Volume 2 / Part 1 — [Note: Listing adjusted to E-Text Edition of Volume II, Part 01. The full list of contributors appear in the complete E-text Edition of Volume II. A complete list of all contributors to the encyclopædia, appears in the final volume.] (continued 4)
Reading edition
Finally we may mention, as ancient history, the translation of Eutropius and Dares, by Geoffrey of Waterford (13th century), who gave also the Secret des Secrets, a translation from a work wrongly attributed to Aristotle, which belongs to the next division (Rom. xxiii. 314).
Didactic Literature.—This is the most considerable, if not the most interesting, branch of Anglo-Norman literature: it comprises a large number of works written chiefly with the object of giving both religious and profane instruction to Anglo-Norman lords and ladies. The following list gives the most important productions arranged in chronological order:—
Philippe de Thaun, Comput, c. 1119 (edited by E. Mall, Strassburg, 1873), poem on the calendar; Bestiaire, c. 1130 (ed. by E. Walberg, Paris, 1900; cf. G. Paris, Rom. xxxi. 175); Lois de Guillaume le Conquérant (redaction between 1150 and 1170, ed. by J. E. Matzke, Paris, 1899); Oxford Psalter, c. 1150 (Fr. Michel, Libri Psalmorum versio antiqua gallica, Oxford, 1860); Cambridge Psalter, c. 1160 (Fr. Michel, Le Livre des Psaumes, Paris, 1877); London Psalter, same as Oxford Psalter (cf. Beyer, Zt. f. rom. Phil. xi. 513-534; xii. 1-56); Disticha Catonis, translated by Everard de Kirkham and Elie de Winchester (Stengel, Ausg. u. Abhandlungen); Le Roman de fortune, summary of Boetius' De consolatione philosophiae, by Simon de Fresne (Hist. lit. xxviii. 408); Quatre livres des rois, translated into French in the 12th century, and imitated in England soon after (P. Schlösser, Die Lautverhältnisse der quatre livres des rois, Bonn, 1886; Romania, xvii. 124); Donnei des Amanz,, the conversation of two lovers, overheard and carefully noted by the poet, of a purely didactic character, in which are included three interesting pieces, the first being an episode of the story of Tristram, the second a fable, L'homme et le serpent, the third a tale, L'homme et l'oiseau, which is the basis of the celebrated Lai de l'oiselet (Rom. xxv. 497); Livre des Sibiles (1160); Enseignements Trebor, by Robert de Ho (=Hoo, Kent, on the left bank of the Medway) [edited by Mary Vance Young, Paris; Picard, 101; cf. G. Paris, Rom. xxxii. 141]; Lapidaire de Cambridge (Pannier, Les Lapidaires français); Frére Angier de Ste. Frideswide, Dialogues, 29th of November 1212 (Rom. xii. 145-208, and xxix.; M. K. Pope, Étude sur la langue de Frère Angier, Paris, 1903); Li dialoge Grégoire le pape, ed. by Foerster, 1876; Petit Plet, by Chardri, c. 1216 (Koch, Altfr Bibliothek. i., and Mussafia, Z. f. r. P. iii. 591); Petite philosophie, c. 1225 (Rom. xv. 356; xxix. 72); Histoire de Marie et de Jésus (Rom. xvi. 248-262); Poème sur l'Ancien Testament (Not. et Extr. xxxiv. 1, 210; Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889, 73-74); Le Corset and Le Miroir, by Robert de Gretham (Rom. vii. 345; xv. 296); Lumière as Lais, by Pierre de Peckham, c. 1250 (Rom. xv. 287); an Anglo-Norman redaction of Image du monde, c. 1250 (Rom. xxi. 481); two Anglo-Norman versions of Quatre soeurs (Justice, Truth, Peace, Mercy), 13th century (ed. by Fr. Michel, Psautier d'Oxford, pp. 364-368, Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes, 1886, 57, Romania, xv. 352); another Comput by Raüf de Lenham, 1256 (P. Meyer, Archives des missions, 2nd series iv. 154 and 160-164; Rom. xv. 285); Le chastel d'amors, by Robert Grosseteste or Greathead, bishop of Lincoln († 1253) [ed. by Cooke, Carmina Anglo-Normannica, 1852, Caxton Society]; Poème sur l'amour de Dieu et sur la haine du péché, 13th century, second part (Rom. xxix. 5); Le mariage des neuf filles du diable (Rom. xxix. 54); Ditie d' Urbain, attributed without any foundation to Henry I. (P. Meyer, Bulletin Soc. Anc. Textes, 1880, p. 73 and Romania xxxii, 68); Dialogue de l'évêque Saint Julien et son disciple (Rom. xxix. 21); Poème sur l'antichrist et le jugement dernier, by Henri d'Arci (Rom. xxix. 78; Not. et. Extr. 35, i. 137). Wilham de Waddington produced at the end of the 13th century his Manuel des péchés, which was adapted in England by Robert of Brunne in his Handlying Sinne (1303) [Hist. lit. xxviii. 179-207; Rom. xxix. 5, 47-53]; see Furnivall,Robert of Brunne's Handlying Synne (Roxb. Club, 1862); in the 14th century we find Nicole Bozon's Contes moralisés (see above); Traité de naturesse (Rom. xiii. 508); Sermons in verse (P. Meyer, op. cit. xlv.); Proverbes de bon enseignement (op. cit. xlvi.). We have also a few handbooks on the teaching of French. Gautier de Biblesworth wrote such a treatise à Madame Dyonise de Mountechensi pur aprise de langage (Wright, A Volume of Vocabularies; P. Meyer, Rec. d'anc. textes, p. 360 and Romania xxxii, 22); Orthographia gallica (Sturzinger, Altfr. Bibl. 1884); La manière de language, written in 1396 (P. Meyer, Rev. crit. d'hist. et de litt. nos. compl. de 1870); Un petit livre pour enseigner les enfants de leur entreparler comun françois, c. 1399 (Stengel, Z. für n.f. Spr. u. Litt. i. 11). The important Mirour de l'omme, by John Gower, contains about 30,000 lines written in very good French at the end of the 14th century (Macaulay, The Complete Works of John Gower, i., Oxford, 1899).
Hagiography.—Among the numerous lives of saints written in Anglo-Norman the most important ones are the following, the list of which is given in chronological order:—Voyage de Saint Brandan (or Brandain), written in 1121, by an ecclesiastic for Queen Aelis of Louvain (Rom. St. i. 553-588; Z. f. r. P. ii. 438-459; Rom. xviii. 203. C. Wahlund, Die altfr. Prosaübersetz. von Brendan's Meerfahrt, Upsala, 1901); life of St. Catherine by Clemence of Barking (Rom. xiii. 400, Jarnik, 1894); life of St Giles, c. 1170, by Guillaume de Berneville (Soc. Anc. Textes fr., 1881; Rom. xi. and xxiii. 94); life of St. Nicholas, life of Our Lady, by Wace (Delius, 1850; Stengel, Cod. Digby, 66); Uhlemann, Gram. Krit. Studien zu Wace's Conception und Nicolas, 1878; life of St. George by Simon de Fresne (Rom. x. 319; J. E. Matzke, Public. of the Mod. Lang. Ass. of Amer. xvii. 1902; Rom. xxxiv. 148); Expurgatoire de Ste. Patrice, by Marie de France (Jenkins, 1894; Eckleben, Aelteste Schilderung vom Fegefeuer d.H. Patricius, 1851; Ph. de Felice, 1906); La vie de St. Edmund le Rei, by Denis Pyramus, end of 12th century (Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, edited by T. Arnold, ii. 1892; Rom. xxii. 170); Henri d'Arci's life of St. Thais, poem on the Antichrist, Visio S. Pauli (P. Meyer, Not. et Extr. xxxv. 137-158); life of St. Gregory the Great by Frère Angier, 30th of April 1214 (Rom. viii. 509-544; ix. 176; xviii. 201); life of St. Modwenna, between 1225 and 1250 (Suchier, Die dem Matthäus Paris zugeschriebene Vie de St. Auban, 1873, pp. 54-58); Fragments of a life of St Thomas Becket, c. 1230 (P. Meyer, Soc. Anc. Text. fr., 1885); and another life of the same by Benoit of St. Alban, 13th century (Michel, Chron. des ducs de Normandie; Hist. Lit. xxiii. 383); a life of Edward the Confessor, written before 1245 (Luard, Lives of Edward the Confessor, 1858; Hist. Lit. xxvii. 1), by an anonymous monk of Westminster; life of St. Auban, c. 1250 (Suchier, op. cit.; Uhlemann, "Über die vie de St. Auban in Bezug auf Quelle," &c. Rom. St. iv. 543-626; ed. by Atkinson, 1876). The Vision of Tnudgal, an Anglo-Norman fragment, is preserved in MS. 312, Trinity College, Dublin; the MS. is of the 14th century; the author seems to belong to the 13th (La vision de Tondale, ed. by Friedel and Kuno Meyer, 1906). In this category we may add the life of Hugh of Lincoln, 13th century (Hist. Lit. xxiii. 436; Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1888, p. v; Wolter, Bibl. Anglo-Norm., ii. 115). Other lives of saints were recognized to be Anglo-Norman by Paul Meyer when examining the MSS. of the Welbeck library (Rom. xxxii. 637 and Hist. Lit. xxxiii. 338-378).
Lyric Poetry.—The only extant songs of any importance are the seventy-one Ballads of Gower (Stengel, Gower's Minnesang, 1886). The remaining songs are mostly of a religious character. Most of them have been discovered and published by Paul Meyer (Bulletin de la Soc. Anc. Textes, 1889; Not. et Extr. xxxiv; Rom. xiii. 518, t. xiv. 370; xv. p. 254, &c.). Although so few have come down to us such songs must have been numerous at one time, owing to the constant intercourse between English, French and Provençals of all classes. An interesting passage in Piers Plowman furnishes us with a proof of the extent to which these songs penetrated into England. We read of:
"... dykers and deluers that doth here dedes ille, And dryuen forth the longe day with 'Deu, vous saue, Dame Emme!'" (Prologue, 223 f.)
One of the finest productions of Anglo-Norman lyric poetry written in the end of the 13th century, is the Plainte d'amour (Vising, Göteborg, 1905; Romania xiii. 507, xv. 292 and xxix. 4), and we may mention, merely as literary curiosities, various works of a lyrical character written in two languages, Latin and French, or English and French, or even in three languages, Latin, English and French. In Early English Lyrics (Oxford, 1907) we have a poem in which a lover sends to his mistress a love-greeting composed in three languages, and his learned friend replies in the same style (De amico ad amicam, Responcio, viii and ix).
Satire.—The popularity enjoyed by the Roman de Renart and the Anglo-Norman version of the Riote du Monde (Z. f. rom. Phil. viii. 275-289) in England is proof enough that the French spirit of satire was keenly appreciated. The clergy and the fair sex presented the most attractive target for the shots of the satirists. However, an Englishman raised his voice in favour of the ladies in a poem entitled La Bonté des dames (Meyer, Rom. xv. 315-339), and Nicole Bozon, after having represented "Pride" as a feminine being whom he supposes to be the daughter of Lucifer, and after having fiercely attacked the women of his day in the Char d'Orgueil (Rom. xiii. 516), also composed a Bounté des femmes (P. Meyer, op. cit. 33) in which he covers them with praise, commending their courtesy, their humility, their openness and the care with which they bring up their children. A few pieces of political satire show us French and English exchanging amenities on their mutual shortcomings. The Roman des Français, by André de Coutances, was written on the continent, and cannot be quoted as Anglo-Norman although it was composed before 1204 (cf. Gaston Paris: Trois versions rimées de l'évangile de Nicodème, Soc. Anc. Textes, 1885), it is a very spirited reply to French authors who had attacked the English.
Dramatic Literature.—This must have had a considerable influence on the development of the sacred drama in England, but none of the French plays acted in England in the 12th and 13th centuries has been preserved. Adam, which is generally considered to be an Anglo-Norman mystery of the 12th century, was probably written in France at the beginning of the 13th century (Romania xxxii. 637), and the so-called Anglo-Norman Resurrection belongs also to continental French. It is necessary to state that the earliest English moralities seem to have been imitations of the French ones.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Apart from the works already mentioned see generally: Scheibner, "Über die Herrschaft der frz. Sprache in England" (Annaberg, Progr. der Königlichen Realschule, 1880, 38 f.); Groeber, Grundr. der romanischen Philologie, ii. iii. (Strassburg, 1902); G. Paris, La Litt. fr. au moyen âge (1905); Esquisse historique de la litt. fr. au moyen âge (1907); La Litt. norm, avani l'annexion 912-1204 (Paris, 1899); "L'Esprit normand en Angleterre," La Poésie au moyen âge (2nd series 45-74, Paris, 1906); Thomas Wright, Biographia britannica literaria (Anglo-Norman period, London, 1846); Ten Brink, Geschichte der englischen Litteratur (Berlin, 1877, i. 2); J. J. Jusserand, Hist. litt. du peuple anglais (2nd ed. 1895, vol. i.); W. H. Schofield, English Literature from the Norman Conquest to Chaucer (London, 1906); Johan Vising, Franska Sprâket i England (Göteborg, 1900, 1901, 1902).
(L. Br.)
ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE. It is usual to speak of "the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle"; it would be more correct to say that there are four Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. It is true that these all grow out of a common stock, that in some even of their later entries two or more of them use common materials; but the same may be said of several groups of medieval chronicles, which no one dreams of treating as single chronicles. Of this fourfold Chronicle there are seven MSS. in existence; C. C. C. Cant. 173 (A); Cott. Tib. A vi. (B); Cott. Tib. B i. (C); Cott. Tib. B iv. (D); Bodl. Laud. Misc. 636 (E); Cott. Domitian A viii. (F); Cott. Otho B xi. (G). Of these G is now a mere fragment, and it is known to have been a transcript of A. F is bilingual, the entries being given both in Saxon and Latin. It is interesting as a stage in the transition from the vernacular to the Latin chronicle; but it has little independent value, being a mere epitome, made at Canterbury in the 11th or 12th century, of a chronicle akin to E. B, as far as it goes (to 977), is identical with C, both having been copied from a common original, but A, C, D, E have every right to be treated as independent chronicles. The relations between the four vary very greatly in different parts, and the neglect of this consideration has led to much error and confusion. The common stock, out of which all grow, extends to 892. The present writer sees no reason to doubt that the idea of a national, as opposed to earlier local chronicles, was inspired by Alfred, who may even have dictated, or at least revised, the entries relating to his own campaigns; while for the earlier parts pre-existing materials, both oral and written, were utilized. Among the latter the chronological epitome appended to Bede's Ecclesiastical History may be specially mentioned. But even this common stock exists in two different recensions, in A, B, C, on the one hand, and D, E on the other. The main points of difference are that in D, E (1) a series of northern annals have been incorporated; (2) the Bede entries are taken, not from the brief epitome, but from the main body of the Eccl. Hist. The inference is that, shortly after the compiling of this Alfredian chronicle, a copy of it was sent to some northern monastery, probably Ripon, where it was expanded in the way indicated. Copies of this northernized Chronicle afterwards found their way to the south. The impulse given by Alfred was continued under Edward, and we have what may be called an official continuation of the history of the Danish wars, which, in B, C, D extends to 915, and in A to 924. After 915 B, C insert as a separate document a short register of Mercian affairs during the same period (902-924), which might be called the acts of Æthelflaed, the famous "Lady of the Mercians," while D has incorporated it, not very skilfully, with the official continuation. Neither of these documents exists in E. From 925 to 975 all the chronicles are very fragmentary; a few obits, three or four poems, among them the famous ballad on the battle of Brunanburh, make up the meagre tale of their common materials, which each has tried to supplement in its own way. A has inserted a number of Winchester entries, which prove that A is a Winchester book. And this local and scrappy character it retains to 1001, where it practically ends. At some subsequent time it was transferred bodily to Canterbury, where it received numerous interpolations in the earlier part, and a few later local entries which finally tail off into the Latin acts of Lanfranc. A may therefore be dismissed. C has added to the common stock one or two Abingdon entries, with which place the history of C is closely connected; while D and E have a second group of northern annals 901-966, E being however much more fragmentary than D, omitting, or not having access to, much both of the common and of the northern material which is found in D. From 983 to 1018 C, D and E are practically identical, and give a connected history of the Danish struggles under Æthelred II. This section was probably composed at Canterbury. From 1018 the relations of C, D, E become too complicated to be expressed by any formula; sometimes all three agree together, sometimes all three are independent; in other places each pair in turn agree against the third. It may be noted that C is strongly anti-Godwinist, while E is equally pro-Godwinist, D occupying an intermediate position. C extends to 1066, where it ends abruptly, and probably mutilated. D ends at 1079 and is certainly mutilated. In its later history D is associated with some place in the diocese of Worcester, probably Evesham. In its present form D is a comparatively late MS., none of it probably much earlier, and some of it later, than 1100. In the case of entries in the earlier part of the chronicles, which are peculiar to D, we cannot exclude the possibility that they may be late interpolations. E is continued to 1154. In its present form it is unquestionably a Peterborough book. The earlier part is full of Peterborough interpolations, to which place many of the later entries also refer. But (apart from the interpolations) it is only the entries after 1121, where the first hand in the MS. ends, which were actually composed at Peterborough. The section 1023-1067 certainly, and possibly also the section 1068-1121, was composed at St. Augustine's, Canterbury; and the former is of extreme interest and value, the writer being in close contact with the events which he describes. The later parts of E show a great degeneration in language, and a querulous tone due to the sufferings of the native population under the harsh Norman rule; "but our debt to it is inestimable; and we can hardly measure what the loss to English history would have been, if it had not been written; or if, having been written, it had, like so many another English chronicle, been lost."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—The above account is based on the introduction in vol. ii. of the Rev. C. Plummer's edition of Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Clarendon Press, 1892, 1899); to which the student may be referred for detailed arguments. The editio princeps of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was by Abraham Wheloc, professor of Arabic at Cambridge, where the work was printed (1643-1644). It was based mainly on the MS. called G above, and is the chief source of our knowledge of that MS. which perished, all but three leaves, in the Cottonian fire of 1723. Edmund Gibson of Queen's College, Oxford, afterwards bishop of London, published an edition in 1692. He used Wheloc's edition, and E, with collations or transcripts of B and F. Both Wheloc and Gibson give Latin translations. In 1823 appeared an edition by Dr. Ingram, of Trinity College, Oxford, with an English translation. Besides A, B, E, F, Ingram used C and D for the first time. But both he and Gibson made the fatal error of trying to combine the disparate materials contained in the various chronicles in a single text. An improvement in this respect is seen in the edition made by Richard Price (d. 1833) for the first (and only) volume of Monumenta Historica Britannica (folio 1848). There is still, however, too much conflation, and owing to the plan of the volume, the edition only extends to 1066. A translation is appended. In 1861 appeared Benjamin Thorpe's six-text edition in the Rolls Series. Though not free from defects, this edition is absolutely indispensable for the study of the chronicles and the mutual relations of the different MSS. A second volume contains the translation. In 1865 the Clarendon Press published Two Saxon Chronicles (A and E) Parallel, with supplementary extracts from the others, by the Rev. John Earle. This edition has no translation, but in the notes and introduction a very considerable advance was made. On this edition is partly based the later edition by the Rev. C. Plummer, already cited above. In addition to the translations contained in the editions already mentioned, the following have been issued separately. The first translation into modern English was by Miss Anna Gurney, privately printed in 1819. This was largely based on Gibson's edition, and was in turn the basis of Dr. Giles' translation, published in 1847, and often reprinted. The best translation is that by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson, in his series of Church Historians of England (1853). Up to the Conquest it is a revision of the translation contained in Mon. Hist. Brit. From that point it is an independent translation.
(C. Pl.)
ANGLO-SAXON LAW. 1. The body of legal rules and customs which obtained in England before the Norman conquest constitutes, with the Scandinavian laws, the most genuine expression of Teutonic legal thought. While the so-called "barbaric laws" (leges barbarorum) of the continent, not excepting those compiled in the territory now called Germany, were largely the product of Roman influence, the continuity of Roman life was almost completely broken in the island, and even the Church, the direct heir of Roman tradition, did not carry on a continuous existence: Canterbury was not a see formed in a Roman province in the same sense as Tours or Reims. One of the striking expressions of this Teutonism is presented by the language in which the Anglo-Saxon laws were written. They are uniformly worded in English, while continental laws, apart from the Scandinavian, are all in Latin. The English dialect in which the Anglo-Saxon laws have been handed down to us is in most cases a common speech derived from West Saxon—naturally enough as Wessex became the predominant English state, and the court of its kings the principal literary centre from which most of the compilers and scribes derived their dialect and spelling. Traces of Kentish speech may be detected, however, in the Textus Roffensis, the MS. of the Kentish laws, and Northumbrian dialectical peculiarities are also noticeable on some occasions, while Danish words occur only as technical terms. At the conquest, Latin takes the place of English in the compilations made to meet the demand for Anglo-Saxon law texts as still applied in practice.
2. It is easy to group the Anglo-Saxon laws according to the manner of their publication. They would fall into three divisions: (1) laws and collections of laws promulgated by public authority; (2) statements of custom; (3) private compilations of legal rules and enactments. To the first division belong the laws of the Kentish kings, Æthelberht, Hlothhere and Eadric, Withraed; those of Ine of Wessex, of Alfred, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan,[1] Edmund, Edgar, Æthelred and Canute; the treaty between Alfred and Guthrum and the so-called treaty between Edward and Guthrum. The second division is formed by the convention between the English and the Welsh Dunsaetas, the law of the Northumbrian priests, the customs of the North people, the fragments of local custumals entered in Domesday Book. The third division would consist of the collections of the so-called Pseudo-leges Canuti, the laws of Edward the Confessor, of Henry I., and the great compilation of the Quadripartitus, then of a number of short notices and extracts like the fragments on the "wedding of a wife," on oaths, on ordeals, on the king's peace, on rural customs (Rectitudines singularum personarum), the treatises on the reeve (gerefa) and on the judge (dema), formulae of oaths, notions as to wergeld, &c. A fourth group might be made of the charters, as they are based on Old English private and public law and supply us with most important materials in regard to it. Looking somewhat deeper at the sources from which Old English law was derived, we shall have to modify our classification to some extent, as the external forms of publication, although important from the point of view of historical criticism, are not sufficient standards as to the juridical character of the various kinds of material. Direct statements of law would fall under the following heads, from the point of view of their legal origins: i. customary rules followed by divers communities capable of formulating law; ii. enactments of authorities, especially of kings; iii. private arrangements made under recognized legal rules. The first would comprise, besides most of the statements of custom included in the second division according to the first classification, a great many of the rules entered in collections promulgated by kings; most of the paragraphs of Æthelberht's, Hlothhere's, and Eadric's and Ine's laws, are popular legal customs that have received the stamp of royal authority by their insertion in official codes. On the other hand, from Withraed's and Alfred's laws downwards, the element of enactment by central authority becomes more and more prominent. The kings endeavour, with the help of secular and clerical witan, to introduce new rules and to break the power of long-standing customs (e.g. the precepts about the keeping of holidays, the enactments of Edmund restricting private vengeance, and the solidarity of kindreds as to feuds, and the like). There are, however, no outward signs enabling us to distinguish conclusively between both categories of laws in the codes, nor is it possible to draw a line between permanent laws and personal ordinances of single sovereigns, as has been attempted in the case of Frankish legislation.
3. Even in the course of a general survey of the legal lore at our disposal, one cannot help being struck by peculiarities in the distribution of legal subjects. Matters which seem to us of primary importance and occupy a wide place in our law-books are almost entirely absent in Anglo-Saxon laws or relegated to the background. While it is impossible to give here anything like a complete or exact survey of the field—a task rendered almost impossible by the arbitrary manner in which paragraphs are divided, by the difficulty of making Old English enactments fit into modern rubrics, and by the necessity of counting several times certain paragraphs bearing on different subjects—a brief statistical analysis of the contents of royal codes and laws may be found instructive.
We find roughly 419 paragraphs devoted to criminal law and procedure as against 91 concerned with questions of private law and civil procedure. Of the criminal law clauses, as many as 238 are taken up with tariffs of fines, while 80 treat of capital and corporal punishment, outlawry and confiscation, and 101 include rules of procedure. On the private law side 18 clauses apply to rights of property and possession, 13 to succession and family law, 37 to contracts, including marriage when treated as an act of sale; 18 touch on civil procedure. A subject which attracted special attention was the law of status, and no less than 107 paragraphs contain disposition dictated by the wish to discriminate between the classes of society. Questions of public law and administration are discussed in 217 clauses, while 197 concern the Church in one way or another, apart from purely ecclesiastical collections. In the public law division it is chiefly the power, interests and privileges of the king that are dealt with, in roughly 93 paragraphs, while local administration comes in for 39 and purely economic and fiscal matter for 13 clauses. Police regulations are very much to the fore and occupy no less than 72 clauses of the royal legislation. As to church matters, the most prolific group is formed by general precepts based on religious and moral considerations, roughly 115, while secular privileges conferred on the Church hold about 62, and questions of organization some 20 clauses.
The statistical contrasts are especially sharp and characteristic when we take into account the chronological sequence in the elaboration of laws. Practically the entire code of Æthelberht, for instance, is a tariff of fines for crimes, and the same subject continues to occupy a great place in the laws of Hlothhere and Eadric, Ine and Alfred, whereas it appears only occasionally in the treaties with the Danes, the laws of Withraed, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan, Edgar, Edmund and Æthelred. It reappears in some strength in the code of Canute, but the latter is chiefly a recapitulation of former enactments. The system of "compositions" or fines, paid in many cases with the help of kinsmen, finds its natural place in the ancient, tribal period of English history and loses its vitality later on in consequence of the growth of central power and of the scattering of maegths. Royalty and the Church, when they acquire the lead in social life, work out a new penal system based on outlawry, death penalties and corporal punishments, which make their first appearance in the legislation of Withraed and culminate in that of Æthelred and Canute.
As regards status, the most elaborate enactments fall into the period preceding the Danish settlements. After the treaties with the Danes, the tendency is to simplify distinctions on the lines of an opposition between twelvehynd-men and twyhynd-men, paving the way towards the feudal distinction between the free and the unfree. In the arrangements of the commonwealth the clauses treating of royal privileges are more or less evenly distributed over all reigns, but the systematic development of police functions, especially in regard to responsibility for crimes, the catching of thieves, the suppression of lawlessness, is mainly the object of 10th and 11th century legislation. The reign of Æthelred, which witnessed the greatest national humiliation and the greatest crime in English history, is also marked by the most lavish expressions of religious feeling and the most frequent appeals to morality. This sketch would, of course, have to be modified in many ways if we attempted to treat the unofficial fragments of customary law in the same way as the paragraphs of royal codes, and even more so if we were able to tabulate the indirect evidence as to legal rules. But, imperfect as such statistics may be, they give us at any rate some insight into the direction of governmental legislation.
4. The next question to be approached concerns the pedigree of Anglo-Saxon law and the latter's natural affinities. What is its position in the legal history of Germanic nations? How far has it been influenced by non-Germanic elements, especially by Roman and Canon law? The oldest Anglo-Saxon codes, especially the Kentish and the West Saxon ones, disclose a close relationship to the barbaric laws of Lower Germany—those of Saxons, Frisians, Thuringians. We find a division of social ranks which reminds us of the threefold gradation of Lower Germany (edelings, frilings, lazzen-eorls, ceorls, laets), and not of the twofold Frankish one (ingenui Franci, Romani), nor of the minute differentiation of the Upper Germans and Lombards. In subsequent history there is a good deal of resemblance between the capitularies' legislation of Charlemagne and his successors on one hand, the acts of Alfred, Edward the Elder, Æthelstan and Edgar on the other, a resemblance called forth less by direct borrowing of Frankish institutions than by the similarity of political problems and condition. Frankish law becomes a powerful modifying element in English legal history after the Conquest, when it was introduced wholesale in royal and in feudal courts. The Scandinavian invasions brought in many northern legal customs, especially in the districts thickly populated with Danes. The Domesday survey of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, Norfolk, &c., shows remarkable deviations in local organization and justice (lagmen, sokes), and great peculiarities as to status (socmen, freemen), while from laws and a few charters we can perceive some influence on criminal law (nidings-vaerk), special usages as to fines (lahslit), the keeping of peace, attestation and sureties of acts (faestermen), &c. But, on the whole, the introduction of Danish and Norse elements, apart from local cases, was more important owing to the conflicts and compromises it called forth and its social results,—than on account of any distinct trail of Scandinavian views in English law. The Scandinavian newcomers coalesced easily and quickly with the native population.
The direct influence of Roman law was not great during the Saxon period: we notice neither the transmission of important legal doctrines, chiefly through the medium of Visigothic codes, nor the continuous stream of Roman tradition in local usage. But indirectly Roman law did exert a by no means insignificant influence through the medium of the Church, which, for all its insular character, was still permeated with Roman ideas and forms of culture. The Old English "books" are derived in a roundabout way from Roman models, and the tribal law of real property was deeply modified by the introduction of individualistic notions as to ownership, donations, wills, rights of women, &c. Yet in this respect also the Norman Conquest increased the store of Roman conceptions by breaking the national isolation of the English Church and opening the way for closer intercourse with France and Italy.
5. It would be useless to attempt to trace in a brief sketch the history of the legal principles embodied in the documents of Anglo-Saxon law. But it may be of some value to give an outline of a few particularly characteristic subjects.
(a) The Anglo-Saxon legal system cannot be understood unless one realizes the fundamental opposition between folk-right and privilege. Folk-right is the aggregate of rules, formulated or latent but susceptible of formulation, which can be appealed to as the expression of the juridical consciousness of the people at large or of the communities of which it is composed. It is tribal in its origin, and differentiated, not according to boundaries between states, but on national and provincial lines. There may be the folk-right of West and East Saxons, of East Angles, of Kentish men, Mercians, Northumbrians, Danes, Welshmen, and these main folk-right divisions remain even when tribal kingdoms disappear and the people is concentrated in one or two realms. The chief centres for the formulation and application of folk-right were in the 10th and 11th centuries the shire-moots, while the witan of the realm generally placed themselves on the higher ground of State expediency, although occasionally using folk-right ideas. The older law of real property, of succession, of contracts, the customary tariffs of fines, were mainly regulated by folk-right; the reeves employed by the king and great men were supposed to take care of local and rural affairs according to folk-right. The law had to be declared and applied by the people itself in its communities, while the spokesmen of the people were neither democratic majorities nor individual experts, but a few leading men—the twelve eldest thanes or some similar quorum. Folk-right could, however, be broken or modified by special law or special grant, and the fountain of such privileges was the royal power. Alterations and exceptions were, as a matter of fact, suggested by the interested parties themselves, and chiefly by the Church. Thus a privileged land-tenure was created—bookland; the rules as to the succession of kinsmen were set at nought by concession of testamentary power and confirmations of grants and wills; special exemptions from the jurisdiction of the hundreds and special privileges as to levying fines were conferred. In process of time the rights originating in royal grants of privilege overbalanced, as it were, folk-right in many respects, and became themselves the starting-point of a new legal system—the feudal one.
(b) Another feature of vital importance in the history of Anglo-Saxon law is its tendency towards the preservation of peace. Society is constantly struggling to ensure the main condition of its existence—peace. Already in Æthelberht's legislation we find characteristic fines inflicted for breach of the peace of householders of different ranks—the ceorl, the eorl, and the king himself appearing as the most exalted among them. Peace is considered not so much a state of equilibrium and friendly relations between parties, but rather as the rule of a third within a certain region—a house, an estate, a kingdom. This leads on one side to the recognition of private authorities—the father's in his family, the master's as to servants, the lord's as to his personal or territorial dependents. On the other hand, the tendency to maintain peace naturally takes its course towards the strongest ruler, the king, and we witness in Anglo-Saxon law the gradual evolution of more and more stringent and complete rules in respect of the king's peace and its infringements.
(c) The more ancient documents of Anglo-Saxon law show us the individual not merely as the subject and citizen of a certain commonwealth, but also as a member of some group, all the fellows of which are closely allied in claims and responsibilities. The most elementary of these groups is the maegth, the association of agnatic and cognatic relations. Personal protection and revenge, oaths, marriage, wardship, succession, supervision over settlement, and good behaviour, are regulated by the law of kinship. A man's actions are considered not as exertions of his individual will, but as acts of the kindred, and all the fellows of the maegth are held responsible for them. What began as a natural alliance was used later as a means of enforcing responsibility and keeping lawless individuals in order. When the association of kinsmen failed, the voluntary associations—guilds—appeared as substitutes. The gild brothers associated in mutual defence and support, and they had to share in the payment of fines. The township and the hundred came also in for certain forms of collective responsibility, because they presented groups of people associated in their economic and legal interests.
(d) In course of time the natural associations get loosened and intermixed, and this calls forth the elaborate police legislation of the later Anglo-Saxon kings. Regulations are issued about the sale of cattle in the presence of witnesses. Enactments about the pursuit of thieves, and the calling in of warrantors to justify sales of chattels, are other expressions of the difficulties attending peaceful intercourse. Personal surety appears as a complement of and substitute for collective responsibility. The hlaford and his hiredmen are an institution not only of private patronage, but also of police supervision for the sake of laying hands on malefactors and suspected persons. The landrica assumes the same part in a territorial district. Ultimately the laws of the 10th and 11th centuries show the beginnings of the frankpledge associations, which came to act so important a part in the local police and administration of the feudal age.
The points mentioned are not many, but, apart from their intrinsic importance in any system of law, they are, as it were, made prominent by the documents themselves, as they are constantly referred to in the latter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Editions: Liebermann, Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen (1903, 1906) is indispensable, and leaves nothing to be desired as to the constitution of the texts. The translations and notes are, of course, to be considered in the light of an instructive, but not final, commentary. R. Schmid, Gesetze der Angelsachsen (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1858) is still valuable on account of its handiness and the fulness of its glossary. B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws and Institutes of England (1840) is not very trustworthy. Domesday Book, i. ii. (Rec. Comm.); Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, i.-vi. ed. J. M. Kemble (1839-1848); Cartularium Saxonicum (up to 940), ed. W. de Gray Birch (1885-1893); J. Earle, Land Charters (Oxford, 1888); Thorpe, Diplomatarium Anglicanum; Facsimiles of Ancient Charters, edited by the Ordnance Survey and by the British Museum; Haddan and Stubbs, Councils of Great Britain, i.-iii. (Oxford, 1869-1878).
Modern works.—Konrad Maurer, Über Angelsachsische Rechtsverhaltnisse, Kritische Ueberschau (Munich, 1853 ff.), still the best account of the history of Anglo-Saxon law; Essays on Anglo-Saxon Law, by H. Adams, H. C. Lodge, J. L. Laughlin and E. Young (1876); J. M. Kemble, Saxons in England; F. Palgrave, History of the English Commonwealth; Stubbs, Constitutional History of England, i.; Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, i.; H. Brunner, Zur Rechtsgeschichte der romisch-germanischen Urkunde (1880); Sir F. Pollock, The King's Peace (Oxford Lectures); F. Seebohm; The English Village Community; Ibid. Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law; Marquardsen, Haft und Burgschaft im Angelsachsischen Recht; Jastrow, "Über die Strafrechtliche Stellung der Sklaven," Gierke's Untersuchungen, i.; Steenstrup, Normannerne, iv.; F. W. Maitland, Domesday and Beyond (Cambridge, 1897); H. M. Chadwick, Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions (1905); P. Vinogradoff, "Folcland" in the English Historical Review, 1893; "Romanistische Einflusse im Angelsächsischen Recht: Das Buchland" in the Mélanges Fitting, 1907; "The Transfer of Land in Old English Law" in the Harvard Law Review, 1907.
(P. Vi.)
[1] The Judicia civitatis Lundoniae are a gild statute confirmed by King Æthelstan.
ANGLO-SAXONS. The term "Anglo-Saxon" is commonly applied to that period of English history, language and literature which preceded the Norman Conquest. It goes back to the time of King Alfred, who seems to have frequently used the title rex Anglorum Saxonum or rex Angul-Saxonum. The origin of this title is not quite clear. It is generally believed to have arisen from the final union of the various kingdoms under Alfred in 886. Bede (Hist. Eccl. i. 15) states that the people of the more northern kingdoms (East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, &c.) belonged to the Angli, while those of Essex, Sussex and Wessex were sprung from the Saxons (q.v.), and those of Kent and southern Hampshire from the Jutes (q.v.). Other early writers, however, do not observe these distinctions, and neither in language nor in custom do we find evidence of any appreciable differences between the two former groups, though in custom Kent presents most remarkable contrasts with the other kingdoms. Still more curious is the fact that West Saxon writers regularly speak of their own nation as a part of the Angelcyn and of their language as Englisc, while the West Saxon royal family claimed to be of the same stock as that of Bernicia. On the other hand, it is by no means impossible that the distinction drawn by Bede was based solely on the names Essex (East Seaxan), East Anglia, &c. We need not doubt that the Angli and the Saxons were different nations originally; but from the evidence at our disposal it seems likely that they had practically coalesced in very early times, perhaps even before the invasion. At all events the term Angli Saxones seems to have first come into use on the continent, where we find it, nearly a century before Alfred's time, in the writings of Paulus Diaconus (Paul the Deacon). There can be little doubt, however, that there it was used to distinguish the Teutonic inhabitants of Britain from the Old Saxons of the continent.
See W. H. Stevenson, Asser's Life of King Alfred (Oxford, 1904, pp. 148 ff.); H. Munro Chadwick, The Origin of the English Nation (Cambridge, 1907); also BRITAIN, Anglo-Saxon.
(H. M. C.)
ANGOLA, the general name of the Portuguese possessions on the west coast of Africa south of the equator. With the exception of the enclave of Kabinda (q.v.) the province lies wholly south of the river Congo. Bounded on the W. by the Atlantic Ocean, it extends along the coast from the southern bank of the Congo (6° S., 12° E.) to the mouth of the Kunene river (17° 18' S., 11° 50' E.). The coast-line is some 900 m. long. On the north the Congo forms for 80 m. the boundary separating Angola from the Congo Free State. The frontier thence (in 5° 52' S.) goes due east to the Kwango river. The eastern boundary—dividing the Portuguese possessions from the Congo State and Barotseland (N. W. Rhodesia)—is a highly irregular line. On the south Angola borders German South-West Africa, the frontier being drawn somewhat S. of the 17th degree of S. latitude. The area of the province is about 480,000 sq. m. The population is estimated (1906) at 4,119,000.
The name Angola (a Portuguese corruption of the Bantu word Ngola) is sometimes confined to the 105 m. of coast, with its hinterland, between the mouths of the rivers Dande and Kwanza, forming the central portion of the Portuguese dominions in West Africa; in a looser manner Angola is used to designate all the western coast of Africa south of the Congo in the possession of Portugal; but the name is now officially applied to the whole of the province. Angola is divided into five districts: four on the coast, the fifth, Lunda, wholly inland, being the N.E. part of the province. Lunda is part of the old Bantu kingdom of Muata Yanvo, divided by international agreement between Portugal and the Congo Free State.
The coast divisions of Angola are Congo on the N. (from the river Congo to the river Loje), corresponding roughly with the limits of the "kingdom of Congo" (see History below); Loanda, which includes Angola in the most restricted sense mentioned above; Benguella and Mossamedes to the south. Mossamedes is again divided into two portions—the coast region and the hinterland, known as Huilla.
Physical Features.—The coast is for the most part flat, with occasional low cliffs and bluffs of red sandstone. There is but one deep inlet of the sea—Great Fish Bay (or Bahia dos Tigres), a little north of the Portuguese-German frontier. Farther north are Port Alexander, Little Fish Bay and Lobito Bay, while shallower bays are numerous. Lobito Bay has water sufficient to allow large ships to unload close inshore. The coast plain extends inland for a distance varying from 30 to 100 m. This region is in general sparsely watered and somewhat sterile. The approach to the great central plateau of Africa is marked by a series of irregular terraces. This intermediate mountain belt is covered with luxuriant vegetation. Water is fairly abundant, though in the dry season obtainable only by digging in the sandy beds of the rivers. The plateau has an altitude ranging from 4000 to 6000 ft. It consists of well-watered, wide, rolling plains, and low hills with scanty vegetation. In the east the tableland falls away to the basins of the Congo and Zambezi, to the south it merges into a barren sandy desert. A large number of rivers make their way westward to the sea; they rise, mostly, in the mountain belt, and are unimportant, the only two of any size being the Kwanza and the Kunene, separately noticed. The mountain chains which form the edge of the plateau, or diversify its surface, run generally parallel to the coast, as Tala Mugongo (4400 ft.), Chella and Vissecua (5250 ft. to 6500 ft.). In the district of Benguella are the highest points of the province, viz. Loviti (7780 ft.), in 12° 5' S., and Mt. Elonga (7550 ft.). South of the Kwanza is the volcanic mountain Caculo-Cabaza (3300 ft.). From the tableland the Kwango and many other streams flow north to join the Kasai (one of the largest affluents of the Congo), which in its upper course forms for fully 300 m. the boundary between Angola and the Congo State. In the south-east part of the province the rivers belong either to the Zambezi system, or, like the Okavango, drain to Lake Ngami.
Geology.—The rock formations of Angola are met with in three distinct regions: (1) the littoral zone, (2) the median zone formed by a series of hills more or less parallel with the coast, (3) the central plateau. The central plateau consists of ancient crystalline rocks with granites overlain by unfossiliferous sandstones and conglomerates considered to be of Palaeozoic age. The outcrops are largely hidden under laterite. The median zone is composed largely of crystalline rocks with granites and some Palaeozoic unfossiliferous rocks. The littoral zone contains the only fossiliferous strata. These are of Tertiary and Cretaceous ages, the latter rocks resting on a reddish sandstone of older date. The Cretaceous rocks of the Dombe Grande region (near Benguella) are of Albian age and belong to the Acanthoceras mamillari zone. The beds containing Schloenbachia inflata are referable to the Gault. Rocks of Tertiary age are met with at Dombe Grande, Mossamedes and near Loanda. The sandstones with gypsum, copper and sulphur of Dombe are doubtfully considered to be of Triassic age. Recent eruptive rocks, mainly basalts, form a line of hills almost bare of vegetation between Benguella and Mossamedes. Nepheline basalts and liparites occur at Dombe Grande. The presence of gum copal in considerable quantities in the superficial rocks is characteristic of certain regions.
Climate.—With the exception of the district of Mossamedes, the coast plains are unsuited to Europeans. In the interior, above 3300 ft., the temperature and rainfall, together with malaria, decrease. The plateau climate is healthy and invigorating. The mean annual temperature at Sao Salvador do Congo is 72.5° F.; at Loanda, 74.3°; and at Caconda, 67.2°. The climate is greatly influenced by the prevailing winds, which arc W., S.W. and S.S.W. Two seasons are distinguished—the cool, from June to September; and the rainy, from October to May. The heaviest rainfall occurs in April, and is accompanied by violent storms.
Flora and Fauna.—Both flora and fauna are those characteristic of the greater part of tropical Africa. As far south as Benguella the coast region is rich in oil-palms and mangroves. In the northern part of the province are dense forests. In the south towards the Kunene are regions of dense thorn scrub. Rubber vines and trees are abundant, but in some districts their number has been considerably reduced by the ruthless methods adopted by native collectors of rubber. The species most common are various root rubbers, notably the Carpodinus chylorrhiza. This species and other varieties of carpodinus are very widely distributed. Landolphias are also found. The coffee, cotton and Guinea pepper plants are indigenous, and the tobacco plant flourishes in several districts. Among the trees are several which yield excellent timber, such as the tacula (Pterocarpus tinctorius), which grows to an immense size, its wood being blood-red in colour, and the Angola mahogany. The bark of the musuemba (Albizzia coriaria) is largely used in the tanning of leather. The mulundo bears a fruit about the size of a cricket ball covered with a hard green shell and containing scarlet pips like a pomegranate. The fauna includes the lion, leopard, cheetah, elephant, giraffe, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, buffalo, zebra, kudu and many other kinds of antelope, wild pig, ostrich and crocodile. Among fish are the barbel, bream and African yellow fish.
Inhabitants.—The great majority of the inhabitants are of Bantu-Negro stock with some admixture in the Congo district with the pure negro type. In the south-east are various tribes of Bushmen. The best-known of the Bantu-Negro tribes are the Ba-Kongo (Ba-Fiot), who dwell chiefly in the north, and the Abunda (Mbunda, Ba-Bundo), who occupy the central part of the province, which takes its name from the Ngola tribe of Abunda. Another of these tribes, the Bangala, living on the west bank of the upper Kwango, must not be confounded with the Bangala of the middle Congo. In the Abunda is a considerable strain of Portuguese blood. The Ba-Lunda inhabit the Lunda district. Along the upper Kunene and in other districts of the plateau are settlements of Boers, the Boer population being about 2000. In the coast towns the majority of the white inhabitants are Portuguese. The Mushi-Kongo and other divisions of the Ba-Kongo retain curious traces of the Christianity professed by them in the 16th and 17th centuries and possibly later. Crucifixes are used as potent fetish charms or as symbols of power passing down from chief to chief; whilst every native has a "Santu" or Christian name and is dubbed dom or dona. Fetishism is the prevailing religion throughout the province. The dwelling-places of the natives are usually small huts of the simplest construction, used chiefly as sleeping apartments; the day is spent in an open space in front of the hut protected from the sun by a roof of palm or other leaves.
Chief Towns.—The chief towns are Sao Paulo de Loanda, the capital, Kabinda, Benguella and Mossamedes (q.v.). Lobito, a little north of Benguella, is a town which dates from 1905 and owes its existence to the bay of the same name having been chosen as the sea terminus of a railway to the far interior. Noki is on the southern bank of the Congo at the head of navigation from the sea, and close to the Congo Free State frontier. It is available for ships of large tonnage, and through it passes the Portuguese portion of the trade of the lower Congo. Ambriz—the only seaport of consequence in the Congo district of the province—is at the mouth of the Loje river, about 70 m. N. of Loanda. Novo Redondo and Egito are small ports between Loanda and Benguella. Port Alexander is in the district of Mossamedes and S. of the town of that name.
In the interior Humpata, about 95 m. from Mossamedes, is the chief centre of the Boer settlers; otherwise there are none but native towns containing from 1000 to 3000 inhabitants and often enclosed by a ring of sycamore trees. Ambaca and Malanje are the chief places in the fertile agricultural district of the middle Kwanza, S.E. of Loanda, with which they are in railway communication. Sao Salvador (pop. 1500) is the name given by the Portuguese to Bonza Congo, the chief town of the "kingdom of Congo." It stands 1840 ft. above sea-level and is about 160 m. inland and 100 S.E. of the river port of Noki, in 6° 15' S. Of the cathedral and other stone buildings erected in the 16th century, there exist but scanty ruins. The city walls were destroyed in the closing years of the 19th century and the stone used to build government offices. There is a fort, built about 1850, and a small military force is at the disposal of the Portuguese resident. Bembe and Encoje are smaller towns in the Congo district south of Sao Salvador. Bihe, the capital of the plateau district of the same name forming the hinterland of Benguella, is a large caravan centre. Kangomba, the residence of the king of Bihe, is a large town. Caconda is in the hill country S.E. of Benguella.
Agriculture and Trade.—Angola is rich in both agricultural and mineral resources. Amongst the cultivated products are mealies and manioc, the sugar-cane and cotton, coffee and tobacco plants. The chief exports are coffee, rubber, wax, palm kernels and palm-oil, cattle and hides and dried or salt fish. Gold dust, cotton, ivory and gum are also exported. The chief imports are food-stuffs, cotton and woollen goods and hardware. Considerable quantities of coal come from South Wales. Oxen, introduced from Europe and from South Africa, flourish. There are sugar factories, where rum is also distilled and a few other manufactures, but the prosperity of the province depends on the "jungle" products obtained through the natives and from the plantations owned by Portuguese and worked by indentured labour, the labourers being generally "recruited" from the far interior. The trade of the province, which had grown from about £800,000 in 1870 to about £3,000,000 in 1905, is largely with Portugal and in Portuguese bottoms. Between 1893 and 1904 the percentage of Portuguese as compared with foreign goods entering the province increased from 43 to 201%, a result due to the preferential duties in force.
The minerals found include thick beds of copper at Bembe, and deposits on the M'Brije and the Cuvo and in various places in the southern part of the province; iron at Ociras (on the Lucalla affluent of the Kwanza) and in Bailundo; petroleum and asphalt in Dande and Quinzao; gold in Lombije and Cassinga; and mineral salt in Quissama. The native blacksmiths are held in great repute.
Communications.—There is a regular steamship communication between Portugal, England and Germany, and Loanda, which port is within sixteen days' steam of Lisbon. There is also a regular service between Cape Town, Lobito and Lisbon and Southampton. The Portuguese line is subsidized by the government. The railway from Loanda to Ambaca and Malanje is known as the Royal Trans-African railway. It is of metre gauge, was begun in 1887 and is some 300 m. long. It was intended to carry the line across the continent to Mozambique, but when the line reached Ambaca (225 m.) in 1894 that scheme was abandoned. The railway had created a record in being the most expensive built in tropical Africa—£8942 per mile. A railway from Lobito Bay, 25 m.N. of Benguella, begun in 1904, runs towards the Congo-Rhodesia frontier. It is of standard African gauge (3 ft. 6 in.) and is worked by an English company. It is intended to serve the Katanga copper mines. Besides these two main railways, there are other short lines linking the seaports to their hinterland. Apart from the railways, communication is by ancient caravan routes and by ox-wagon tracks in the southern district. Riding-oxen are also used. The province is well supplied with telegraphic communication and is connected with Europe by submarine cables.
Government and Revenue.—The administration of the province is carried on under a governor-general, resident at Loanda, who acts under the direction of the ministry of the colonies at Lisbon. At the head of each district is a local governor. Legislative powers, save those delegated to the governor-general, are exercised by the home government. Revenue is raised chiefly from customs, excise duties and direct taxation. The revenue (in 1904-1905 about £350,000) is generally insufficient to meet expenditure (in 1904-1905 over £490,000)—the balance being met by a grant from the mother country. Part of the extra expenditure is, however, on railways and other reproductive works.
History.—The Portuguese established themselves on the west coast of Africa towards the close of the 15th century. The river Congo was discovered by Diogo Cam or Cao in 1482. He erected a stone pillar at the mouth of the river, which accordingly took the title of Rio de Padrao, and established friendly relations with the natives, who reported that the country was subject to a great monarch, Mwani Congo or lord of Congo, resident at Bonza Congo. The Portuguese were not long in making themselves influential in the country. Gonçalo de Sousa was despatched on a formal embassy in 1490; and the first missionaries entered the country in his train. The king was soon afterwards baptized and Christianity was nominally established as the national religion. In 1534 a cathedral was founded at Bonza Congo (renamed Sao Salvador), and in 1560 the Jesuits arrived with Paulo Diaz de Novaes. Of the prosperity of the country the Portuguese have left the most glowing and indeed incredible accounts. It was, however, about this time ravaged by cannibal invaders (Bangala) from the interior, and Portuguese influence gradually declined. The attention of the Portuguese was, moreover, now turned more particularly to the southern districts of Angola. In 1627 the bishop's seat was removed to Sao Paulo de Loanda and Sao Salvador declined in importance. In the 18th century, in spite of hindrances from Holland and France, steps were taken towards re-establishing Portuguese authority in the northern regions; in 1758 a settlement was formed at Encoje; from 1784 to 1789 the Portuguese carried on a war against the natives of Mussolo (the district immediately south of Ambriz); in 1791 they built a fort at Quincollo on the Loje, and for a time they worked the mines of Bembe. Until, however, the "scramble for Africa" began in 1884, they possessed no fort or settlement on the coast to the north of Ambriz, which was first occupied in 1855. At Sao Salvador, however, the Portuguese continued to exercise influence. The last of the native princes who had real authority was a potentate known as Dom Pedro V. He was placed on the throne in 1855 with the help of a Portuguese force, and reigned over thirty years. In 1888 a Portuguese resident was stationed at Salvador, and the kings of Congo became pensioners of the government.
Angola proper, and the whole coast-line of what now constitutes the province of that name, was discovered by Diogo Cam during 1482 and the three following years. The first governor sent to Angola was Paulo Diaz, a grandson of Bartholomew Diaz, who reduced to submission the region south of the Kwanza nearly as far as Benguella. The city of Loanda was founded in 1576, Benguella in 1617. From that date the sovereignty of Portugal over the coast-line, from its present southern limit as far north as Ambriz (7° 50' S.) has been undisputed save between 1640 and 1648, during which time the Dutch attempted to expel the Portuguese and held possession of the ports. Whilst the economic development of the country was not entirely neglected and many useful food products were introduced, the prosperity of the province was very largely dependent on the slave trade with Brazil, which was not legally abolished until 1830 and in fact continued for many years subsequently.
In 1884 Great Britain, which up to that time had steadily refused to acknowledge that Portugal possessed territorial rights north of Ambriz, concluded a treaty recognizing Portuguese sovereignty over both banks of the lower Congo; but the treaty, meeting with opposition in England and Germany, was not ratified. Agreements concluded with the Congo Free State, Germany and France in 1885-1886 (modified in details by subsequent arrangements) fixed the limits of the province, except in the S.E., where the frontier between Barotseland (N.W. Rhodesia) and Angola was determined by an Anglo-Portuguese agreement of 1891 and the arbitration award of the king of Italy in 1905 (see AFRICA: History). Up to the end of the 19th century the hold of Portugal over the interior of the province was slight, though its influence extended to the Congo and Zambezi basins. The abolition of the external slave trade proved very injurious to the trade of the seaports, but from 1860 onward the agricultural resources of the country were developed with increasing energy, a work in which Brazilian merchants took the lead. After the definite partition of Africa among the European powers, Portugal applied herself with some seriousness to exploit Angola and her other African possessions. Nevertheless, in comparison with its natural wealth the development of the country has been slow. Slavery and the slave trade continued to flourish in the interior in the early years of the 20th century, despite the prohibitions of the Portuguese government. The extension of authority over the inland tribes proceeded very slowly and was not accomplished without occasional reverses. Thus in September 1904 a Portuguese column lost over 300 men killed, including 114 Europeans, in an encounter with the Kunahamas on the Kunene, not far from the German frontier. The Kunahamas are a wild, raiding tribe and were probably largely influenced by the revolt of their southern neighbours, the Hereros, against the Germans. In 1905 and again in 1907 there was renewed fighting in the same region.
AUTHORITIES.—E. de Vasconcellos, As Colonias Portuguesas (Lisbon, 1896-1897); J. J. Monteiro, Angola and the River Congo (2 vols. London, 1875); Viscount de Paiva Manso, Historia do Congo.... (Documentos) (Lisbon, 1877); A Report of the Kingdom of Congo (London, 1881), an English translation, with notes by Margarite Hutchinson, of Filippo Pigafetta's Relatione del Reame di Congo (Rome, 1591), a book founded on the statements and writings of Duarte Lopez; Rev. Thos. Lewis, "The Ancient Kingdom of Kongo" in Geographical Journal, vol. xix. and vol. xxxi. (London, 1902 and 1908); The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh in Angola and the Adjoining Regions (London, 1901), a volume of the Hakluyt Society, edited by E. G. Ravenstein, who gives in appendices the history of the country from its discovery to the end of the 17th century; J. C. Feo Cardozo, Memorias contendo ... a historia dos governadores e capitaens generaes de Angola, desde 1575 até 1825 (Paris, 1825); H. W. Nevinson, A Modern Slavery (London, 1906), an examination of the system of indentured labour and its recruitment; Ornithologie d'Angola, by J. V. Barboza du Bocage (Lisbon, 1881); "Géologie des Colonies portugaises en Afrique," by P. Choffat, in Com. d. service géol. du Portugal. See also the annual reports on the Trade of Angola, issued by the British Foreign Office.
ANGORA, or ENGURI. (1) A city of Turkey (anc. Ancyra) in Asia, capital of the vilayet of the same name, situated upon a steep, rocky hill, which rises 500 ft. above the plain, on the left bank of the Enguri Su, a tributary of the Sakaria (Sangarius), about 220 m. E.S.E. of Constantinople. The hill is crowned by the ruins of the old citadel, which add to the picturesqueness of the view; but the town is not well built, its streets being narrow and many of its houses constructed of sun-dried mud bricks; there are, however, many fine remains of Graeco-Roman and Byzantine architecture, the most remarkable being the temple of Rome and Augustus, on the walls of which is the famous Monumentum Ancyranum (see ANCYRA). Ancyra was the centre of the Tectosages, one of the three Gaulish tribes which settled in Galatia in the 3rd century B.C., and became the capital of the Roman province of Galatia when it was formally constituted in 25 B.C. During the Byzantine period, throughout which it occupied a position of great importance, it was captured by Persians and Arabs; then it fell into the hands of the Seljuk Turks, was held for eighteen years by the Latin Crusaders, and finally passed to the Ottoman Turks in 1360. In 1402 a great battle was fought in the vicinity of Angora, in which the Turkish sultan Bayezid was defeated and made prisoner by the Tatar conqueror Timur. In 1415 it was recovered by the Turks under Mahommed I., and since that period has belonged to the Ottoman empire. In 1832 it was taken by the Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha. Angora is connected with Constantinople by railway, and exports wool, mohair, grain and yellow berries. Mohair cloth is manufactured, and the town is noted for its honey and fruit. From 1639 to 1768 there was an agency of the Levant Company here; there is now a British consul. Pop. estimated at 28,000 (Moslems, 18,000; Christians, largely Roman Catholic Armenians, about 9400; Jews, 400).
(2) A Turkish vilayet in north-central Asia Minor, which includes most of the ancient Galatia. It is an agricultural country, depending for its prosperity on its grain, wool (average annual export, 4,400,000 ft), and the mohair obtained from the beautiful Angora goats (average annual clip, 3,300,000 lb). The fineness of the hair may perhaps be ascribed to some peculiarity in the atmosphere, for it is remarkable that the cats, dogs and other animals of the country are to a certain extent affected in the same way, and that they all lose much of their distinctive beauty when taken from their native districts. The only important industry is carpet-weaving at Kir-sheher and Kaisarieh. There are mines of silver, copper, lignite and salt, and many hot springs, including some of great repute medicinally. Average annual exports 1896-1898, £920,762; imports, £411,836. Pop. about 900,000 (Moslems, 765,000 to 800,000, the rest being Christians, with a few hundred Jews).
(J. G. C. A.)
See C. Ritter, Erdkunde van Asien (vol. xviii., 1837-1839); V. Cuinet, La Turquie d'Asie, t, i. (1891); Murray's Handbook to Asia Minor (1895); and other works mentioned under ANCYRA.
ANGOULÊME, CHARLES DE VALOIS, DUKE OF (1573-1650), the natural son of Charles IX. of France and Marie Touchet, was born on the 28th of April 1573, at the castle of Fayet in Dauphiné. His father dying in the following year, commended him to the care and favour of his brother and successor, Henry III., who faithfully fulfilled the charge. His mother married François de Balzac, marquis d'Entragues, and one of her daughters, Henriette, marchioness of Verneuil, afterwards became the mistress of Henry IV. Charles of Valois, was carefully educated, and was destined for the order of Malta. At the early age of sixteen he attained one of the highest dignities of the order, being made grand prior of France. Shortly after he came into possession of large estates left by Catherine de' Medici, from one of which he took his title of count of Auvergne. In 1591 he obtained a dispensation from the vows of the order of Malta, and married Charlotte, daughter of Henry, Marshal d'Amville, afterwards duke of Montmorency. In 1589 Henry III. was assassinated, but on his deathbed he commended Charles to the good-will of his successor Henry IV. By that monarch he was made colonel of horse, and in that capacity served in the campaigns during the early part of the reign. But the connexion between the king and the marchioness of Verneuil appears to have been very displeasing to Auvergne, and in 1601 he engaged in the conspiracy formed by the dukes of Savoy, Biron and Bouillon, one of the objects of which was to force Henry to repudiate his wife and marry the marchioness. The conspiracy was discovered; Biron and Auvergne were arrested and Biron was executed. Auvergne after a few months' imprisonment was released, chiefly through the influence of his half-sister, his aunt, the duchess of Angouleme and his father-in-law. He then entered into fresh intrigues with the court of Spain, acting in concert with the marchioness of Verneuil and her father d'Entragues. In 1604 d'Entragues and he were arrested and condemned to death; at the same time the marchioness was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in a convent. She easily obtained pardon, and the sentence of death against the other two was commuted into perpetual imprisonment. Auvergne remained in the Bastille for eleven years, from 1605 to 1616. A decree of the parlement (1606), obtained by Marguerite de Valois, deprived him of nearly all his possessions, including Auvergne, though he still retained the title. In 1616 he was released, was restored to his rank of colonel-general of horse, and despatched against one of the disaffected nobles, the duke of Longueville, who had taken Péronne. Next year he commanded the forces collected in the Île de France, and obtained some successes. In 1619 he received by bequest, ratified in 1620 by royal grant, the duchy of Angoulême. Soon after he was engaged on an important embassy to Germany, the result of which was the treaty of Ulm, signed July 1620. In 1627 he commanded the large forces assembled at the siege of La Rochelle; and some years after in 1635, during the Thirty Years' War, he was general of the French army in Lorraine. In 1636 he was made lieutenant-general of the army. He appears to have retired from public life shortly after the death of Richelieu in 1643. His first wife died in 1636, and in 1644 he married Francoise de Narbonne, daughter of Charles, baron of Mareuil. She had no children and survived her husband until 1713. Angouleme himself died on the 24th of September 1650. By his first wife he had three children: Henri, who became insane; Louis Emmanuel, who succeeded his father as duke of Angoulême and was colonel-general of light cavalry and governor of Provence; and Françoise, who died in 1622.
The duke was the author of the following works:—(i)Mémoires, from the assassination of Henri III. to the battle of Arques (1589-1593) published at Paris by Boneau, and reprinted by Buchon in his Choix de chroniques (1836) and by Petitot in his Mémoires (1st series, vol. xliv.); (2) Les Harangues, prononcés en assemblée de MM. les princes protestants d'Allemagne, par Monseigneur le duc d' Angoulême (1620); (3) a translation of a Spanish work by Diego de Torres. To him has also been ascribed the work, La générale et fidèle Rélation de tout ce qui s'est passé en l'isle de Ré, envoyée par le roi à la royne sa mère (Paris, 1627).
ANGOULÊME, a city of south-western France, capital of the department of Charente, 83 m. N.N.E. of Bordeaux on the railway between Bordeaux and Poitiers. Pop. (1906) 30,040. The town proper occupies an elevated promontory, washed on the north by the Charente and on the south and west by the Anguienne, a small tributary of that river. The more important of the suburbs lie towards the east, where the promontory joins the main plateau, of which it forms the north-western extremity.
The main line of the Orleans railway passes through a tunnel beneath the town. In place of its ancient fortifications Angoulême is encircled by boulevards known as the Remparts, from which fine views may be obtained in all directions. Within the town the streets are often dark and narrow, and, apart from the cathedral and the hôtel de ville, the architecture is of little interest. The cathedral of St. Pierre (see CATHEDRAL), a church in the Byzantine-Romanesque style, dates from the 11th and 12th centuries, but has undergone frequent restoration, and was partly rebuilt in the latter half of the igth century by the architect Paul Abadie. The façade, flanked by two towers with cupolas, is decorated with arcades filled in with statuary and sculpture, the whole representing the Last Judgment. The crossing is surmounted by a dome, and the extremity of the north transept by a fine square tower over 160 ft. high. The hôtel de ville, also by Abadie, is a handsome modern structure, but preserves two towers of the chateau of the counts of Angoulême, on the site of which it is built. It contains museums of paintings and archaeology. Angoulême is the seat of a bishop, a prefect, and a court of assizes. Its public institutions include tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a council of trade-arbitrators, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. It also has a lycée, training-colleges, a school of artillery, a library and several learned societies. It is a centre of the paper-making industry, with which the town has been connected since the 14th century. Most of the mills are situated on the banks of the watercourses in the neighbourhood of the town. The subsidiary industries, such as the manufacture of machinery and wire fabric, are of considerable importance. Iron and copper founding, brewing, tanning, and the manufacture of gunpowder, confectionery, heavy iron goods, gloves, boots and shoes and cotton goods are also carried on. Commerce is carried on in wine, brandy and building-stone.
Angoulême (Iculisma) was taken by Clovis from the Visigoths in 507, and plundered by the Normans in the 9th century. In 1360 it was surrendered by the peace of Bretigny to the English; they were, however, expelled in 1373 by the troops of Charles V., who granted the town numerous privileges. It suffered much during the Wars of Religion, especially in 1568 after its capture by the Protestants under Coligny.
The countship of Angoulême dated from the 9th century, the most important of the early counts being William Taillefer, whose descendants held the title till the end of the 12th century. Withdrawn from them on more than one occasion by Richard Coeur-de-Lion, it passed to King John of England on his marriage with Isabel, daughter of Count Adhémar, and by her subsequent marriage in 1220 to Hugh X. passed to the Lusignan family, counts of Marche. On the death of Hugh XIII. in 1302 without issue, his possessions passed to the crown. In 1394 the countship came to the house of Orleans, a member of which, Francis I., became king of France in 1515 and raised it to the rank of duchy in favour of his mother Louise of Savoy. The duchy afterwards changed hands several times, one of its holders being Charles of Valois, natural son of Charles IX. The last duke was Louis-Antoine, eldest son of Charles X., who died in 1844.
See A. F. Lièvre, Angoulême: histoire, institutions et monuments (Angoulême, 1885).
ANGOUMOIS, an old province of France, nearly corresponding to-day to the department of Charente. Its capital was Angoulême.
See Essai d'une bibliothèque historique de l'Angoumois, by E. Castaigne (1845).
ANGRA, or ANGRA DO HEROISMO ("Bay of Heroism," a name given it in 1829, to commemorate its successful defence against the Miguelist party), the former capital of the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, and chief town of an administrative district, comprising the islands of Terceira, St. George and Graciosa. Pop. (1900) 10,788. Angra is built on the south coast of Terceira in 38° 38' N. and in 27° 13' W. It is the headquarters of a military command, and the residence of a Roman Catholic bishop; its principal buildings are the cathedral, military college, arsenal and observatory. The harbour, now of little commercial or strategic importance, but formerly a celebrated naval station, is sheltered on the west and south-west by the promontory of Mt. Brazil; but it is inferior to the neighbouring ports of Ponta Delgada and Horta. The foreign trade is not large, and consists chiefly in the exportation of pineapples and other fruit. Angra served as a refuge for Queen Maria II. of Portugal from 1830 to 1833.
ANGRA PEQUENA, a bay in German South-West Africa, in 26° 38' S., 15° E., discovered by Bartholomew Diaz in 1487. F. A. E. Lüderitz, of Bremen, established a trading station here in 1883, and his agent concluded treaties with the neighbouring chiefs, who ceded large tracts of country to the newcomers. On the 24th of April 1884 Luderitz transferred his rights to the German imperial government, and on the following 7th of August a German protectorate over the district was proclaimed. (See AFRICA, §5, and GERMAN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA.) Angra Pequena has been renamed by the Germans Lüderitz Bay, and the adjacent country is sometimes called Lüderitzland. The harbour is poor. At the head of the bay is a small town, whence a railway, begun in 1906, runs east in the direction of Bechuanaland. The surrounding country for many miles is absolute desert, except after rare but terrible thunderstorms, when the dry bed of the Little Fish river is suddenly filled with a turbulent stream, the water finding its way into the bay.
The islands off the coast of Angra Pequena, together with others north and south, were annexed to Great Britain in 1867 and added to Cape Colony in 1874. Seal Island and Penguin Island are in the bay; Ichaboe, Mercury, and Hollam's Bird islands are to the north; Halifax, Long, Possession, Albatross, Pomona, Plumpudding, and Roastbeef islands are to the south. On these islands are guano deposits; the most valuable is on Ichaboe Island.
ANGSTRÖM, ANDERS JONAS (1814-1874), Swedish physicist, was born on the 13th of August 1814 at Lögdö, Medelpad, Sweden. He was educated at Upsala University, where in 1839 he became privat docent in physics. In 1842 he went to Stockholm Observatory in order to gain experience in practical astronomical work, and in the following year ht became observer at Upsala Observatory. Becoming interested in terrestrial magnetism he made many observations of magnetic intensity and declination in various parts of Sweden, and was charged by the Stockholm Academy of Sciences with the task, not completed till shortly before his death, of working out the magnetic data obtained by the Swedish frigate "Eugénie" on her voyage round the world in 1851-1853. In 1858 he succeeded Adolph Ferdinand Svanberg (1806-1857) in the chair of physics at Upsala, and there he died on the 21st of June 1874. His most important work was concerned with the conduction of heat and with spectroscopy. In his optical researches, Optiska Undersökningar, presented to the Stockholm Academy in 1853, he not only pointed out that the electric spark yields two superposed spectra, one from the metal of the electrode and the other from the gas in which it passes, but deduced from Euler's theory of resonance that an incandescent gas emits luminous rays of the same refrangibility as those which it can absorb. This statement, as Sir E. Sabine remarked when awarding him the Rumford medal of the Royal Society in 1872, contains a fundamental principle of spectrum analysis, and though for a number of years it was overlooked it entitles him to rank as one of the founders of spectroscopy. From 1861 onwards he paid special attention to the solar spectrum. He announced the existence of hydrogen, among other elements, in the sun's atmosphere in 1862, and in 1868 published his great map of the normal solar spectrum which long remained authoritative in questions of wave-length, although his measurements were inexact to the extent of one part in 7000 or 8000 owing to the metre which he used as his standard having been slightly too short. He was the first, in 1867, to examine the spectrum of the aurora borealis, and detected and measured the characteristic bright line in its yellow green region; but he was mistaken in supposing that this same line, which is often called by his name, is also to be seen in the zodiacal light.
His son, KNUT JOHAN ÅNGSTRÖM, was born at Upsala on the 12th of January 1857, and studied at the university of that town from 1877 to 1884. After spending a short time in Strassburg he was appointed lecturer in physics at Stockholm University in 1885, but in 1891 returned to Upsala, where in 1896 he became professor of physics. He especially devoted himself to investigations of the radiation of heat from the sun and its absorption by the earth's atmosphere, and to that end devised various delicate methods and instruments, including his electric compensation pyrheliometer, invented in 1893, and apparatus for obtaining a photographic representation of the infra-red spectrum (1895).
ANGUIER, FRANÇOIS (c. 1604-1669), and MICHEL (1612-1686), French sculptors, were two brothers, natives of Eu in Normandy. Their apprenticeship was served in the studio of Simon Guillain. The chief works of François are the monument to Cardinal de Bérulle, founder of the Carmelite order, in the chapel of the oratory at Paris, of which all but the bust has been destroyed, and the mausoleum of Henri II., last duc de Montmorency, at Moulins. To Michel are due the sculptures of the triumphal arch at the Porte St. Denis, begun in 1674, to serve as a memorial for the conquests of Louis XIV. A marble group of the Nativity in the church of Val de Grâce was reckoned his masterpiece. From 1662 to 1667 he directed the progress of the sculpture and decoration in this church, and it was he who superintended the decoration of the apartments of Anne of Austria in the old Louvre. F. Fouquet also employed him for his chateau in Vaux.
See Henri Stein, Les frères Anguier (1889), with catalogue of works, and many references to original sources; Armand Sanson, Deux sculpteurs Normands: les frères Anguier (1889).
ANGUILLA, or SNAKE, a small island in the British Indies, part of the presidency of St. Kitts-Nevis, in the colony of the Leeward Islands. Pop. (1901) 3890, mostly negroes. It is situated in 18° 12' N. and 63° 5' W., about 60 m. N.W. of St Kitts, is 16 m. long and has an area of 35 sq. m. The destruction of trees by charcoal-burners has resulted in the almost complete deforestation of the island. Nearly all the land is in the hands of peasant proprietors, who cultivate sweet potatoes, peas, beans, corn, &c., and rear sheep and goats. Cattle, phosphate of lime and salt, manufactured from a lake in the interior, are the principal exports, the market for these being the neighbouring island of St. Thomas.
ANGULATE (Lat. angulus, an angle), shaped with corners or angles; an adjective used in botany and zoology for the shape of stems, leaves and wings.
ANGUS, EARLS OF. Angus was one of the seven original earldoms of the Pictish kingdom of Scotland, said to have been occupied by seven brothers of whom Angus was the eldest. The Celtic line ended with Matilda (fl. 1240), countess of Angus in her own right, who married in 1243 Gilbert de Umfravill and founded the Norman line of three earls, which ended in 1381, the then holder of the title being summoned to the English parliament. Meanwhile John Stewart of Bonkyl, co. Berwick, had been created earl of Angus in a new line. This third creation ended with Margaret Stewart, countess of Angus in her own right, and widow of Thomas, 13th earl of Mar. By an irregular connexion with William, 1st earl of Douglas, who had married Mar's sister, she became the mother of George Douglas, 1st earl of Angus (c. 1380-1403), and secured a charter of her estates for her son, to whom in 1389 the title was granted by King Robert II. He was taken prisoner at Homildon Hill and died in England. The 5th earl was his great-grandson.
ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, 5th earl of Angus (c. 1450-c. 1514), the famous "Bell the Cat," was born about 1450 and succeeded his father, George the 4th earl, in 1462 or 1463. In 1481 he was made warden of the east marches, but the next year he joined the league against James III. and his favourite Robert Cochrane at Lauder, where he earned his nickname by offering to bell the cat, i.e. to deal with the latter, beginning the attack upon him by pulling his gold chain off his neck and causing him with others of the king's favourites to be hanged. Subsequently he joined Alexander Stewart, duke of Albany, in league with Edward IV. of England on the 11th of February 1483, signing the convention at Westminster which acknowledged the overlordship of the English king. In March however they returned, outwardly at least, to their allegiance, and received pardons for their treason. Later Angus was one of the leaders in the rebellion against James in 1487 and 1488, which ended in the latter's death. He was made one of the guardians of the young king James IV. but soon lost influence, being superseded by the Homes and Hepburns, and the wardenship of the marches was given to Alexander Home. Though outwardly on good terms with James, he treacherously made a treaty with Henry VII. about 1489 or 1491, by which he undertook to govern his relations with James according to instructions from England, and to hand over Hermitage Castle, commanding the pass through Liddesdale into Scotland, on the condition of receiving English estates in compensation. In October 1491 he fortified his castle of Tantallon against James, but was obliged to submit and exchange his Liddesdale estate and Hermitage Castle for the lordship of Bothwell. In 1493 he was again in favour, received various grants of lands, and was made chancellor, which office he retained till 1498. In 1501 he was once more in disgrace and confined to Dumbarton Castle. After the disaster at Flodden in 1513, at which he was not present, but at which he lost his two eldest sons, Angus was appointed one of the counsellors of the queen regent. He died at the close of this year, or in 1514. He was married three times, and by his first wife had four sons and several daughters. His third son, Gavin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, is separately noticed.
ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, the 6th earl (c. 1489-1557), son of George, master of Douglas, who was killed at Flodden, succeeded on his grandfather's death. In 1509 he had married Margaret (d. 1513), daughter of Patrick Hepburn, 1st earl of Bothwell; and in 1514 he married the queen dowager Margaret of Scotland, widow of James IV., and eldest sister of Henry VIII. By this latter act he stirred up the jealousy of the nobles and the opposition of the French party, and civil war broke out. He was superseded in the government on the arrival of John Stewart, duke of Albany, who was made regent. Angus withdrew to his estates in Forfarshire, while Albany besieged the queen at Stirling and got possession of the royal children; then he joined Margaret after her flight at Morpeth, and on her departure for London returned and made his peace with Albany in 1516. He met her once more at Berwick in June 1517, when Margaret returned to Scotland on Albany's departure in vain hopes of regaining the regency. Meanwhile, during Margaret's absence, Angus had formed a connexion with a daughter of the laird of Traquair. Margaret avenged his neglect of her by refusing to support his claims for power and by secretly trying through Albany to get a divorce. In Edinburgh Angus held his own against the attempts of James Hamilton, 1st earl of Arran, to dislodge him. But the return of Albany in 1521, with whom Margaret now sided against her husband, deprived him of power. The regent took the government into his own hands; Angus was charged with high treason in December, and in March 1522 was sent practically a prisoner to France, whence he succeeded in escaping to London in 1524. He returned to Scotland in November with promises of support from Henry VIII., with whom he made a close alliance. Margaret, however, refused to have anything to do with her husband. On the 23rd, therefore, Angus forced his way into Edinburgh, but was fired upon by Margaret and retreated to Tantallon. He now organized a large party of nobles against Margaret with the support of Henry VIII., and in February 1525 they entered Edinburgh and called a parliament. Angus was made a lord of the articles, was included in the council of regency, bore the king's crown on the opening of the session, and with Archbishop Beaton held the chief power. In March he was appointed lieutenant of the marches, and suppressed the disorder and anarchy on the border. In July the guardianship of the king was entrusted to him for a fixed period till the 1st of November, but he refused at its close to retire, and advancing to Linlithgow put to flight Margaret and his opponents. He now with his followers engrossed all the power, succeeded in gaining over some of his antagonists, including Arran and the Hamiltons, and filled the public offices with Douglases, he himself becoming chancellor. "None that time durst strive against a Douglas nor Douglas's man."[1] The young king James, now fourteen, was far from content under the tutelage of Angus, but he was closely guarded, and several attempts to effect his liberation were prevented, Angus completely defeating Lennox, who had advanced towards Edinburgh with 10,000 men in August, and subsequently taking Stirling. His successes were consummated by a pacification with Beaton, and in 1527 and 1528 he was busy in restoring order through the country. In the latter year, on the 11th of March, Margaret succeeded in obtaining her divorce from Angus, and about the end of the month she and her lover, Henry Stewart, were besieged at Stirling. A few weeks later, however, James succeeded in escaping from Angus's custody, took refuge with Margaret and Arran at Stirling, and immediately proscribed Angus and all the Douglases, forbidding them to come within seven miles of his person. Angus, having fortified himself in Tantallon, was attainted and his lands confiscated. Repeated attempts of James to subdue the fortress failed, and on one occasion Angus captured the royal artillery, but at length it was given up as a condition of the truce between England and Scotland, and in May 1529 Angus took refuge with Henry, obtained a pension and took an oath of allegiance, Henry engaging to make his restoration a condition of peace. Angus had been chiefly guided in his intrigues with England by his brother, Sir George Douglas of Pittendriech (d. 1552), master of Angus, a far cleverer diplomatist than himself. His life and lands were also declared forfeit, as were those of his uncle, Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie (d. 1535), who had been a friend of James and was known by the nickname of "Greysteel." These took refuge in exile. James avenged himself on such Douglases as lay within his power. Angus's third sister Janet, Lady Glamis, was summoned to answer the charge of communicating with her brothers, and on her failure to appear her estates were forfeited. In 1537 she was tried for conspiring against the king's life. She was found guilty and burnt on the Castle Hill, Edinburgh, on the 17th of July 1537. Her innocence has been generally assumed, but Tytler (Hist, of Scotland, iv. pp. 433, 434) considered her guilty. Angus remained in England till 1542, joining in the attacks upon his countrymen on the border, while James refused all demands from Henry VIII. for his restoration, and kept firm to his policy of suppressing and extirpating the Douglas faction. On James V.'s death in 1542 Angus returned to Scotland, with instructions from Henry to accomplish the marriage between Mary and Edward. His forfeiture was rescinded, his estates restored, and he was made a privy councillor and lieutenant-general. In 1543 he negotiated the treaty of peace and marriage, and the same year he himself married Margaret, daughter of Robert, Lord Maxwell. Shortly afterwards strife between Angus and the regent Arran broke out, and in April 1544 Angus was taken prisoner. The same year Lord Hertford's marauding expedition, which did not spare the lands of Angus, made him join the anti-English party. He entered into a bond with Arran and others to maintain their allegiance to Mary, and gave his support to the mission sent to France to offer the latter's hand. In July 1544 he was appointed lieutenant of the south of Scotland, and distinguished himself on the 27th of February 1545 in the victory over the English at Ancrum Moor. He still corresponded with Henry VIII., but nevertheless signed in 1546 the act cancelling the marriage and peace treaty, and on the 10th of September commanded the van in the great defeat of Pinkie, when he again won fame. In 1548 the attempt by Lennox and Wharton to capture him and punish him for his duplicity failed, Angus escaping after his defeat to Edinburgh by sea, and Wharton being driven back to Carlisle. Under the regency of Mary of Lorraine his restless and ambitious character and the number of his retainers gave cause for frequent alarms to the government. On the 31st of August 1547 he resigned his earldom, obtaining a regrant sibi et suis haeredibus masculis et suis assignatis quibuscumque. His career was a long struggle for power and for the interests of his family, to which national considerations were completely subordinate. He died in January 1557. By Margaret Tudor he had Margaret, his only surviving legitimate child, who married Matthew, 4th earl of Lennox, and was mother of Lord Darnley. He was succeeded by his nephew David, son of Sir George Douglas of Pittendriech.
ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS, 8th earl, and earl of Morton (1555-1588), was the son of David, 7th earl. He succeeded to the title and estates in 1558, being brought up by his uncle, the 4th earl of Morton, a Presbyterian. In 1573 he was made a privy councillor and sheriff of Berwick, in 1574 lieutenant-general of Scotland, in 1577 warden of the west marches and steward of Fife, and in 1578 lieutenant-general of the realm. He gave a strong support to Morton during the attack upon the latter, made a vain attempt to rescue him, and was declared guilty of high treason on the 2nd of June 1581. He now entered into correspondence with the English government for an invasion of Scotland to rescue Morton, and on the latter's execution in June went to London, where he was welcomed by Elizabeth. After the raid of Ruthven in 1582 Angus returned to Scotland and was reconciled to James, but soon afterwards the king shook off the control of the earls of Mar and Gowrie, and Angus was again banished from the court. In 1584 he joined the rebellion of Mar and Glamis, but the movement failed, and the insurgents fled to Berwick. Later they took up their residence at Newcastle, which became a centre of Presbyterianism and of projects against the Scottish government, encouraged by Elizabeth, who regarded the banished lords as friends of the English and antagonists of the French interest. In February 1585 they came to London, and cleared themselves of the accusation of plotting against James's life; a plan was prepared for their restoration and for the overthrow of James Stewart, earl of Arran. In October they invaded Scotland and gained an easy victory over Arran, captured Stirling Castle with the king in November, and secured from James the restoration of their estates and the control of the government. In 1586 Angus was appointed warden of the marches and lieutenant-general on the border, and performed good services in restoring order; but he was unable to overcome the king's hostility to the establishment of Presbyterian government. In January 1586 he was granted the earldom of Morton with the lands entailed upon him by his uncle. He died on the 4th of August 1588. He was succeeded in the earldom by his cousin William, a descendant of the 5th earl. (For the Morton title, see MORTON, JAMES DOUGLAS, 4th EARL OF.)