round Carthage. In order fully to understand the
influence of the Vandals on the state of the country which
they occupied, it must be observed that their oppressive
government had already so far lowered the condition and
reduced the numbers of the Roman provincials, that the native
Moors began to reoccupy the country from which Roman industry
and Roman capital had excluded them. … As the property of the
province was destroyed, Its Roman inhabitants perished."
_G. Finlay,
Greece Under the Romans,
chapter 3, section 5._
VANDALS: A. D. 455.
The sack of Rome by Genseric.
See ROME: A. D. 455
VANDALS: A. D. 533-534.
End of the kingdom and nation.
The weakened and disordered state of the Vandal kingdom,
concurring with the revival of a military spirit in the
eastern Roman empire, which the great soldier Belisarius had
brought about, encouraged the Emperor Justinian to attempt, A.
D. 533, a reconquest of the lost Roman provinces in Africa.
With a fleet of six hundred ships, bearing 37,000 men,
Belisarius set sail from Constantinople in the month of June
and landed early in September on the African coast, about five
days journey from Carthage,—having halted at a port in Sicily
on the voyage. A few days later, he defeated the Vandal king,
Gelimer, in a battle (Ad Decimus) fought at ten miles distance
from his capital, and entered Carthage in triumph (September
15, A. D. 533), received with joy by its Roman and Catholic
inhabitants, long persecuted and humiliated by the Arian
Vandals. A second and decisive battle was fought some weeks
afterwards at Tricamaron, twenty miles away from Carthage, and
there and then the Vandal kingdom came to its end. Gelimer
fled into the wilds of Numidia, was pursued, and, having
surrendered himself in the March following, was sent to
Constantinople, and passed the remainder of his days in peace
and modest luxury on a comfortable estate in Galatia. "The
fall of the Vandal monarchy was an event full of meaning for
the future history of Africa. There can be little doubt that
in destroying it Justinian was unconsciously removing the most
powerful barrier which might in the next century have arrested
the progress of Mohammedanism."
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 4, chapter 15 (v 3)._
"The bravest of the Vandal youth were distributed into five
squadrons of cavalry, which adopted the name of their
benefactor. … But these rare exceptions, the reward of birth
or valour, are insufficient to explain the fate of a nation
whose numbers, before a short and bloodless war, amounted to
more than 600,000 persons. After the exile of their king and
nobles, the servile crowd might purchase their safety by
abjuring their character, religion, and language; and their
degenerate posterity would be insensibly mingled with the
common herd of African subjects. Yet even in the present age,
and in the heart of the Moorish tribes, a curious traveller
has discovered the white complexion and long flaxen hair of a
northern race; and it was formerly believed that the boldest
of the Vandals fled beyond the power, or even the knowledge,
of the Romans, to enjoy their solitary freedom on the shores
of the Atlantic ocean."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 41._
----------VANDALS: End--------
VAN DIEMEN'S LAND,
TASMANIA:
Discovery and naming.
See AUSTRALIA: A. D. 1601-1800.
VANGIONES.
TRIBOCI.
NEMETES.
"The Rhine bank itself is occupied by tribes unquestionably
German—the Vangiones, the Triboci, and the Nemetes."—"These
tribes dwelt on the west bank of the Rhine, in what is now
Rhenish Bavaria."
_Tacitus,
Germany;
translated by Church and Brodribb,
with geographical notes._
VANNES, Origin of.
See VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL.
VAN RENSSELAER, Patroon Killian,
The land purchases of.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646.
VAN RENSSELAER, General Stephen,
and the Battle of Queenston Heights.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1812 (SEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER).
VAN RENSSELAER MANOR.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646;
and LIVINGSTON MANOR.
VAN TWILLER, Wouter, The governorship of.
See NEW YORK: A. D. 1638-1647.
VARANGIAN SEA.
One of the ancient names of the Baltic.
_R. G. Latham,
Native-Races of Russian Empire,
chapter 16._
VARANGIANS, OR WARINGS.
THE WARING GUARD.
Varangians "was the name of the Byzantine equivalent to the
'soldiers of a free-company' In the 11th and 12th centuries.
The soldiers were almost wholly Scandinavians—to a great
extent the Swedes of Russia. The reasons against believing
Varangian to be the same word as Frank, are: 1. The mention of
Franci along with them, as a separate people. 2. The extent to
which the Varangians were Scandinavians, rather than Germans
of the Rhine. In favour of it is: The form of the present
Oriental name for Europeans—Feringi. This, in my mind,
preponderates. Connected by name only with the Franks, the
truer ethnological affinities of the Varangians were with the
Scandinavians of Russia."
_R. G. Latham,
The Germania of Tacitus, Epilegomena,
section. 17._
{3597}
"Many of the Warings and probably of the English also had
taken military service at an early period under the Byzantine
emperors. They formed a body-guard for the Emperor, and soon
gained for themselves a renown greater than that possessed by
the earlier imperial guard of the Immortals. The Byzantine
writers usually speak of them as the barbarian guard or as the
axe-bearers. Their weapon was the Danish battle-axe, or rather
bill, and seems not to have had two blades turning different
ways like those of a halberd, but to have had one with a sharp
steel spike projecting, so that the weapon could be used
either to strike or to thrust. Anna, the daughter of Alexis
the First, calls them Warings or Varangians. Nicetas speaks of
them as Germans. The Western writers call them usually Danes,
or 'English and Danes.' The conquest of England by William the
Norman caused many of the English to emigrate to Russia and so
to Constantinople, where they joined the Waring guard. …
Warings and English, while occupants of the Greek palace,
still spoke their own language, had their own laws, and chose,
with certain exceptions, their own officers. The one in
command was called the acolyth, or follower, because his place
was immediately behind the Emperor."
_E. Pears,
The Fall of Constantinople,
chapter 6. section 3._
ALSO IN:
_V. Thomsen,
The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia,
lecture 3._
See, also, RUSSIA: A. D. 862.
VARAVILLE, Battle of.
A decisive victory over the French, invading Normandy, by Duke
William—afterwards the Conqueror of England—A. D. 1058.
_E. A. Freeman,
Norman Conquest,
chapter 12, section 2 (volume 3)._
VARCHONITES, The.
See AVARS.
VARIAN LAW.
See MAJESTAS.
VARIAN MASSACRE, The.
See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.
VARINI, The.
See AVIONES.
VARKANA.
See HYRCANIA.
VARNA, The battle of (1444).
See TURKS: A. D. 1402-1451.
VARNA, Siege and capture (1828).
See TURKS: A. D. 1826-1829.
VARUS, and his Legions, The destruction of.
See GERMANY: B. C. 8-A. D. 11.
VASCONES, The.
See BASQUES.
VASSAL.
See FEUDALISM.
VASSAR COLLEGE.
See EDUCATION, MODERN: REFORMS, &c.: A. D. 1804-1891.
VASSILI.
See BASIL.
VASSY, The Massacre of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1560-1563.
VATICAN, THE.
THE LEONINE CITY.
"The name Vatican was applied by the writers of the Augustan
age to the whole range of hills extending along the western
bank of the Tiber, including the Janiculum and the Monte
Mario. … But the name Vaticanus has now been restricted to the
small hill standing behind the Basilica of St. Peter's, upon
which the Vatican Museum and the Papal Gardens are situated.
This hill is a small projecting portion of the range which
includes the Janiculum and Monte Mario, and it is separated
from the Janiculum by a depression, along which the street of
the Borgo S. Spirito runs. The derivation of the name Vatican
is lost. Gellius has preserved a quotation from Varro, in
which the word is said to be derived from a deity Vaticanus,
the presiding god of the first rudiments of speech ('vagire,'
'vagitanus'). Paulus Diaconus gives a different explanation,
founded on the supposed expulsion of the Etruscans in
fulfilment of an oracle ('vatum responso expulsis Etruscis');
and from this Niebuhr and Bunsen, following him, have supposed
that an Etruscan city existed here in ancient times. There
appears to be no sufficient evidence of such a settlement."
_R. Burn,
Rome and the Campagna,
chapter 11._
In the ninth century, at the time of the pontificate of Leo
IV., "the nations of the West and North who visited the
threshold of the apostles had gradually formed the large and
populous suburb of the Vatican, and their various habitations
were distinguished, in the language of the times, as the
'schools' of the Greeks and Goths, of the Lombards and Saxons.
But this venerable spot was still open to sacrilegious insult:
the design of enclosing it with walls and towers exhausted all
that authority could command or charity would supply: and the
pious labour of four years was animated in every season and at
every hour by the presence of the indefatigable pontiff. The
love of fame, a generous but worldly passion, may be detected
in the name of the Leonine City, which he bestowed on the
Vatican; yet the pride of the dedication was tempered with
Christian penance and humility."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 52._
VATICAN COUNCIL, The.
See PAPACY: A. D, 1869-1870.
VATICAN LIBRARY, The.
See LIBRARIES, MODERN: EUROPE, and ITALY.
VAUCHAMP. Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1814 (JANUARY-MARCH).
VAUDOIS.
See WALDENSES.
VAUGHT'S HILL, Battle of.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (FEBRUARY-APRIL: TENNESSEE).
VAVASSOR,
VAVASOUR.
See FEUDAL TENURES;
also CATTANI.
VECTIGAL, THE.
VECTIGALIA.
"Pascua—Vectigalia-Publicum-are the terms employed to denote
generally the Revenues of Rome, from whatever source derived.
Pascua, i. e. Pasture lands, signified Revenue; because, in
the earliest ages, the public income was derived solely from
the rent of pastures belonging to the state. … Vectigal is the
word used more frequently than any other to denote the Revenue
of the state generally. … Publicum, in its widest acceptation,
comprehended every thing which belonged to the community at
large."
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquity,
chapter 8._
"Cicero states that there was a difference between Sicily and
all the other Roman provinces in the management of the
Vectigal, which is the name for the contribution which the
provinces made to the Roman State. All the provinces except
Sicily paid either a fixed land-tax (vectigal stipendiarium)
or tenths [decumæ] or other quotæ of their produce, and these
tenths were let at Rome by the censors to the Publicani, who
paid the State a certain sum for the privilege of collecting
the tenths and made out of them what profit they could. … The
tenths of wheat and barley were let in Sicily to the
Publicani, but sometimes a community would bid for its tenths
and pay them itself."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 3, chapter 4._
{3598}
VECTIS.
The ancient name of the Isle of Wight.
_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 24, section 2 (volume 2)._
VEDAS.
VEDIC HYMNS.
VEDISM.
See INDIA: THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS,
and IMMIGRATION AND CONQUESTS OF THE ARYAS.
VEHMGERICHTS.
VEHMIC COURTS.
"In times when political, social, and legal life are in
process of fermentation, and struggling towards a new order of
things, the ordinary tribunals lose their authority, and from
the body of the people men spring up to protect the right in a
primitive fashion, and to punish the criminal who has escaped
the ordinary penalties of the law. Thus, at the close of the
Middle Ages, or, more precisely, the first half of the 15th
century, the Vehmgerichts (or Vehmic Courts, also called Free
Courts, Franchise Courts, Secret Courts) rose to an authority
which extended all over Germany, which knew no respect of
persons, and before which many evil-doers in high places, who
had bade defiance to the ordinary tribunals, were made to
tremble. The name 'Vehme' is derived from the old German
'vervehmen,' which means to ban, or to curse. The Vehmic
courts were peculiar to Westphalia, and even there could only
be held on the 'Red Land'—that is, the district between the
Rhine and the Weser. They were dependent on the German Emperor
alone, and their presidents, the Free-counts, received from
the Emperor in person, or from his representative, the Elector
of Cologne, the power of life and death. They traced their
origin to Charlemagne, who, respecting the legal customs of
the old heathen Saxons, introduced county courts among them
after they had been converted to Christianity. For, even in
the most ancient times, the Saxon freemen used to assemble at
an appointed season, after they had held their great
sacrifice, and hold a 'Thing' under the presidency of one of
their oldest members, called the Grave, or Count, where they
inflicted punishment and administered justice. The Vehmic
court consisted of a Free-count and a number of assessors, who
were called 'The Initiated,' because they knew the secrets of
the holy Vehme. There must be at least fourteen of these
assessors, but there were generally twice that number. As it
was no secret when a man was all assessor, and as it
contributed greatly to the safety of his person, since people
took good care not to molest a member of the holy Vehme, it
gradually came about that men from every German province
obtained admission into the number of assessors. When the
Emperor Sigismund was elected into the number of 'The
Initiated' at the Franchise Court of Dortmund, the number of
assessors is said to have amounted to 100,000, among whom were
many princes and nobles. And about a thousand assessors are
said to have been present when the ban was issued against Duke
Henry of Bavaria in 1429. … There was a 'secret court' to
which only the initiated had access, and a 'public court'
which was held in the morning in the light of day at a known
court-house. The presidents' chairs were always set in the
open air under a lime, oak, pear, or hawthorn tree, an often
near a town, castle, or village. At Dortmund the president's
chair was placed close to the town wall under a lime-tree,
which, though sadly shattered, is still standing between the
rails inside the railway station. Round the stone table were
ranged three stone benches for the assessors; on the table
there was carved in relief the German imperial eagle, and on
it was placed the sword of justice, … The Vehmic court which
was originally, and was bound to be, a public one, gradually
altered its character, enveloped itself in mysterious
darkness, and under the cloak of secrecy lent itself to all
sorts of unrighteous objects. In 1461, accordingly, princes
and cities leagued together to suppress the irregularities of
these courts, and as soon as the orderly administration of
justice came into existence with the rise of the new princely
authority, they perished from their own impotence."
_A. W. Grube,
Heroes of History and Legend,
chapter 13._
ALSO IN:
_Sir W. Scott,
Introduction to "Anne of Geierstein."_
_A. P. Marras,
Secret Fraternities of the Middle Ages,
chapter 5._
VEII.
VEIENTINE WARS.
See ROME: B. C. 406-396.
VELABRUM, The.
See FORUM BOARIUM.
VELETRI, Battle of.
See ITALY: A. D. 1744.
VELETRI, Battle of (1849).
See ITALY: A. D. 1848-1849.
VELIBORI, The.
See IRELAND. TRIBES OF EARLY CELTIC INHABITANTS.
VELITES.
The light infantry of the Roman army, as distinguished from
the heavy-armed legionaries. "The velites did not wear any
corslet or cuirass, but their tunic appears to have been
formed of leather. … It is possible also that the velites
sometimes wore, instead of leather, a tunic of quilted linen."
_C. Boutell,
Arms and Armour,
chapter 4._
VELLICA, Battle of.
See CANTABRIANS.
VELLINGHAUSEN, or
KIRCH-DEN-KERN, Battle of (1761).
See GERMANY: A. D. 1761-1762.
VELLORE, Sepoy mutiny and massacre at (1806).
See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.
VELOCASSES, The.
See BELGÆ.
VENATIONES.
Contests of wild beasts with each other or with men, in the
Roman amphitheatres, were called Venationes.
_W. Ramsay,
Manual of Roman Antiquities,
chapter 10._
VENDEE, The War in La.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793
(MARCH-APRIL), (JUNE), (JULY-DECEMBER);
1793-1794 (OCTOBER-APRIL); and 1794-1796.
VENDEMIARE, The month.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1793 (OCTOBER)
THE NEW REPUBLICAN CALENDAR.
VENDEMIARE: The 13th.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (OCTOBER-DECEMBER).
VENEDI, The.
"The Venedi extended beyond the Peucini and Bastarnæ [around
the mouths of the Danube] as far as the Baltic Sea; where is
the Sinus Venedicus, now the Gulf of Dantzig. Their name is
also preserved in Wenden, a part of Livonia. When the German
nations made their irruption into Italy, France, and Spain,
the Venedi, also called Winedi, occupied their vacant
settlements between the Vistula and Elbe. Afterward they
crossed the Danube, and seized Dalmatia, Illyricum, Istria,
Carniola, and the Noric Alps. A part of Carniola still retains
the name of Windismarck derived from them. This people were
also called Slavi."
_Tacitus,
The Germans,
note to Oxford Translation,
chapter 46._
"The Venedi [of Tacitus] … are obviously the Wends—the name by
which the Germans always designate the neighbouring Slavonian
populations; but which is no more a national name than that of
Wälsch, which they apply in like manner to the Latin races on
their southern frontiers."
_E. H. Bunbury,
History of Ancient Geography,
chapter 26, section. 2, foot-note (volume 2)._
See, also, SLAVONIC PEOPLES, and VANDALS.
{3599}
VENEDI OF BOHEMIA, The.
See AVARS: 7TH CENTURY.
VENEDOTIA.
See BRITAIN: 6TH CENTURY.
VENETA.
See (in Supplement) COMMERCE, MEDIÆVAL.
VENETI OF CISALPINE GAUL, The.
One of the tribes or nations of Cisalpine Gaul bore the name
of the Veneti. The Veneti occupied the country between the
rivers Adige and Plavis and seem to have been considerably
civilized when they first appear in history. They became
allies of the Romans at an early day and were favorably dealt
with when Gallia Cisalpina was added to the dominions of
Rome. "No ancient writer distinctly states to what race the
Veneti belonged. They are said to have resembled the Illyrians
in dress and manners; but the very way in which this statement
is made shows that its author did not regard them as
Illyrians. … I have no doubt that the Veneti belonged to the
race of the Liburnians, and that accordingly they were a
branch of the wide-spread Tyrrheno-Pelasgians, in consequence
of which they also became so easily Latinized." The capital
city of the Veneti was Patavium (modern Padua). "Patavium was
a very ancient and large town, and it is strange that it
appears as such in Roman history all at once. It is mentioned
as early as the fifth century [B. C.], during the expedition
of the Spartan Cleonymus; it is also spoken of at the time of
Caesar and of the triumvirs. But Strabo is the first who
describes Patavium as a large town, and in such a manner as to
make it evident that it was an ancient place. He says that,
next to Rome, it was the wealthiest city of Italy. … In the
time of Augustus it was a large commercial and manufacturing
place."
_B. G. Niebuhr,
Lectures on Ancient Ethnography and Geography,
volume 2, page 246._
VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.
"The Veneti were one of the Armoric states of the Celtae.
Their neighbours on the south were the Namnetes or Nannetes
(Nantes), on the east the Redones, and on the north the
Curiosolitae, and the Osismi in the north-west part of
Bretagne, in the department of Finistère. The chief town of
the Veneti was Dariorigum, now Vannes, on the bay of Morbihan
in the French department of Morbihan, which may correspond
nearly to the country of the Veneti. The Veneti were the most
powerful of all the maritime peoples who occupied the
peninsula of Bretagne. They had many vessels in which they
sailed to the island Britannia, to Cornwall and the parts
along the south coast of England, as we may assume. They
surpassed all their neighbours in skill and experience in
naval affairs."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
The Veneti, "together with the Aulerci, Rhedones [or Redones],
Carnutes, Andi and Turones, occupied the whole space between
the lower Seine and the lower Loire, and were apparently
closely united among themselves."
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._
"The Andes [Andi] are the people whom Tacitus names the
Andecavi, and the copyists of Ptolemy have named Ondicavae.
They were west of the Turones, and their position is defined
by the town Juliomagus or Civitas Andecavorum, now Angers on
the Mayenne."
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
"In my opinion these Veneti were the founders of the Veneti in
the Adriatic, for almost all the other Keltic nations in Italy
have passed over from the country beyond the Alps, as for
instance the Boii and Senones. … However, I do not maintain my
opinion positively; for in these matters probability is quite
sufficient."
_Strabo,
Geography;
translated by Hamilton and Falconer,
book 4, chapter 4, section 1._
VENETI OF WESTERN GAUL, The.
Cæsar's campaign.
Cæsar's third campaign in Gaul, B. C. 56, was directed against
the Veneti and their Armorican neighbors. These tribes had
submitted themselves in the previous year to Cæsar's
lieutenant, the younger Crassus; but the heavy exactions of
the Romans provoked a general rising, and Cæsar was called to
the scene in person. The Veneti were so amphibious a race, and
their towns were generally placed so much out of the reach of
a land army, that he found it necessary to build a fleet at
the mouth of the Loire and bring it up against them. But the
Veneti were better sailors than the Romans and their ships
were more strongly built, so that the advantage would have
still remained to them if Roman inventiveness had not turned
the scale. Cæsar armed his men with hooked knives at the end
of long poles, with which they cut the rigging of the Venetian
ships and brought down their clumsy sails, which were of
leather. By this means he overcame and destroyed them, in a
great naval fight. When the survivors submitted, he ruthlessly
slew the senatorial elders and sold the remnant of the people
into slavery.
_Cæsar,
Gallic Wars,
book 3, chapters 7-16._
ALSO IN:
_G. Long,
Decline of the Roman Republic,
volume 4, chapter 6._
_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 7._
_Napoleon III.,
History of Cæsar,
book 3, chapter 6._
VENETIA.
See VENICE.
----------VENEZUELA: Start--------
VENEZUELA:
Aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: CARIBS AND THEIR KINDRED,
and COAJIRO.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1499-1550.
Discovery and naming of the province.
Its first occupation by German adventurers.
"The province contiguous to Santa Martha on the east was first
visited by Alonso de Ojeda, in the year 1499.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1499-1500.
The Spaniards, on their landing there, having observed some
huts in an Indian village, built upon piles, in order to raise
them above the stagnated water which covered the plain, were
led to bestow upon it the name of Venezuela, or little Venice.
… They made some attempts to settle there, but with little
success. The final reduction of the province was accomplished
by means very different from those to which Spain was indebted
for its other acquisitions in the new world. The ambition of
Charles V. often engaged him in operations of such variety and
extent that his revenues were not sufficient to defray the
expense of carrying them into execution. Among other
expedients for supplying the deficiency of his funds, be had
borrowed large sums from the Velsers of Augsburg, the most
opulent merchants at that time In Europe. By way of
retribution for these, or in hopes, perhaps, of obtaining a
new loan, he bestowed upon them the province of Venezuela, to
be held as an hereditary fief from the crown of Castile, on
condition that within a limited time they should render
themselves masters of the country, and establish a colony
there. …
{3600}
Unfortunately they committed the execution of their plan to
some of those soldiers of fortune with which Germany abounded
in the 16th century. These adventurers, impatient to amass
riches, that they might speedily abandon a station which they
soon discovered to be very uncomfortable, instead of planting
a colony in order to cultivate and improve the country,
wandered from district to district in search of mines,
plundering the natives with unfeeling rapacity, or oppressing
them by the imposition of intolerable tasks. In the course of
a few years, their avarice and exactions, in comparison with
which those of the Spaniards were moderate, desolated the
province so completely that it could hardly afford them
subsistence, and the Velsers relinquished a property from
which the inconsiderate conduct of their agents left them no
hope of ever deriving any advantage. When the wretched
remainder of the Germans deserted Venezuela, the Spaniards
again took possession of it."
_W. Robertson,
History of America,
book 7._
ALSO IN:
_F. Depous,
Travels in South America,
chapter 1._
See, also, EL DORADO.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1718-1731.
Embraced in the viceroyalty of New Granada.
Raised to a distinct captain-generalship.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1536-1731.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1810-1819.
The War of Independence.
Miranda and Bolivar.
The great Earthquake.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1810-1819.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821.
Beginning of the Emancipation of Slaves.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1821-1854.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1821-1826.
Confederation with New Granada and Ecuador in the
Republic of Colombia, and the breaking of the Confederacy.
See COLOMBIAN STATES: A. D. 1819-1830.
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1829-1886.
Summary record of revolutions and civil wars.
The strife of the Yellows and the Blues.
"In all countries, under whatever name they may be known,
there are two great political parties; the conservatives and
the reformers. … Venezuela is no exception to the general
rule; there is the 'Oligarquia,' which desires to let things
alone, and the 'Liberal' party, which wishes to remould them
in accordance with the spirit of the age. The Spanish
misgovernment left a legacy of bitterness and anarchy that has
been the cause of much misery. Political passion runs very
high in the country, and its history for a generation between
these two parties has been a continual struggle, always more
or less warlike. The existence of Venezuela in an independent
capacity is due, in a large measure, to the personal ambition
of Paez, by whose influence the great Liberator was exiled
from his fatherland, and the republic separated from Colombia.
Whatever may have been the real wishes of the people, the
death of Bolivar put an end to all thoughts of re-union; and
Paez became its first constitutional president. The second
president was the learned Dr. José Maria Vargas, whose
election in March 1835 was said to have been irregular, and
led to the ' Revolucion de las Reformas.' He was deposed and
expelled in July, but in August recalled to power! General
Paez now took the field against the ' reformistas,' and a
civil war ensued, continuing until March 1836, when they were
completely subjugated, and treated with great rigour by order
of the Congress, but against the desire of Paez, who entreated
to be allowed to deal with them clemently. In 1836, Dr. Vargas
resigned the presidency, and after the remainder of his term
had been occupied by three vice-presidents, General Paez, in
1839, became again the legitimate head of the nation. Now that
the grave had closed over Simon Bolivar, the passions which
had prevented the recognition of his greatness died also, and
on the 17th of December 1842, the ashes of the immortal
Liberator were transferred from Santa Maria with every mark of
public respect and honour and received a magnificent national
funeral, in the Temple of San Francisco, in Caracas. The fifth
president was General Soublette, and the sixth General Jose
Tadeo Monagas, who was elected in 1847. A great part of the
Venezuelan people believe that all the evils that have fallen
upon the republic since 1846 have had their origin in the
falsification of votes, said to have taken place during the
election of Monagas for president. The liberal candidate was
Antonio Leocadio Guzman; and it is asserted that he had a
majority of votes. … Monagas did not have an easy tenure of
office, for the opposition of Paez led to two years of civil
war. Here it may be noted to the credit of the liberal party
that, at a time when many of its opponents were prisoners, it
abolished the penalty of death for political offences. To his
brother, General Jose Gregorio Monagas, afterwards president
of the republic, was due the emancipation of the slaves. The
famous law of March 24th, 1854, conceded liberty and equal
rights to all; but by a strange irony of fortune, he who had
given the precious boon of freedom to thousands died himself
incarcerated in a political prison. … At the beginning of 1859
the discontent of the liberals had reached a pitch which led
to the outbreak of the War of the Federation. It was in this
struggle that the present leader of the liberal party first
displayed his military skill." Antonio Guzman Blanco, born in
1830 and educated for the law, lived some years in the United
States, part of the time as Secretary of Legation at
Washington. Driven from Venezuela in 1858, "his expatriation
soon after brought him in contact, first in St. Thomas and
afterwards in Curazao, with General Falcon, then the head of
'los liberales.' Falcon landed in Venezuela in July 1859, and
proclaimed the Federal Republic. Many rose to support him, and
in Caracas, on the 1st of August, the president, Monagas, was
arrested; the next day the same troops declared against the
Federation, and fired upon the people! So commenced the five
years' War of the Federation, which has left, even to the
present day, its black and ruined tracks across the face of
the country. On the 30th of September was fought the battle of
Sabana de la Cruz, resulting in the fall of Barquisimeto. In
this action, so fortunate for the liberals, Guzman Blanco made
his acquaintance with war, and showed so much military talent
and energy that he was induced to leave his civil duties and
take a 'comandante's' commission. The victory of Santa Ines,
in December of the same year, followed. … The attack on San
Carlos followed soon after, and was a disaster for the
federals, who lost their general, Zamora, and were forced to
retreat.
{3601}
Falcon sought aid in Nueva Granada." The next year Guzman
Blanco won the victory of Quebrada-seca, October 21, 1862.
"Other victories followed, and were crowned by the grand and
decisive combat of the 16th, 17th, and 18th of April, which
gave the province of Caracas to the Federals, and led to a
treaty between the two parties. The peace of Coche was
arranged by Señor Pedro José Rojas, secretary to the Dictator,
as Paez was sometimes called, and Guzman Blanco, as
representative of Falcon, the chief of the revolution. Paez,
by this treaty, undertook to abdicate 30 days later, when an
assembly of 80, nominated in equal parts by the chiefs of each
party, was to decide on a programme for the future. The
assembly met in Victoria, and nominated Falcon President and
Guzman Blanco provisional vice-president of the Federation.
Falcon entered Caracas in triumph on July 24, 1863, and Guzman
Blanco became Minister of Finance and of Foreign Relations."
Guzman Blanco visited Europe in 1864 and 1867 to negotiate
loans. "Meanwhile, in Caracas, the 'oligarquia,' which now
assumed the name of the Blue party (El Partido Azul), was not
idle, and its activity was increased by dissensions in the
opposition. A section of the liberal party [or 'los
amarillos'-'Yellows'] had become greatly disaffected to
Marshal Falcon, who abdicated in favour of two revolutionary
chiefs, Bruzual and Urrutia. This led to the treaty of
Antimano, by which the 'partido azul' recognized the new
government, but directly afterwards proclaimed the presidency
of General José Tadeo Monagas. Three days' sanguinary combat,
at the end of July 1868, gave it possession of Caracas."
Guzman Blanco, returning at this juncture from Europe, was
driven to take refuge in the island of Curazao; but in
February, 1870, he reappeared in Venezuela; was supported by a
general rising; took Caracas by assault, and defeated the
Blues in several battles. "The congress of plenipotentiaries
of the states met at Valencia, and nominated Guzman Blanco
provisional president, and by the end of the year the enemy
was nearly everywhere defeated."
_J. M. Spence,
The Land of Bolivar,
volume 1, chapter 8._
From the liberation of Venezuela to the present time, "every
successive President seems to have been employed, during his
short lease of power, in trying to enrich himself and his
adherents, without the least consideration for his unfortunate
country. On paper all the laws are perfect, and the
constitution all that could be desired, but experience has
shown that the influence of the executive power is able to
subdue and absorb every other power, legislative or judicial.
One law which the Congress passed, viz:—that of division of
the National property among the defenders of the country, as
the only way of rewarding their heroic services, has become a
precedent of very bad import. At first, those who had risen
and driven out the Spaniards divided the land among
themselves, but as successive Generals strove for and gained
the Presidency they again forfeited the property of the
opposing party, and divided their possessions among their own
followers. … Paez, Vargas, Paez, Zea, Soublette, Paez, Gil,
Monagas, Falcon, Monagas, Polidor, Pulgar, Blanco, Linares,
Blanco, Crespo, and again Blanco, have succeeded each other
with marvellous rapidity, the principal occupation of the
deposed President being to conspire against his successor.
Some of them succeeded to power more than once, but Don Gusman
Blanco alone, since Bolivar, seems to have got a firm hold of
the Government, and although, by the letter of the
Constitution, he can only hold power for two years at a time,
and cannot possibly hold two terms consecutively, yet the
intervening Presidents were little more than dummies to keep
his seat warm. … At present [1886] Don Gusman Blanco is
supreme. He is reported to be immensely wealthy, and is a man
of great capacity and intelligence."
_W. Barry,
Venezuela,
chapter 5._
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1869-1892.
The constitution.
The rule of General Blanco.
The Revolution of 1889.
"The Venezuelan Constitution is modelled after the American
Constitution, with modifications grounded upon the Calhoun
doctrine of State rights.
See CONSTITUTION OF VENEZUELA.
The confederation consists of eight States, which are supreme
and coordinate in their sovereign rights. The National
Government represents, not the people, but the States. … In
1869 opened an era of peace and progress under the political
domination of General Guzman Blanco. For 20 years, whether he
was the head of a Provisional Government established by force
of arms, or the constitutional Executive, or Minister to
France, his will was the supreme force in the State. … He
suppressed Clericalism and established genuine religious
liberty. He built rail-ways, improved the public roads, and
adorned the cities. … He developed the industries and commerce
of the country, and promoted its prosperity by a policy at
once strong and pacific. It was a system of political
absolutism. … A reaction against it was inevitable. … The
signal for a political revolution was raised by university
students in October, 1889. They began operations by flinging
stones at a statue of Guzman Blanco in Caracas. … It was a
singularly effective revolution, wrought without bloodshed or
excitement. This political movement was successful because
Guzman Blanco was in Paris, and his personal representative in
the executive office was not disposed to resent public
affronts to his patron. The President, Dr. Rojas Paul, was a
wise and discreet man. … He reörganized his Cabinet so as to
exclude several of the devoted partisans of Guzman Blanco, and
brought Dr. Anduesa Palacio into the field as a candidate for
the Presidency. … Anduesa's administration, instead of being
an era of reform, reproduced all the vices and corruption of
the old order, and none of its progressive virtues. After two
years it ended in civil war, usurpation, and the enforced
resignation of Anduesa."
_I. N. Ford,
Tropical America,
chapter 12._
VENEZUELA: A. D. 1892-1893.
Constitutional Government restored.
Anduesa Palacio resigned in favor of Vice President Villegas,
and the legality of the succession was disputed by the
opposition, under ex-President Joaquin Crespo. The civil war
continued, and three short-lived dictatorships were set up in
succession; but in October, 1892, Crespo entered Caracas and
established a constitutional government. In June, 1893, a new
constitution was adopted. In October, Crespo was elected
President for a term of four years.
----------VENEZUELA: End--------
VENI, VIDI, VICI.
See ROME: B. C. 47-46.
{3602}
----------VENICE: Start--------
VENICE: A. D. 452.
The origin of the republic.
When Attila the Hun, in the year 452, crossed the Alps and
invaded Italy, "the savage destroyer undesignedly laid the
foundations of a republic which revived, in the feudal state
of Europe, the art and spirit of commercial industry. The
celebrated name of Venice, or Venetia, was formerly diffused
over a large and fertile province of Italy, from the confines
of Pannonia to the river Addua, and from the Po to the Rhætian
and Julian Alps. Before the irruption of the barbarians, fifty
Venetian cities flourished in peace and prosperity. … Many
families of Aquileia, Padua, and the adjacent towns, who fled
from the sword of the Huns, found a safe though obscure refuge
in the neighbouring islands. At the extremity of the Gulf,
where the Adriatic feebly imitates the tides of the ocean,
near a hundred small islands are separated by shallow water
from the continent, and protected from the waves by several
long slips of land, which admit the entrance of vessels
through some secret and narrow channels. Till the middle of
the 5th century these remote and sequestered spots remained
without cultivation, with few inhabitants, and almost without
a name. But the manners of the Venetian fugitives, their arts
and their government, were gradually formed by their new
situation; and one of the epistles of Cassiodorus, which
describes their condition about seventy years afterwards, may
be considered as the primitive monument of the republic. …
Fish was the common, and almost the universal, food of every
rank: their only treasure consisted in the plenty of salt
which they extracted from the sea."
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 35._
"The inhabitants of Aquileia, or at least the feeble remnant
that escaped the sword of Attila, took refuge at Grado.
Concordia migrated to Caprularia (now Caorle). The inhabitants
of Altinum, abandoning their ruined villas, founded their new
habitations upon seven islands at the mouth of the Piave,
which, according to tradition, they named from the seven gates
of their old city. … From Padua came the largest stream of
emigrants. They left the tomb of their mythical ancestor,
Antenor, and built their humble dwellings upon the islands of
Rivus Altus and Methamaucus, better known to us as Rialto and
Malamocco. This Paduan settlement was one day to be known to
the world by the name of Venice. But let us not suppose that
the future Queen of the Adriatic sprang into existence at a
single bound like Constantinople or Alexandria. For 250 years,
that is to say for eight generations, the refugees on the
islands of the Adriatic prolonged an obscure and squalid
existence,—fishing, salt-manufacturing, damming out the waves
with wattled vine-branches, driving piles into the sand-banks;
and thus gradually extending the area of their villages. Still
these were but fishing-villages, loosely confederated
together, loosely governed, poor and insignificant. … This
seems to have been their condition, though perhaps gradually
growing in commercial importance, until at the beginning of
the 8th century the concentration of political authority in
the hands of the first doge, and the recognition of the Rialto
cluster of islands as the capital of the confederacy, started
the Republic on a career of success and victory."
_T. Hodgkin,
Italy and Her Invaders,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 2)._
VENICE: A. D. 554-800.
A dukedom under the Exarchs of Ravenna.
See ROME: A. D. 554-800.
VENICE: A. D. 568.
A refuge from the invading Lombards.
See LOMBARDS: A. D. 568-573.
VENICE: A. D. 697-810.
The early constitution of government.
Origin of the Doges.
Resistance to Pippin, king of the Lombards.
Removal to the Rialto and founding of the new capital city.
"Each island had at first its own magistrate: the magistrates
of the most considerable being called Tribunes Major, the
others, Tribunes Minor, and the whole being equally subject to
the council-general of the community; which thus constituted a
kind of federal republic. This lasted nearly three hundred
years, when it was found that the rising nation had fairly
outgrown its institutions. Dangerous rivalries arose among the
tribunes. … At a meeting of the Council-General in A. D. 697,
the Patriarch of Grado proposed the concentration of power in
the hands of a single chief, under the title of Doge or Duke.
The proposition was eagerly accepted, and they proceeded at
once to the election of this chief. 'It will be seen (remarks
Daru) that the Dogeship saved independence and compromised
liberty. It was a veritable revolution, but we are ignorant by
what circumstances it was brought about. Many historians
assert that the change was not effected till the permission of
the Pope and the Emperor was obtained.' The first choice fell
on Paolo Luca Anabesto. It was made by twelve electors, the
founders of what were thenceforth termed the electoral
families. The Doge was appointed for life: he named his own
counsellors: took charge of all public business; had the rank
of prince, and decided all questions of peace and war. The
peculiar title was meant to imply a limited sovereignty, and
the Venetians uniformly repudiated, as a disgrace, the bare
notion of their having ever submitted to a monarch. But many
centuries passed away before any regular or well-defined
limits were practically imposed; and the prolonged struggle
between the people and the Doges, depending mainly on the
personal character of the Doge for the time being, constitutes
the most startling and exciting portion of their history." The
third Doge, one Urso, alarmed the people by his pretensions to
such a degree that they slew him, and suppressed his office
for five years, substituting a chief magistrate called
"maestro dell a milizia." "The Dogeship was then [742]
restored in the person of Theodal Urso (son of the last Doge),
who quitted Heraclea [then the Venetian capital] for
Malamocco, which thus became the capital." In his turn,
Theodal Urso lost the favor of the people and was deposed and
blinded. "It thenceforth became the received custom in Venice
to put out the eyes of deposed Doges." Later in the 8th
century the Dogeship was secured by a family which went far
towards making it hereditary, and rendering it boldly
tyrannical; but the yoke of the would-be despots—Giovanni and
Maurice, father and son—was broken in 804, and they were
driven to flight. The head of the conspiracy which expelled
them, Obelerio, was then proclaimed Doge.
{3603}
"The events of the next five years are involved in obscurity.
One thing is clear. Pepin, King of the Lombards [son of
Charlemagne], either under the pretence of a request for aid
from the new Doge, or to enforce some real or assumed rights
of his own, declared war against the Republic, and waged it
with such impetuosity that his fleet and army, after carrying
all before them, were only separated from Malamocco, the
capital, by a canal. In this emergency, Angelo Participazio,
one of those men who are produced by great occasions to mark
an era, proposed that the entire population should remove to
Rialto, which was separated by a broader arm of the sea from
the enemy, and there hold out to the last. No sooner proposed
than done. They hastily embarked their all; and when Pepin
entered Malamocco, he found it deserted. After losing a large
part of his fleet in an ill-advised attack on Rialto, he gave
up the enterprise, and Angelo Participazio was elected Doge in
recognition of his services, with two tribunes for
counsellors. One of his first acts was to make Rialto the
capital, instead of Malamocco or Heraclea, which had each been
the seat of Government at intervals. 'There were round Rialto
some sixty islets, which the Doge connected by bridges. They
were soon covered with houses. They were girt with a
fortification; and it was then that this population of
fugitives gave to this rising city, which they had just
founded in the middle of a morass, the name of Venetia, in
memory of the fair countries from which their fathers had been
forcibly expatriated. The province has lost its name, and
become subject to the new Venice.'"
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, October, 1874, volume 137), pages 417-420._
In 803 Charlemagne concluded a treaty, at Aix-la-Chapelle,
with Nicephorus I. the Byzantine or Eastern Emperor,
establishing boundaries between the two empires which disputed
the Roman name. "In this treaty, the supremacy of the Eastern
Empire over Venice, Istria, the maritime parts of Dalmatia,
and the south of Italy, was acknowledged; while the authority
of the Western Empire in Rome, the exarchate of Ravenna, and
the Pentapolis, was recognised by Nicephorus. The commerce of
Venice with the East was already so important, and the
Byzantine administration afforded so many guarantees for the
security of property, that the Venetians, in spite of the
menaces of Charlemagne, remained firm in their allegiance to
Nicephorus. … Venice, it is true, found itself in the end
compelled to purchase peace with the Frank empire, by the
payment of an annual tribute of thirty-six pounds of gold, in
order to secure its commercial relations from interruption;
and it was not released from this tribute until the time of
Otho the Great. It was during the reign of Nicephorus that the
site of the present city of Venice became the seat of the
Venetian government, Rivalto (Rialto) becoming the residence
of the duke and the principal inhabitants, who retired from
the continent to escape the attacks of Pepin [king of Italy,
under his father, Charlemagne]. Heraclea had previously been
the capital of the Venetian municipality. In 810 peace was
again concluded between Nicephorus and Charlemagne, without
making any change in the frontier of the two empires."
_G. Finlay,
Byzantine Empire, 716-1057,
book 1, chapter 2, section 1._
ALSO IN:
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 1-2._
VENICE: 8th Century:
Still subject to the Eastern Empire.
See ROME: A. D. 717-800.
VENICE: A. D. 810-961.
Spread of commerce and naval prowess.
Destruction of Istrian pirates.
Conquests in Dalmatia.
"During the ninth, and the first sixty years of the tenth
centuries,—from the government of Angelo Participazio, to the
coming into Italy of Otho the Great,—the Venetian affairs,
with brief intervals of repose, were wholly occupied with
civil commotions and naval wars. The doges of the republic
were often murdered; its fleets were sometimes defeated; but,
under every adverse circumstance, the commercial activity, the
wealth, and the power of the state were still rapidly
increasing. In the ninth century the Venetians, in concert
with the Greeks, encountered, though with indifferent success,
the navies of the Saracens; but the Narentines, and other
pirates of Dalmatia, were their constant enemies, and were
frequently chastised by the arms of the republic The Venetian
wealth invited attacks from all the freebooters of the seas,
and an enterprise undertaken by some of them who had
established themselves on the coast of Istria deserves, from
its singularity and the vengeance of the republic, to be
recorded in this place. According to an ancient custom, the
nuptials of the nobles and principal citizens of Venice were
always celebrated on the same day of the year and in the same
church. … The Istrian pirates, acquainted with the existence
of this annual festival, had the boldness [A. D. 944] to
prepare an ambush for the nuptial train in the city itself.
They secretly arrived over night at an uninhabited islet near
the church of Olivolo, and lay hidden behind it with their
barks until the procession had entered the church, when
darting from their concealment they rushed into the sacred
edifice through all its doors, tore the shrieking brides from
the arms of their defenceless lovers, possessed themselves of
the jewels which had been displayed in the festal pomp, and
immediately put to sea with their fair captives and their
booty. But a deadly revenge overtook them. The doge, Pietro
Candiano III., had been present at the ceremony: he shared in
the fury and indignation of the affianced youths: they flew to
arms, and throwing themselves under his conduct into their
vessels, came up with the spoilers in the lagunes of Caorlo. A
frightful massacre ensued: not a life among the pirates was
spared, and the victors returned in triumph with their brides
to the church of Olivolo. A procession of the maidens of
Venice revived for many centuries the recollection of this
deliverance on the eve of the purification. But the doge was
not satisfied with the punishment which he had inflicted on
the Istriots. He entered vigorously upon the resolution of
clearing the Adriatic of all the pirates who infested it: he
conquered part of Dalmatia, and he transmitted to his
successors, with the ducal crown, the duty of consummating his
design."
_G. Procter,
History of Italy,
chapter 1, part 2._
{3604}
VENICE: A. D. 829.
The translation of the body of St. Mark.
The Winged Lion of St. Mark.
"In the second year of the reign of Doge Giustiniano
Particiacio there was brought to Venice from Alexandria the
body of the holy evangelist St. Mark. For, as Petrus Damianus
says, Mark was brought from Alexandria into Venice, that he
who had shone in the East like the morning star might shed his
rays in the regions of the West. For Egypt is held to be the
East and Venice the West. There he had held the rule of the
Church of Alexandria, and here, being, as it were, born again,
he obtained the sovereignty of Aquileia. Now this is how the
thing was done. The king of the Saracens wishing to build
himself a palace in Babylon, gave command that stones should
be taken from the Christian churches and other public places,
that they might build him a splendid house. And at that time
there came by chance to the Church of St. Mark, Bon, tribune
of Malamocco, and Rustico da Torcello, who had been forced by
the wind, contrary to the edicts of Venice, to put in to the
harbour of Alexandria with ten ships laden with merchandise,
and they observing the sadness of the guardians of the church
(two Greeks, by name Stauratio, a monk, and Theodoro, a
priest), inquired the cause. And they answered that by reason
of the impious edict of the king they feared the ruin of the
church. Thereupon they prayed them to give them the holy body
that they might carry it to Venice, promising them that the
Doge of Venice would receive it with great honour. But the
keepers of the church were filled with fear at their petition,
and answered reproaching them and saying: 'Know ye not how the
blessed St. Mark, who wrote the Gospel, St. Peter dictating at
his request, preached in these parts and baptised into the
faith the men of these regions? If the faithful should become
aware, we could not escape the peril of death.' But to that
they answered: 'As for his preaching, we are his firstborn
sons, for he first preached in the parts of Venetia and
Aquileia. And in peril of death it is commanded, "If they
persecute you in one city, flee ye to another," which the
evangelist himself obeyed when in the persecution at
Alexandria he fled to Pentapolis.' But the keepers said:
'There is no such persecution now that we should fear for our
persons.' But while they spake, came one and broke down the
precious stones of the church, and when they would not suffer
it they were sorely beaten. Then the keepers seeing the
devastation of the church, and their own great danger,
listened to the prayer of the Venetians and appointed them a
day when they should receive the holy body. Now the body was
wrapped in a robe of silk sealed with many seals from the head
to the feet. And they brought the body of St. Claudia, and
having cut the robe at the back and taken away the body of St.
Mark, they placed in its stead the blessed Claudia, leaving
the seals unbroken. But a sweet odour quickly spread into the
city, and all were filled with astonishment, and not doubting
that the body of the evangelist had been moved, they ran
together to the church. But when the shrine was opened and
they saw the garment with the seals unbroken, they returned
quickly to their homes. And when the body should be borne to
the boats, they covered it with herbs and spread over it
pork-flesh for the passers-by to see, and went crying,
'Khanzir, khanzir!' which is the Saracen's abomination. And
when they reached the ships they covered it with a sail while
they passed through the Saracen ships. And as they sailed to
Venice the ship which bore it with many others was saved from
peril of shipwreck. For when the ships had been driven in the
night by a tempestuous wind and were not far from Monte, the
blessed St. Mark appeared to the Monk Dominic and bade him
lower the sails of the ships. Which, when they had done, the
dawn appearing, they found themselves close to the island
which is called Artalia. And ten of them, having asked and
obtained pardon for breaking the edicts of the Doge, they came
to the port of Olivola. And the Doge, and the clergy, and the
people came to meet them, and brought the body, with songs of
thanksgiving, to the Doge's chapel."
_Old Chronicle;
translated in "The City in the Sea,"
by the Author of "Belt and Spur,"
chapter 3._
"Our fathers did not welcome the arrival of the captured
eagles of France, after the field of Waterloo, with greater
exultation than the people of Venice the relics of the blessed
Evangelist. They abandoned themselves to processions, and
prayers, and banquets, and public holidays. … The winged 'Lion
of St. Mark' was blazoned on the standards, and impressed on
the coinage of the Republic. … The Lion became the theme of
many political symbols. Thus it was represented with wings to
show that Venetians could strike with promptitude; sitting, as
a sign of their gravity in counsel—far such is the usual
attitude of sages; with a book in its paws, to intimate their
devotion to commerce; in war time the book was closed, and a
naked sword substituted."
_W. H. D. Adams,
The Queen of the Adriatic,
pages 42-43._
See, also, LION OF ST. MARK.
VENICE: A. D. 1032-1319.
Development of the constitution of the aristocratic Republic.
The Grand Council.
The Council of Ten.
The Golden Book.
"It was by slow and artfully disguised encroachments that the
nobility of Venice succeeded in substituting itself for the
civic power, and investing itself with the sovereignty of the
republic. During the earlier period, the doge was an elective
prince, the limit of whose power was vested in assemblies of
the people. It was not till 1032 that he was obliged to
consult only a council, formed from amongst the most
illustrious citizens, whom he designated. Thence came the name
given them of 'pregadi' (invited). The grand council was not
formed till 1172, 140 years later, and was, from that time,
the real sovereign of the republic. It was composed of 480
members, named annually on the last day of September, by 12
tribunes, or grand electors, of whom two were chosen by each
of the six sections of the republic. No more than four members
from one family could be named. The same counsellors might be
re-elected each year. As it is in the spirit of a corporation
to tend always towards an aristocracy, the same persons were
habitually re-elected; and when they died their children took
their places. The grand council, neither assuming to itself
nor granting to the doge the judicial power, gave the first
example of the creation of a body of judges, numerous,
independent, and irremovable; such, nearly, as was afterwards
the parliament of Paris. In 1179, it created the criminal
'quarantia'; called, also, the 'vecchia quarantia,' to
distinguish it from two other bodies of forty judges, created
in 1229. The grand council gave a more complete organization
to the government formed from among its members. It was
com·posed of a doge; of six counsellors of the red robe, who
remained only eight months in office, and who, with the doge,
formed the 'signoria'; and of the council of pregadi, composed
of 60 members, renewed each year. …
{3605}
In 1249, the sovereign council renounced the election of the
doge, and intrusted it to a commission drawn by lot from among
the whole council; this commission named another: which,
reduced by lot to one fourth, named a third; and by these
alternate operations of lot and election, at length formed the
last commission of 41 members, who could elect the doge only
by a majority of 25 suffrages. It was not till towards the end
of the 13th century that the people began to discover that
they were no more than a cipher in the republic, and the doge
no more than a servant of the grand council,—surrounded,
indeed, with pomp, but without any real power. In 1289, the
people attempted themselves to elect the doge; but the grand
council obliged him whom the popular suffrages had designated
to leave Venice, and substituted in his place Pietro
Gradenigo, the chief of the aristocratic party. Gradenigo
undertook to exclude the people from any part in the election
of the grand council, as they were already debarred from any
participation in the election of a doge. … The decree which he
proposed and carried on the 28th of February, 1297, is famous
in the history of Venice, under the name of 'serrata del
maggior consiglio' (shutting of the grand council). He legally
founded that hereditary aristocracy,—so prudent, so jealous,
so ambitious,—which Europe regarded with astonishment;
immovable in principle, unshaken in power; uniting some of the
most odious practices of despotism with the name of liberty;
suspicious and perfidious in politics; sanguinary in revenge;
indulgent to the subject; sumptuous in the public service,
economical in the administration of the finances; equitable
and impartial in the administration of justice; knowing well
how to give prosperity to the arts, agriculture, and commerce;
beloved by the people who obeyed it, whilst it made the nobles
who partook its power tremble. The Venetian aristocracy
completed its constitution, in 1311, by the creation of the
Council of Ten, which, notwithstanding its name, was composed
of 16 members and the doge. Ten counsellors of the black robe
were annually elected by the great council, in the months of
August and September; and of the six counsellors of the red
robe, composing a part of the signoria, three entered office
every four months. The Council of Ten, charged to guard the
security of the state with a power higher than the law, had an
especial commission to watch over the nobles, and to punish
their crimes against the republic. In this they were
restrained by no rule: they were, with respect to the
nobility, the depositaries of the power of the great council,
or rather of a power unlimited, which no people should intrust
to any government. Some other decrees completed the system of
the 'serrata del maggior consiglio.' It was forbidden to the
quarantia to introduce any 'new man' into power. In 1315, a
register was opened, called the Golden Book, in which were
inscribed the names of all those who had sat in the great
council. In 1319, all limitation of number was suppressed;
and, from that period, it sufficed to prove that a person was
the descendant of a counsellor, and 25 years of age, to be by
right a member of the grand council of Venice."
_J. C. L. de Sismondi,
History of the Italian Republics,
chapter 5._
"When the Republic was hard pressed for money, inscriptions in
the Golden Book were sold at the current price of 100,000
ducats. … Illustrious foreigners were admitted, as they are
made free of a corporation amongst us. … The honour was not
disdained even by crowned heads. … The original 'Libro d' oro'
was publicly burned in 1797, but extracts, registers, and
other documents are extant from which its contents might be
ascertained."
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, volume 137, page 433)._
ALSO IN:
_E. Flagg,
Venice, the City of the Sea,
introduction._
_Mrs. Oliphant,
The Makers of Venice,
chapter 4._
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapters 5 and 9._
VENICE: A. D. 1085.
Acquires the sovereignty of Dalmatia and Croatia.
See BYZANTINE EMPIRE: A. D. 1081-1085.
VENICE: A. D. 1099-1101.
The first Crusade.
"The movement of the crusades brings Venice to the very
forefront of European history. Her previous development had
been slowly preparing the way for her emergence. The Council,
held at Clermont in 1095, resolved that the armament should
leave Europe early in the following year. The Pope and the
leaders of the Crusades were obliged to turn their attention
to the question of transport for the vast and amorphous mob,
which, without discipline, with no distinction of ranks, with
no discrimination between soldier and monk, between merchant
and peasant, between master and man, was now bent on reaching
the Holy Land, almost as eager to die there as to achieve the
object of their mission, the recovery of the Sepulchre. The
three maritime states of Italy—Genoa, Pisa, and Venice—were
each ready to offer their services. Each was jealous of the
other, and each determined to prevent the other from reaping
any signal commercial advantage from the religious enthusiasm
of Europe. Venice was not only the most powerful, but also the
most eastern, of the three competitors. It was natural that
the choice should fall on her. When the Pope's invitation to
assist in the Crusade reached the city, however, it seems that
the Government did not at once embrace the cause officially in
the name of the whole Republic. There was, at first, a
tendency to leave the business of transport to private
enterprise. But on receipt of the news that Jerusalem had
fallen, the Venetian Government began to take active steps in
the matter. … The Crusade was accepted with enthusiasm. The
whole city engaged in preparing a fleet which should be worthy
of the Republic. Then, after a solemn mass in S. Mark's, at
which the standard of the Cross and the standard of the
Republic were presented to the leaders, the soldiers of the
Cross embarked on the fleet which numbered 200 ships, and set
sail down the Adriatic, making for Rhodes, where they were to
winter. At Rhodes two incidents of great significance in
Venetian history took place. The Eastern Emperors had never
viewed with favour the incursion of the Crusaders. The
creation of the kingdom of Jerusalem was really a usurpation
of Imperial territory. Alexius I. now endeavoured to persuade
the Venetians to withdraw from the enterprise. In this he
failed; Venice remained true to the Cross, and to her
commercial interests. It is at this point that we find the
beginnings of that divergence between Constantinople and the
Republic, which eventually declared itself in open hostility,
and led up to the sack of Constantinople in the fourth
Crusade.
{3606}
Alexius, finding that the Venetians were not inclined to obey
him, resolved to punish them. An instrument was ready to his
hand. The Pisans saw with disfavour the advent of their
commercial rivals in Eastern waters. They were willing to
hoist the Imperial standard as opposed to the crusading cross,
and to sail down upon the Venetians at Rhodes. They were
defeated. The Venetians released all the prisoners except
thirty of the more prominent among them who were detained as
hostages. The first fruits of the Crusade, as far as Venice
was concerned, were the creation of two powerful enemies, the
Emperor and the Pisans."
_H. F. Brown,
Venice,
chapter 6._
VENICE: A. D. 1102.
Hungarian conquest of Dalmatia.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 972-1114.
VENICE: A. D: 1114-1141.
Wars for Dalmatia with the Hungarians.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1114-1301.
VENICE: A. D. 1127-1128.
Beginning of quarrels with the Byzantine Empire.
"Previous to this time [about 1127], the Venetian republic had
generally been a firm ally of the Byzantine empire, and, to a
certain degree, it was considered as owing homage to the
Emperor of Constantinople. That connection was now dissolved,
and those disputes commenced which soon occupied a prominent
place in the history of Eastern Europe. The establishment of
the Crusaders in Palestine had opened a new field for the
commercial enterprise of the Venetians, and in a great measure
changed the direction of their maritime trade; while the
frequent quarrels of the Greeks and Franks compelled the
trading republics of Italy to attach themselves to one of the
belligerent parties, in order to secure a preference in its
ports. For a short time, habit kept the Venetians attached to
the empire; but they soon found that their interests were more
closely connected with the Syrian trade than with that of
Constantinople. They joined the kings of Jerusalem in
extending their conquests, and obtained considerable
establishments in all the maritime cities of the kingdom. From
having been the customers and allies of the Greeks, they
became their rivals and enemies. The commercial fleets of the
age acted too often like pirates; and it is not improbable
that the Emperor John had good reason to complain of the
aggressions of the Venetians. Hostilities commenced; the Doge
Dominico Michieli, one of the heroes of the republic,
conducted a numerous fleet into the Archipelago, and plundered
the islands of Rhodes and Chios, where he wintered. Next year
he continued his depredations in Samos, Mitylene, Paros, and
Andros. … Peace was re-established by the emperor reinstating
the Venetians in the enjoyment of all the commercial
privileges they had enjoyed before the war broke out."
_G. Finlay,
History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires,
book 3, chapter 2, section 2._
VENICE: A. D. 1177.
Pretended Papal Grant of the sovereignty of the Adriatic.
Doubtful story of the humiliation of Frederick Barbarossa.
A "notable epoch in early Venetian history is the grant on
which she based her claim to the sovereignty of the Adriatic.
In the course of the fierce struggle between Alexander III.
and Frederick Barbarossa [see ITALY: A. D. 1174-1183], the
Pope, when his fortunes were at the lowest, took refuge with
the Venetians, who, after a vain effort at reconciliation,
made common cause with him, and in a naval encounter obtained
so signal a victory that the Emperor was compelled to sue for
peace and submit to the most humiliating terms. The crowning
scene of his degradation has been rendered familiar by the
pencil, the chisel, and the pen. … The Emperor, as soon as he
came into the sacred presence, stripped off his mantle and
knelt down before the Pope to kiss his feet. Alexander,
intoxicated with his triumph and losing all sense of
moderation or generosity, placed his foot on the head or neck
of his prostrate enemy, exclaiming, in the words of the
Psalmist, 'Super aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis' &c. ('Thou
shalt tread upon the asp and the basilisk' …). 'Non tibi, sed
Petro' ('Not to thee, but Peter'), cried the outraged and
indignant Emperor. 'Et mihi et Petro' ('To both me and
Peter'), rejoined the Pope, with a fresh pressure of his heel.
… Sismondi (following a contemporary chronicler} narrates the
interview without any circumstance of insult, and describes it
as concluding with the kiss of peace. There are writers who
contend that Alexander was never at Venice, and that the
Venetians obtained no victory on his behalf. But the weight of
evidence adduced by Daru strikes us to be quite conclusive in
favour of his version. … In return for the good offices of
Venice on this occasion … Alexander presented the reigning
Doge, Ziani, with a ring, saying, 'Receive this ring, and with
it, as my donation, the dominion of the sea, which you, and
your successors, shall annually assert on an appointed day, so
that all posterity may understand that the possession of the
sea was yours by right of victory, and that it is subject to
the rule of the Venetian Republic, as wife to husband.' … The
well-known ceremony of wedding the Adriatic, religiously
observed with all its original pomp and splendour during six
centuries, was in itself a proclamation and a challenge to the
world. It was regularly attended by the papal nuncio and the
whole of the diplomatic corps, who, year after year, witnessed
the dropping of a sanctified ring into the sea, and heard
without a protest the prescriptive accompaniment: 'Desponsamus
te, mare, in signum veri perpetuique domini' (we espouse thee,
sea, in sign of true and perpetual dominion)."
_The Republic of Venice
(Quarterly Review, October, 1874, volume 137),
pages 421-423._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. Testa,
History of the War of Frederick I.
against the Communes of Lombardy,
book 11._
_Mrs. W. Busk,
Mediæval Popes, Emperors, Kings, and Crusaders,
book 2, chapter 8 (volume 2)._
VENICE: A. D. 1201.
Cause of Hostility to Constantinople.