VOLUME IV SLICE IV Bradford, William to Brequigny, Louis (continued 12)

Distress of seizure of property being the universal mode of obtaining satisfaction, whether for crime, breach of contract, non-payment of debt, or any other cause, the law of distress came into operation as the solvent of almost every dispute. Hence it is the most extensive and important branch, if not more than a branch, of these ancient laws. Of several words meaning distress, athgabail was the most frequently used. A person having a liquidated claim might either sue a debtor or proceed at his peril to seize without this preliminary. In the latter case the defendant could stop the progress of the seizure by paying the debt, giving a pledge, or demanding a trial; and he then could choose a Brehon. Distress was of two kinds—(1) athgabal ar fut (= distress on length, i.e. with time, with delays); and (2) athgabail tulla (= immediate distress). Which method was pursued depended partly upon the facts of the case and partly upon the respective ranks of the parties. A person entitled to seize property had to do it himself, accompanied, if the amount was large, by a law agent and witnesses. No man was entitled to seize unless he owned, or had a surety who owned, sufficient property for indemnity or adjustment in case the seizure should be found to have been wrongful. The formalities varied in different circumstances and also at different times in the long ages in which these laws prevailed. Some forms may, in the Irish as in other legal systems, have become merely ceremonial and fictitious.

Tellach (= seizure of immovable property) was made in three periods or delays of ten days each (= 30 days). The first step was a notice that unless the debt was paid immediately seizure would be made. Ten days later, the plaintiff crossed the fence in upon the land, with a law agent, a witness and a pair of horses yoked or harnessed, and in a loud voice stated the amount of the debt and called upon the defendant to pay it according to law. On receiving no answer, or an unsatisfactory one, he withdrew. After an interval of ten days more, the creditor entered with his law agent, two witnesses and four horses, went farther in upon the land, repeated his demand, and if refused withdrew. Finally, after a further interval of ten days, he entered once more with his law agent, three witnesses and eight horses, drove up to the debtor’s house, repeated his demand, and if not satisfied drove a herd of cattle or a flock of sheep in upon the farm and left men to care for them.

Athgabail ordinarily meant the seizure of movable property. The following technical terms will indicate the procedure in distress with time:—Aurfocre (= demand of payment, stating the amount in presence of witnesses); apad (= delay); athgabail (= the actual seizure); anad (= delay after seizure, the thing remaining in the debtor’s possession); toxal (= the taking away of the thing seized); fasc (= notice to the debtor of the amount due, the mainder or pound in which the thing seized is impounded, and the name of the law agent); dithim (= delay during which the thing is in pound); lobad (= destruction or forfeiture of the debtor’s ownership and substitution of the creditor’s ownership). There was no sale, because sale for money was little known. The property in the thing seized, to the amount of the debt and expenses, became legally transferred from the debtor to the creditor, not all at once but in stages fixed by law. A creditor was not at liberty to seize household goods, farming utensils, or any goods the loss of which would prevent the debtor recovering from embarrassment, so long as there was other property which could be seized. A seizure could be made only between sunrise and sunset. “If a man who is sued evades justice, knowing the debt to be due of him, double the debt is payable by him and a fine of five seds.” When a large debt was clearly due, and there was no property to seize, the debtor himself could be seized and compelled to work as a prisoner or slave until the debt was paid.

When a defendant was of rank superior to that of the plaintiff, distress had to be preceded by troscad (= fasting). This is a legal process unknown elsewhere except in parts of India. The plaintiff having made his demand and waited a certain time without result, went and sat without food before the door of the defendant. To refuse to submit to fasting was considered indelibly disgraceful, and was one of the things which legally degraded a man by reducing or destroying his honour-value. The law said “he who does not give a pledge to fasting is an evader of all; he who disregards all things shall not be paid by God or man.” If a plaintiff having duly fasted did not receive within a certain time the satisfaction of his claim, he was entitled to distrain as in the case of an ordinary defendant, and to seize double the amount that would have satisfied him in the first instance. If a person fasting in accordance with law died during or in consequence of the fast, the person fasted upon was held guilty of murder. Fasting could be stopped by paying the debt, giving a pledge, or submitting to the decision of a Brehon. A creditor fasting after a reasonable offer of settlement had been made to him forfeited his claim. “He who fasts notwithstanding the offer of what should be accorded to him, forfeits his legal right according to the decision of the Feini.”

Authorities.—Since Sir Samuel Ferguson wrote his article on “Brehon Laws” in the 9th edition of this Encyclopaedia, much research has been done on the subject, and Ferguson’s account is no longer accepted by scholars, either as regards the language or the substance of the laws. Pending the work of a second Brehon Law Commission, the Laws are best studied in the six imperfect volumes (Ancient Laws of Ireland, 1865-1901) produced by the first Commission (ignoring their long and worthless introductions), together with, Dr. Whitley Stokes’s Criticism (London, Nutt, 1903) of Atkinson’s Glossary (Dublin, 1901). The following are important references (kindly supplied by Dr Whitley Stokes) for detailed research:— R. Dareste, Études d’histoire de droit, pp. 356-381 (Paris, 1889); Arbois de Jubainville and Paul Collinet, Études sur le droit celtique (2 vols., Paris, 1895); Joyce, Social History of Ancient Ireland, vol. i. pp. 168-214 (2 vols., London, 1903); Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie, iv. 221, the Copenhagen fragments of the Laws (Halle, 1903); important letters in The Academy, Nos. 699, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704, 706, 707 (substantially covered by Stokes’s Criticism); Revue Celtique, xxv. 344; Erin, i. 209-315 (collation by Kuno Meyer of the Law-tract Crith Gablach); Maine’s Early Hist, of Institutions (1875) and Early Law and Custom, pp. 162, 180 (1883); Hearn’s Aryan Household (1879), and Maclennan’s Studies in Ancient History, pp. 453-507 (1876), contain interesting general reference, but the writers were not themselves original students of the laws. L. Ginnell’s Brehon Laws (1894) may also be consulted. See further the article Celt, sections Language and Literature.

(L. G.)

BREISACH, or Altbreisach, a town of Germany, in the grand duchy of Baden, on the left bank of the Rhine, standing on a basalt rock 250 ft. above the river, 10 m. W. of Freiburg-im-Breisgau, and on the railway connecting that city with Colmar. Pop. (1900) 3537. It has a fine minster, partly Romanesque, partly Gothic, dating from the 10th to the 15th centuries; of its two principal towers one is 13th century Gothic, the other Romanesque. The interior is remarkable for its rich decorations, especially the wood-carving of the high altar, and for many interesting tombs and pictures. There is little industry, but a considerable trade is done in wines and other agricultural produce. On the opposite bank of the Rhine, here crossed by a railway bridge, lies the little town of Neubreisach and the fort Mortier.

Breisach (Brisiacum), formerly an imperial city and until the middle of the 18th century one of the chief fortresses of the Empire, is of great antiquity. A stronghold of the Sequani (a Gallic tribe, which occupied the country of the Doubs and Burgundy), it was captured in the time of Julius Caesar by Ariovistus and became known as the Mons Brisiacus. Fortified by the emperor Valentian in 369 to defend the Rhine against the Germans, it retained its position throughout the middle ages as one of the chief bulwarks of Germany and was called the “cushion and key (Kissen und Schlussel) of the German empire.” Its importance was such that it gave its name to the district Breisgau, in which it is situated. In 939 it was taken by the emperor Otto I., and after remaining in the exclusive possession of the emperors for two centuries, was strengthened and shared for a while between them and the bishops of Basel. In 1254 and 1262 the bishops obtained full control over it; but in 1275 it was made an imperial city by King Rudolph I., and at the beginning of the 14th century his son brought it definitively into the possession of the Habsburg monarchs, leaving the bishops but few privileges. In the Thirty Years’ War Breisach successfully resisted the Swedes, but after a memorable siege and a defence by General von Reisach, one of the most famous in military annals, it was forced to capitulate to Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar on the 18th of December 1638. The endeavours of the emperor Ferdinand III. to retake it were fruitless, and by the peace of Westphalia (1648) Breisach was annexed to France. By the peace of Ryswick (1697) it was restored to Austria, when Louis XIV. built the town and fortress of Neubreisach on the left bank of the Rhine. Again in 1703 it fell into the hands of the French, owing to treachery, but was ceded to Austria by the peace of Rastatt (1714)—Yet again, in the War of the Austrian Succession, it was captured (1744) by the French, who dismantled the fortifications. They refortified it in 1796, and after passing, by the peace of Lunéville (1801), together with the Breisgau to the duke of Modena, Breisach was by the peace of Pressburg (1805) finally incorporated with Baden, when the fortifications were razed. During the Franco-German War (1870) Breisach suffered severely from bombardment directed against it from Neubreisach.

BREISGAU, a district of Germany, in the grand duchy of Baden. It extends along the right bank of the Rhine from Basel to Kehl, and includes the principal peaks of the southern Black Forest and the Freiburg valley. The Breisgau, originally a pagus or gau of the Frankish empire, was ruled during the middle ages by hereditary counts. Of these the earliest recorded is Birtilo (962-995), ancestor of the counts and dukes of Zähringen. On the death of Berchthold V. of Zähringen in 1218, his coheiresses brought parts of the Breisgau to the counts of Urach and Kyburg, while part went to the margraves of Baden. At the close of the 13th century the Kyburg part of the Breisgau passed to the Habsburgs, who in 1368 acquired also the town and countship of Freiburg, which had been sold by the counts of Urach to the Freiburgers and given in pledge by them to the house of Austria in exchange for a loan of the purchase price, which they were unable to repay. The male Urach line becoming extinct in 1457, an heiress carried what remained of their possessions in the Breisgau to the house of Baden. In the struggle between France and Austria from the 17th century onwards the Breisgau frequently changed masters. In 1801 Austria was forced to cede it to Ercole III., duke of Modena, in compensation for the duchy of which Napoleon had deprived him. His successor Ferdinand took the title of duke of Modena-Breisgau, but on his death in 1805 the Breisgau was divided between Baden and Württemberg. The latter ceded its portion to Baden in 1810.

See Stokvis, Manuel d’histoire, &c. (Leiden, 1890-1893).

BREISLAK, SCIPIONE (1748-1826), Italian geologist of German parentage, was born at Rome in 1748. He early distinguished himself as professor of mathematical and mechanical philosophy in the college of Ragusa; but after residing there for several years he returned to his native city, where he became a professor in the Collegio Nazareno, and began to form the fine mineralogical cabinet in that institution. His leisure was dedicated to geological researches in the papal states. His account of the aluminous district of Tolfa and adjacent hills, published in 1786, gained for him the notice of the king of Naples, who invited him to inspect the mines and similar works in that kingdom, and appointed him professor of mineralogy to the royal artillery. The vast works for the refining of sulphur in the volcanic district of Solfatara were erected under his direction. He afterwards made many journeys through the ancient Campania to illustrate its geology, and published in 1798 his Topografia fisica della Campania, which contains the results of much accurate observation. Breislak also published an essay on the physical condition of the seven hills of Rome, which he regarded as the remains of a local volcano,—an opinion shown to be erroneous by the later researches of G.B. Brocchi. The political convulsions of Italy in 1799 brought Breislak to Paris, where he remained until 1802, when, being appointed inspector of the saltpetre and powder manufactories near Milan, he removed to that city. The mineral Breislakite was named after him. He died on the 15th of February 1826. His other publications include:—Introduzione alla geologia (1811, French ed. 1819); Traité sur la structure extérieure du globe, 3 vols. and atlas (Milan, 1818, 1822); Descrizione geologica della provincia di Milano (1822).

BREITENFELD, a village of Germany in the kingdom of Saxony, 5½ m. N.N.W. of Leipzig, noted in military history. The first battle of Breitenfeld was fought on the 17th of September 1631, between the allied Swedish and Saxon armies under Gustavus Adolphus and the imperial forces under Count Tilly. The battlefield is a low ridge running east and west between the villages of Göbschelwitz and Breitenfeld, the position of the Imperialists lying along the crest from Göbschelwitz on the right to a point about 1 m. short of Breitenfeld on the left; opposite this position, and behind a group of villages on the Loberbach stream, lay the Swedish forces, flanked on their left by the Saxon contingent under the elector, who was assisted by Arnim. The villages formed the only obstacle on the gentle slope lying between the Loberbach and Tilly’s line; through these villages the Swedes defiled slowly, and formed up on the open ground beyond them. Tilly’s army was drawn up in a continuous line, the infantry ranged in heavy battalions in the centre, the cavalry on the wings, and the heavy artillery in a mass in front of the infantry. Gustavus arrayed the Swedes in two lines and a reserve, infantry in the centre, cavalry on the flanks, and the Saxons were drawn up in a similar formation on the left of the Swedish left-wing cavalry. So far as can be gauged the respective numbers were at least 32,000 Imperialists, 22,000 Swedes and 15,000 Saxons. The Swedish infantry was drawn up on an entirely novel system; each brigade of infantry, composed of several battalions, was formed in many small and handy corps of pikemen and musketeers, and parties of musketeers were also detached to support the cavalry. The guns were scattered along the front. The Saxons were ranged, like Tilly’s army, in heavy masses of foot and horse preceded by a great battery of guns. At 2 P.M. Pappenheim, commanding Tilly’s left wing, led forward the whole of his cavalry in a furious charge. Feeling the fire of the musketeers who were intercalated amongst the Swedish horse, Pappenheim swung round to his left and charged the Swedish right wing in flank. The Swedes of both lines promptly wheeled up, and after a prolonged conflict the Imperial horse were driven completely off the field. The attack of Tilly’s right wing under Fürstenberg directed against the Saxons was more successful. The Saxons were at once broken and routed, only a handful under Arnim maintaining the ground. Fürstenberg pursued the fugitives for many miles, and Tilly with the centre of infantry (which, considering the depth of its formations, must have possessed great manoeuvring power) rapidly followed him and formed up opposite the now exposed left of the Swedes. Thereupon the Swedes, in their light and handy formation, changed position rapidly and easily to meet him. Tilly’s attack was strenuously opposed, and at this moment the decisive stroke of the battle was delivered by the Swedish right wing, which, having disposed of Pappenheim, swung round and occupied the ground originally held by the Imperial infantry, seized Tilly’s guns, and with them enfiladed the enemy’s new line. This put an end to the attack of the Imperial foot, and before sunset Tilly was in full retreat, hotly pursued and losing heavily in prisoners. His losses on the field have been estimated at 7000 killed and wounded and almost as many prisoners; the Swedes lost about 2000 and the Saxons over 4000 men.

The village of Breitenfeld also gives its name to another great battle in the Thirty Years’ War (November 2, 1642), in which the Swedes under Torstensson defeated the Imperialists under the archduke Leopold and Prince Piccolomini, who were seeking to relieve Leipzig. The Swedish cavalry decided the day on this occasion also.

BREMEN, a free state in the German empire, bearing the title Freie Hansestadt Bremen. It falls into three distinct parts: (1) the largest portion, with the city of Bremen, lying on both banks, but chiefly on the right, of the lower course of the Weser, surrounded by the Prussian province of Hanover and the grand-duchy of Oldenburg, and consisting in the main of lowland country intersected by canals and dykes; (2) the town and district of Vegesack, lying separate from, but immediately north of the main portion, on the right bank of the river; (3) the port of Bremerhaven, 46 m. down the Weser, at its mouth. Of the whole territory, which has an area of 99 sq. m., about one-half is meadow and grazing land, one-quarter under tillage, and the remainder occupied by a little woodland, some unprofitable sandy wastes, the bed of the Weser and the towns. Market gardening, the rearing of cattle, for which the district is widely famed, and fishing, form the chief occupations of the rural population. The climate is mild, but the rainfall (26.9 in. annually on the average) is relatively considerable. The population is shown as follows:—

1900 1905

Bremen, city 186,822 214,953

Vegesack 3,943 4,130

Bremerhaven 20,315 24,159

Rural districts 37,327 20,431

Total 248,407 263,673

Of the inhabitants, who belong to the Lower Saxon (Nieder-Sachsen) race and in daily intercourse mostly speak the Low German (Plattdeutsch) dialect, about two-thirds are natives of the state and one-third immigrants from other parts of Germany, chiefly from Hanover and Oldenburg. About 93% are Protestants, 6% Roman Catholics, and only ½% Jews. The form of government is that of a republic, under a constitution proclaimed on the 8th of March 1849, revised on the 21st of February 1854, the 17th of November 1875, and the 1st of January 1894. The sovereignty resides jointly in the senate and the Bürgerschaft, or Convent of Burgesses. The senate, which is the executive power, is composed of sixteen life members, elected by the convent, on presentation by the senate. Of these ten at least must be lawyers and three merchants. Two of the number are nominated by their colleagues as burgomasters, who preside in succession for a year at a time and hold office four years, one retiring every two years. The Bürgerschaft consists of 150 (formerly 300) representatives, chosen by the citizens for six years, and forms the legislative body. Fourteen members are elected by such citizens of Bremen (city) as have enjoyed a university education, forty by the merchants, twenty by the manufacturers and artisans, and forty-eight by the other citizens. Of the remaining representatives, twelve are furnished by Bremerhaven and Vegesack and sixteen by the rural districts. As a member of the German empire, the state of Bremen has one voice in the Bundesrat and returns one member to the Imperial diet (Reichstag). Formerly Bremen was a free port, but from the 1st of October 1888 the whole of the state, with the exception of two small free districts in Bremen and Bremerhaven respectively, joined the German customs union. The state has two Amtsgerichte (courts of first instance) at Bremen and Bremerhaven respectively, and a superior court, Landgericht, at Bremen, whence appeals lie to the Oberlandesgericht for the Hanseatic towns in Hamburg. The judges of the Bremen courts are appointed by a committee of members of the senate, the Bürgerschaft and the bench of judges. By the convention with Prussia of the 27th of June 1867, the free state surrendered its right to furnish its own contingent to the army, the recruits being after that time drafted into the Hanseatic infantry regiment, forming a portion of the Prussian IX. army corps.

BREMEN, a city of Germany, capital of the free state of Bremen, and one of the Hanseatic towns. It lies on a sandy plain on both banks of the Weser, 46 m. from the North Sea and 71 m. S.W. from Hamburg by rail, on the mainline to Cologne. Pop. (1905) 214,953. It has also direct railway communication with Berlin via Uelzen, Hanover and Bremerhaven. The city consists of four quarters,—the old town (Altstadt) and its suburban extensions (Vorstadt) being on the right bank of the river, and the new town (Neustadt) with its southern suburb (Südervorstadt) on the left bank. The river is crossed by three bridges, the old, the new (1872-1875) Kaiserbrücke, and the railway bridge, with a gangway for foot passengers. The ramparts of the old town have long been converted into beautiful promenades and gardens, the moats forming a chain of lakes.

The romantic old town, with its winding streets and lanes, flanked by massive gabled houses, dates from the medieval days of Hanseatic prosperity. On the market square stands the fine town hall (Rathaus), dating from the 15th century, with a handsome Renaissance façade of a somewhat later date, and before it a stone statue of Roland, the emblem of civic power. Its celebrated underground wine cellar has been immortalized by Wilhelm Hauff in his Phantasien im Bremer Ratskeller. The town hall is internally richly embellished and has a gallery of interesting paintings. In an upper hall a model of an old Hanseatic frigate, with the device Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse, hangs from the ceiling. Among other ancient buildings, situated chiefly in the old town, are the following:—the cathedral of St Peter (formerly the archiepiscopal and now the Lutheran parish church), erected in the 12th century on the site of Charlemagne’s wooden church, and famous for its Bleikeller, or lead vault, in which bodies can be preserved for a long time without suffering decomposition; the church of St Ansgarius, built about 1243, with a spire 400 ft. high; the church of Our Lady, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries; the 12th century Romanesque church of St Stephen; the Schütting, or merchants’ hall, originally built in 1619 for the cloth-traders’ gild; the Stadthaus (town house), formerly the archiepiscopal palace, and converted to its present uses only in 1819. The most important and imposing among the more modern architectural additions to the city are the handsome Gothic exchange, completed in 1867, the municipal theatre, the municipal library, the post office (1878), the law courts (1891-1895), the wool exchange, the German bank, the municipal museum for natural science, ethnology and commerce, and the fine railway station (1888). The principal memorials embrace, besides the Roland, the Willehad fountain (1883), the monument of the Franco-German War (erected 1875), the centaur fountain (1891), an equestrian statue of the emperor William I. (1893), and a statue of the poet Theodor Körner. A beautiful park, Bürgerpark, has been laid out in the Bürgerweide, or meadows, lying beyond the railway station to the north-east of the city. It is a peculiarity of the domestic accommodation of Bremen that the majority of the houses, unlike the custom in most other German towns, where flats prevail, are occupied by a single family only.

The industries and manufactures of Bremen are of considerable variety and extent, but are more particularly developed in such branches as are closely allied to navigation, such as shipbuilding, founding, engine-building and rope-making. Next in importance come those of tobacco, snuff, cigars, the making of cigar boxes, jute-spinning, distilling, sugar refining and the shelling of rice. Bremen owes its fame almost exclusively to its transmaritime trade, mainly imports. By the completion of the engineering works on the Weser in 1887-1899, whereby, among other improvements, the river was straightened and deepened, to 18 ft., large ocean-going vessels are able to steam right up to the city itself. It has excellent railway connexions with the chief industrial districts of Germany. Like Hamburg, it does predominantly a transit trade; it is especially important as the importer of raw products from America. In two articles, tobacco and rice, Bremen is the greatest market in the world; in cotton and indigo it takes the first place on the continent, and it is a serious rival of Hamburg and Antwerp in the import of wool and petroleum. The value of the total imports (both sea-borne and by river and rail) increased from £22,721,700 in 1883 to about £60,000,000 in 1905; the imports from the United States, from £9,755,000 in 1883 to about £25,000,000 in 1905. The countries from which imports principally come are the United States, England, Germany, Russia, the republics of South America, the Far East and Australia. The exports rose from a total of £26,096,500 in 1883 to £62,000,000 in 1905. The number of vessels which entered the ports of the free state (i.e. Bremen city, Bremerhaven and Vegesack) increased from 2869 of 1,258,529 aggregate tonnage in 1883, to 4024 of 2,716,633 tons in 1900. Bremen is the centre for some of the more important of the German shipping companies, especially of the North German Lloyd (founded in 1856), which, on the 1st of January 1905, possessed a fleet of 382 steamers of 693,892 tons, besides lighters and similar craft. Bremen also shares with Hamburg the position of being one of the two chief emigration ports of Germany. There are three docks, all to the north-west of the city—namely, the free harbour (which was opened in 1888), the winter harbour, and the timber and industrial harbour. Internal communication is served by an excellent system of electric tramways, and there is also a local steamboat service with neighbouring villages on the Weser.

History.—According to Brandes, quoting Martin Luther in the Lexicon Philologicum, the name is derived from Bram, Bräm, i.e. hem = the river-bank, or confine of the land on which it was built. In 787 Bremen was chosen by St Willehad, whom Charlemagne had established as bishop in the pagi of the lower Weser, as his see. In 848 the destruction of Hamburg by the Normans led to the transference of the archiepiscopal see of Hamburg to Bremen, which became the seat of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. In 965 the emperor Otto I. granted to Archbishop Adaldag “in the place called Bremen” (in loco Bremun nuncupato) the right to establish a market, and the full administrative, fiscal and judicial powers of a count, no one but the bishop or his advocatus being allowed to exercise authority in the city. This privilege, by which the archbishop was lord of the city and his Vogt its judge, was frequently confirmed by subsequent emperors, ending under Frederick I. in 1158. Though, however, there is no direct evidence of the existence of any communal organization during this period, it is clear from the vigorous part taken by the burghers in the struggle of the emperor Frederick with Henry the Lion of Saxony that some such organization very early existed. Yet in the privilegium granted to the townspeople by Frederick I. in 1186 the emperor had done no more than guarantee them their personal liberties. The earliest recognition of any civic organization they may have possessed they owed to Archbishop Hartwig II. (1184-1207), who had succeeded in uniting against him his chapter, the nobles and the citizens; and the first mention of the city council occurs in a charter of Archbishop Gerhard II. in 1225, though the consules here named doubtless represented a considerably older institution. In the 13th century, however, whatever the civic organization of the townsfolk may have been, it was still strictly subordinate to the archbishop and his Vogt; the council could issue regulations only with the consent of the former, while in the judicial work of the latter, save in small questions of commercial dishonesty, its sole function was advisory. By the middle of the 14th century this situation was exactly reversed; the elected town council was the supreme legislative power in all criminal and civil causes, and in the court of the advocatus two Ratsmänner sat as assessors. The victory had been won over the archbishop; but a fresh peril had developed in the course of the 13th century in the growth of a patrician class, which, as in so many other cities, threatened to absorb all power into the hands of a close oligarchy. In 1304 the commonalty rose against the patricians and drove them from the city, and in the following year gained a victory over the exiles and their allies, the knights, which was long celebrated by an annual service of thanksgiving. This was the beginning of troubles that lasted intermittently throughout the century. Bremen had been admitted to the Hanseatic league in 1283, but was excluded in 1285, and not readmitted until 1358. Owing to the continued civic unrest it was again excluded in 1427, and only readmitted in 1433 when the old aristocratic constitution was definitively restored. But though in Bremen the efforts of the craftsmen’s “arts” to secure a share of power had been held in check and the gilds never gained any importance, the city government did not, as at Cologne and elsewhere, develop into a close patrician oligarchy. Power was in the hands of the wealthy, but the avenues to power were open to those who knew how to acquire the necessary qualification. There was thus no artificial restraint put upon individual enterprise, and the question of the government having been settled, Bremen rapidly developed in wealth and influence.

The Reformation was introduced into Bremen in 1522 by Heinrich von Zütphen. Archbishop Christopher of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1487-1558), a brutal libertine, hated for his lusts and avarice, looked on the reforming movement as a revolt against himself. He succeeded in getting the reformer burned; but found himself involved in a life and death struggle with the city. In 1532 Bremen joined the league of Schmalkalden, and twice endured a siege by the imperial forces. In 1547 it was only saved by Mansfeld’s victory at Drakenburg. Archbishop Christopher was succeeded in 1558 by his brother Georg, bishop of Minden (d. 1566), who, though he himself was instrumental in introducing the reformed model into his other diocese of Verden, is reckoned as the last Roman Catholic archbishop of Bremen. His successor, Henry III. (1550-1585), a son of Duke Francis I. of Lauenburg, who had been bishop of Osnabrück and Paderborn, was a Lutheran and married. Protestantism was not, however, definitively proclaimed as the state religion in Bremen until 1618. The last archbishop, Frederick II. (of Denmark), was deposed by the Swedes in 1644. In 1646 Bremen received the privileges of a free imperial city from the emperor Ferdinand III.; but Sweden, whose possession of the archbishopric was recognized two years later, refused to consent to this, and in 1666 attempted vainly to assert her claims over the city by arms—in the so-called Bremen War. When, however, in 1720 the elector of Hanover (George I. of Great Britain) acquired the archbishopric, he recognized Bremen as a free city. In 1803 this was again recognized and the territory of the city was even extended. In 1806 it was taken by the French, was subsequently annexed by Napoleon to his empire, and from 1810 to 1813 was the capital of the department of the Mouths of the Weser. Restored to independence by the congress of Vienna in 1815, it subsequently became a member of the German Confederation, and in 1867 joined the new North German Confederation, with which it was merged in the new German empire.

See Buchenau, Die freie Hansestadt Bremen (3rd ed., Bremen, 1900, 5 vols.); Bremisches Urkundenbuch, edited by R. Ehmck and W. von Bippen (1863, fol.); W. von Bippen, Geschichte der Stadt Bremen (Bremen, 1892-1898); F. Donandt, Versuch einer Geschichte des bremischen Stadtrechts (Bremen, 1830, 2 vols.); Bremisches Jahrbuch (historical, 19 vols., 1864-1900); and Karl Hegel, Städte und Gilden, vol. ii. p. 461 (Leipzig, 1891).

BREMER, FREDRIKA (1801-1865), Swedish novelist, was born near Åbo, in Finland, on the 17th of August 1801. Her father, a descendant of an old German family, a wealthy iron master and merchant, left Finland when Fredrika was three years old, and after a year’s residence in Stockholm, purchased an estate at Årsta, about 20 m. from the capital. There, with occasional visits to Stockholm and to a neighbouring estate, which belonged for a time to her father, Fredrika passed her time till 1820. The education to which she and her sisters were subjected was unusually strict; Fredrika’s health began to give way; and in 1821 the family set out for the south of France. They travelled slowly by way of Germany and Switzerland, and returned by Paris and the Netherlands. It was shortly after this time that Miss Bremer became acquainted with Schiller’s works, which made a very deep impression on her. She had begun to write verses from the age of eight, and in 1828 she succeeded in finding a publisher for the first volume of her Teckningar ur hvardagslifvet (1828), which at once attracted attention. The second volume (1831), containing one of her best tales, Familjen H., gave decisive evidence that a real novelist had been found in Sweden. The Swedish Academy awarded her their smaller gold medal, and she increased her reputation by Presidentens döttrar (1834), Grannarne (1837) and others. Her father had died in 1830, and her life was thereafter regulated in accordance with her own wishes and tastes. She lived for some years in Norway with a friend, after whose death she travelled in the autumn of 1849 to America, and after spending nearly two years there returned through England. The admirable translations (1846, &c.) of her works by Mary Howitt, which had been received with even greater eagerness in America and England than in Sweden, secured for her a warm and kindly reception. Her impressions of America, Hemmen i nya verlden, were published in 1853-1854, and at once translated into English. After her return Miss Bremer devoted herself to her scheme for the advancement and emancipation of women. Her views on these questions were expounded in her later novels—Hertha (1856) and Far och dotter (1858). Miss Bremer organized a society of ladies in Stockholm for the purpose of visiting the prisons, and during the cholera started a society, the object of which was the care of children left orphans by the epidemic. She devoted herself to other philanthropic and social schemes, and gradually abandoned her earlier simple and charming type of story for novels directed to the furtherance of her views. In these she was less successful. In 1856 she again travelled, and spent five years on the continent and in Palestine. Her reminiscences of these countries have all been translated into English. On her return she settled at Årsta, where, with the exception of a visit to Germany, she spent the remaining years of her life. She died on the 31st of December 1865.

See Life, Letters and Posthumous Works of F. Bremer, by her sister, Charlotte Bremer, translated by F. Milow, London, 1868. A selection of her works in 6 vols. appeared at Örebro, 1868-1872.

BREMERHAVEN, a seaport town of Germany, in the free state of Bremen, on the right bank and estuary of the Weser, at the confluence of the Geeste, 38 m. N. of the city of Bremen by rail. Pop. (1895) 18,366; (1905) 24,159. It is built on a tract of territory ceded to Bremen by Hanover in 1826, and further increased by treaty with Prussia in 1869. It forms practically a single town with Geestemünde (Prussia), which lies across the Geeste and with which it is connected by a drawbridge. The port was opened in 1830, and besides an excellent harbour, there are three large wet docks, including the Kaiserhafen, enlarged in 1897-1899 at a cost of £900,000. This, together with the north portion of the Neuerhafen, constitutes the free harbour. Here are the workshops and dry docks of the North German Lloyd steamship company. The whole internal harbour system is furnished with powerful hydraulic cranes and lines of railway running alongside the quays. The entrance to the port is free from ice nearly all the year round, is excellently buoyed, and lighted by two lightships and eight lighthouses, among the latter the remarkable Rothesand Leuchtturm, erected 1884-1885. The Hanoverian fort and batteries, which formerly protected the town, have been removed, and their place is supplied by four modern forts, with revolving turtleback turrets, lower down. The town possesses two Protestant and a Roman Catholic church, a technical institute, a natural history museum, a library, a theatre, a monument to the emperor William I. and one to Johann Smidt (1773-1859), the burgomaster of Bremen to whose enterprise the harbour of Bremerhaven is due. Shipbuilding and kindred industries are carried on.

BRENDAN, Brandon, or Brandan (c. 484-578), Irish saint and hero of a legendary voyage in the Atlantic, is said to have been born at Tralee in Kerry in A.D. 484. The Irish form of his name is Brennain, the Latin Brendanus. Medieval historians usually call him Brendan of Clonfert, or Brendan son of Finnloga, to distinguish him from his contemporary, St Brendan of Birr (573). Little is known of the historical Brendan, who died in 578 as abbot of a Benedictine monastery which he had founded twenty years previously at Clonfert in eastern Galway. The story of his voyage across the Atlantic to the “Promised Land of the Saints,” afterwards designated “St Brendan’s Island,” ranks among the most celebrated of the medieval sagas of western Europe. Its traditional date is 565-573. The legend is found, in prose or verse and with many variations, in Latin, French, English, Saxon, Flemish, Irish, Welsh, Breton and Scottish Gaelic. Although it does not occur in the writings of any Arabian geographer, several of its incidents—such as the landing on a whale in mistake for an island—belong also to Arabic folk-literature. Many of Brendan’s fabulous adventures seem to be borrowed from the half-pagan Irish saga of Maelduin or Maeldune, and others belong also to Scandinavian mythology. The oldest extant version of the legend is the 11th century Navigatio Brendani.

St Brendan’s island was long accepted as a reality by geographers. In a Venetian map dated 1367, in the anonymous Weimar map of 1424, and in B. Beccario’s map of 1435, it is identified with Madeira. Columbus, in his journal for the 9th of August 1492, states that the inhabitants of Hierro, Gomera and Madeira had seen the island in the west; and Martin Behaim, in the globe he made at Nuremberg in the same year, places it west of the Canaries and near the equator. During the 16th century the progress of exploration in these latitudes compelled many cartographers to locate the island elsewhere; and it was marked about 100 m. west of Ireland, or afterwards among the West Indies. But in Spain and Portugal the older belief as to its situation was maintained. In 1526 an expedition under Fernando Alvarez left Grand Canary in search of St Brendan’s island, which had again been reported as seen by many trustworthy witnesses. In 1570 an official inquiry was held, and a second expedition undertaken, by Fernando de Villalobos, governor of Palma. Similar voyages of discovery were made by the Canarians in 1604 and 1721; and only in 1759 was the apparition of St Brendan’s island explained as an effect of mirage.

Among the numerous books which deal with the legend, the following are important: Die altfranzösische Prosaübersetzung von Brendans Meerfahrt, by C. Wahlund (Upsala, 1900); La “Navigatio Sancti Brendani” in antico Veneziano, by F. Novati (Bergamo, 1892); Zur Brendanus-Legende, &c., by G. Schirmer (Leipzig, 1888); Les Voyages merveilleux de St. Brendan, &c., by F. Michel (Paris, 1878); and Acta Sancti Brendani.... Original Latin Documents connected with the Life of St Brendan, by P.F. Moran (Dublin, 1872).

BRENHAM, a city and the county-seat of Washington county, Texas, U.S.A., situated in the S.E. part of the state, about 68 m. N.W. of Houston. Pop. (1890) 5209; (1900) 5968, including 2701 negroes and 531 foreign-born; (1910) 4718. Brenham is served by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé (controlled by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé) and the Houston & Texas Central railways. It is the seat of Blinn Memorial College (German Methodist Episcopal), opened as “Mission Institute” in 1883, and renamed in 1889 in honour of the Rev. Christian Blinn, of New York, a liberal benefactor; of Brenham Evangelical Lutheran College, and of a German-American institute (1898). The municipality owns and operates the waterworks. The city is situated in an agricultural and cotton-raising region, and has cotton compresses and gins, cotton mills, cotton-seed oil refineries, foundries and machine shops, and furniture and wagon factories. Brenham was settled about 1844, was incorporated in 1866, and was chartered as a city in 1873.

BRENNER PASS, the lowest (4495 ft.) and one of the most frequented passes across the Alps in all ages, though the name itself rarely occurs in the middle ages, the route over it being said to lie through “the valley of Trent.” It may be described as the great gate of Italy, and by it most of the Teutonic tribes made their way to Italy. One reason of its importance is that many side passes in the end join this great thoroughfare. It was crossed no fewer than 66 times by various emperors, between 793 and 1402. A carriage road was constructed over it as far back as 1772, while the railway over it was built in 1864-1867. From Innsbruck to the summit of the pass is a distance by rail of 25 m. The line then descends through the Eisack valley past Brixen (34 m.) to Botzen (24 m.). Thence it follows the valley of the Adige to Trent (35 m.) and on to Verona (56½ m.)—in all 174½ m. by rail from Innsbruck to Verona.

(W. A. B. C.)

BRENNUS, the name, or perhaps the official title, of two chiefs of the Celtic Gauls.

(1) The first Brennus crossed the Apennines in 391 B.C., ravaged Etruria, and annihilated a Roman army of about 40,000 men on the Allia some 12 m. from Clusium (July 16, 390). Rome thus lay at his mercy, but he wasted time, and the Romans were able to occupy and provision the Capitol (though they had not sufficient forces to defend their walls) and to send their women and children to Veii. When on the third day the Gauls took possession, they found the city occupied only by those aged patricians who had held high office in the state. For a while the Gauls withheld their hands out of awe and reverence, but the ruder passions soon prevailed. The city was sacked and burnt; but the Capitol itself withstood a siege of more than six months, saved from surprise on one occasion only by the wakefulness of the sacred geese and the courage of Marcus Manlius. At last the Gauls consented to accept a ransom of a thousand pounds of gold. As it was being weighed out, the Roman tribune complained of some unfairness. Brennus at once threw his heavy sword into the scale; and when asked the meaning of the act, replied that it meant Vae victis (“woe to the conquered”). The Gauls returned home with their plunder, leaving Rome in a condition from which she took long to recover. A later legend, probably an invention, represents M. Furius Camillus as suddenly appearing with an avenging army at the moment when the gold was being weighed, and defeating Brennus and all his host.

See null v. 33-49; Plutarch, Camillus, 17, 22, 28; Polybius i. 6, ii. 18; Dion. Halic. xiii. 7.

(2) The second Brennus is said to have been one of the leaders of an inroad made by the Gauls from the east of the Adriatic into Thrace and Macedonia (280), when they defeated and slew Ptolemy Ceraunus, then king of Macedonia. Whether Brennus took part in this first invasion or not is uncertain; but its success led him to urge his countrymen to a second expedition, when he marched with a large army through Macedonia and Thessaly until he reached Thermopylae. To this point the united forces of the northern Greeks—Athenians, Phocians, Boeotians and Aetolians—had fallen back; and here the Greeks a second time held their foreign invaders in check for many days, and a second time had their rear turned, owing to the treachery of some of the natives, by the same path which had been discovered to the Persians two hundred years before. Brennus and his Gauls marched on to Delphi, of whose sacred treasures they had heard much. But the little force which the Delphians and their neighbours had collected—about 4000 men—favoured by the strength of their position, made a successful defence. They rolled down rocks upon their enemies as they crowded into the defile, and showered missiles on them from above. A thunderstorm, with hail and intense cold, increased their confusion, and on Brennus himself being wounded they took to flight, pursued by the Greeks all the way back to Thermopylae. Brennus killed himself, “unable to endure the pain of his wounds,” says Justin; more probably determined not to return home defeated.

See Justin xxiv. 6; Diod. Sic. xxii. 11; Pausanias x. 19-23; L. Contzen, Die Wanderungen der Kelten (Leipzig, 1861).

BRENTANO, KLEMENS (1778-1842), German poet and novelist, was born at Ehrenbreitstein on the 8th of September 1778. His sister was the well-known Bettina von Arnim (q.v.), Goethe’s correspondent. He studied at Jena, and afterwards resided at Heidelberg, Vienna and Berlin. In 1818, weary of his somewhat restless and unsettled life, he joined the Roman Catholic Church and withdrew to the monastery of Dülmen where he lived for some years in strict seclusion. The latter part of his life he spent in Regensburg, Frankfort and Munich, actively engaged in Catholic propaganda. He died at Aschaffenburg on the 28th of July 1842. Brentano, whose early writings were published under the pseudonym Maria, belonged to the Heidelberg group of German romantic writers, and his works are marked by excess of fantastic imagery and by abrupt, bizarre modes of expression. His first published writings were Satiren und poetische Spiele (1800), and a romance Godwi (1801-1802); of his dramas the best are Ponce de Leon (1804), Victoria (1817) and Die Gründung Prags (1815). On the whole his finest work is the collection of Romanzen vom Rosenkranz (published posthumously in 1852); his short stories, and more especially the charming Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl (1838), which has been translated into English, are still popular. Brentano also assisted Ludwig Achim von Arnim, his brother-in-law, in the collection of folk-songs forming Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806-1808).

Brentano’s collected works, edited by his brother Christian, appeared at Frankfort in 9 vols. (1851-1855). Selections have been edited by J.B. Diel (1873), M. Koch (1892), and J. Dohmke (1893). See J.B. Diel and W. Kreiten, Klemens Brentano (2 vols., 1877-1878), the introduction to Koch’s edition, and R. Steig, A. von Arnim und K. Brentano (1894).

BRENTANO, LUDWIG JOSEPH [called Lujo] (1844- ), German economist, a member of the same family as the preceding, was born at Aschaffenburg on the 18th of December 1844. He received some of his academical education in Dublin. In 1868 he made a thorough study of trade-unionism in England, which resulted in his principal work, Die Arbeitergilden der Gegenwart (Leipzig, 1871-1872; Eng. trans, by L.T. Smith). The book was assailed by Bamberger and other economists, but is important not only as an authority on modern associations of workmen, but for having given an impetus to the study of the gilds of the middle ages, and the examination of the great stores of neglected information bearing upon the condition of the people in olden days. Brentano’s other works are of a more theoretical character, and chiefly relate to political economy, of which he was professor at Breslau from 1872 to 1882, at Strassburg from 1882 to 1888, at Vienna 1888-1889, at Leipzig 1889-1891, and at Munich since 1891. We may mention Das Arbeitsverhältnis gemäss dem heutigen Recht (1877); Die christlich-soziale Bewegung in England (1883); Über das Verhältnis von Arbeitslohn und Arbeitszeit zur Arbeitsleistung (1893); Agrarpolitik (1897).

BRENTFORD, a market town in the Brentford parliamentary division of Middlesex, England, 10½ m. W. of Waterloo terminus, London, by the London & South-Western railway, at the junction of the river Brent with the Thames. Pop. of urban district (1901) 15,171. The Grand Junction Canal joins the Brent, affording ample water-communications to the town, which has considerable industries in brewing, soap-making, saw-milling, market-gardening, &c. The Grand Junction waterworks are situated here. Brentford has been the county-town for elections since 1701.

In 1016 Brentford, or, as it was often called Braynford, was the scene of a great defeat inflicted on the Danes by Edmund Ironside. In 1280 a toll was granted by Edward I., who granted the town a market, for the construction of a bridge across the river, and in the reign of Henry VI. a hospital of the Nine Orders of Angels was founded near its western side. In 1642 a battle was fought here in which the royalists defeated the parliamentary forces. For his services on this occasion the Scotsman Ruthven, earl of Forth, was made earl of Brentford, a title afterwards conferred by William III. on Marshal Schomberg. Brentford was during the 16th and 17th centuries a favourite resort of London citizens; and its inn of the Three Pigeons, which was kept for a time by John Lowin, one of the first actors of Shakespeare’s plays, is frequently alluded to by the dramatists of the period. Falstaff is disguised as the “Fat Woman of Brentford” in Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor, and numerous other references to the town in literature point, in most cases, to its reputation for excessive dirt. The “two kings of Brentford” mentioned in Cowper’s Task, and elsewhere, seem to owe their mythical existence to the play, The Rehearsal, by George Villiers, second duke of Buckingham, produced in 1671.

South of Brentford, towards Isleworth, is Sion House, a mansion founded by Lord Protector Somerset in 1547, and rebuilt and enlarged by the 10th earl of Northumberland and Sir Hugh Smithson, afterwards duke of Northumberland, the architects being Inigo Jones and Robert Adam. The gardens are very beautiful. The site of Sion or Syon House was previously occupied by a convent of Bridgetine nuns established at Twickenham by Henry V. in 1415 and removed here in 1431.

BRENTON, SIR JAHLEEL (1770-1844), British admiral, was born in Rhode Island, U.S.A., on the 22nd of August 1770. He was the son of Rear-Admiral Jahleel Brenton (1729-1802), who belonged to a loyalist family which suffered the loss of most of its property in the insurrection of the American colonies. He was a lieutenant in the British navy when the war began, and emigrated with his family to the mother country. Three of the sons entered the navy—Jahleel (the eldest), Captain Edward Pelham Brenton (1774-1839), and James Wallace Brenton, who was killed young in 1799 when attacking a Spanish privateer near Barcelona in the boats of the “Petrel,” of which he was lieutenant. Jahleel went to sea first with his father in 1781, and on the return of peace was sent to the “maritime school” at Chelsea. He served in the peace before the beginning of the war in 1793, and passed his examination as lieutenant, but seeing no chance of employment went with other English naval officers to serve in the Swedish navy against the Russians. In 1790 he received his commission and returned home. Till 1799 he served as lieutenant, or acting commander, mostly under Earl St Vincent, and was present in the battle from which the admiral received his title. As commander of the “Speedy” brig he won much distinction in actions with Spanish gunboats in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1800 he reached the rank of post-captain, and had the good fortune to serve as flag-captain to Sir James (afterwards Lord) Saumarez in the action at Algeciras, and in the Straits in 1801. During the peace of Amiens he married Miss Stewart, a lady belonging to a loyalist family of Nova Scotia. After the renewal of the war he commanded a succession of frigates. In 1803 he had the misfortune to be wrecked on the coast of France, and remained for a time in prison, where his wife joined him. Having been exchanged he was named to another ship. His most brilliant action was fought with a flotilla of Franco-Neapolitan vessels outside of Naples in May 1801. He was severely wounded, and Murat, then king of Naples, praised him effusively. He was made a baronet in 1812 and K.C.B. in 1815. After his recovery from his wound he was unable to bear sea service, but was made commissioner of the dockyard at Port Mahon, and then at the Cape, and was afterwards lieutenant-governor of Greenwich hospital till 1840. He reached flag rank in 1830. In his later years he took an active part in philanthropic work, in association with his brother, Captain E.P. Brenton, who had seen much service but is best remembered by his writings on naval and military history,—Naval History of Great Britain from the Year 1783 to 1822 (1823), and The Life and Correspondence of John, Earl of St Vincent (1838).

A Memoir of the Life and Services of Vice-Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, based on his own papers, was published in 1846 by the Rev. Henry Raikes, and reissued by the admiral’s son, Sir L.C.L. Brenton, in 1855.

(D. H.)

BRENTWOOD, a market town in the mid or Chelmsford parliamentary division of Essex, England; 18 m. E.N.E. of London by the Great Eastern railway (Brentwood and Worley station). Pop. of urban district (1901) 4932. The neighbouring country is pleasantly undulating and well wooded. The church of St Thomas the Martyr, with several chapels, is modern. The old assize house, an Elizabethan structure, remains. A free grammar school was founded in 1557. The county asylum is in the vicinity. There are breweries and brick works. To the south lies the fine upland of Worley Common, with large barracks. Adjoining Brentwood to the north-east is Shenfield, with the church of St Mary the Virgin, Early English and later. Brentwood was formerly an important posting station on the main road to the eastern counties, which follows the line of the railway to Colchester. The name (Burntwood) is supposed to record an original settlement made in a clearing of the forest. The district is largely residential.

BRENZ, JOHANN (1499-1570), Lutheran divine, eldest son of Martin Brenz, was born at Weil, Württemberg, on the 24th of June 1499. In 1514 he entered the university of Heidelberg, where Oecolampadius was one of his teachers, and where in 1518 he heard Luther discuss. Ordained priest in 1520, and appointed preacher (1522) at Hall in Swabia, he gave himself to biblical exposition. He ceased to celebrate mass in 1523, and reorganized his church in 1524. Successful in resisting the peasant insurrection (1525), his fortunes were affected by the Schmalkaldic War. From Hall, when taken by the imperial forces, he fled on his birthday in 1548. Protected by Duke Ulrich of Württemberg, he was appointed (January 1553) provost of the collegiate church of Stuttgart. As organizer of the reformation in Württemberg he did much fruitful work. A strong advocate of Lutheran doctrine, and author of the Syngramma Suevicum (October 21, 1525), which set forth Luther’s doctrine of the Eucharist, he was free from the persecuting tendencies of the age. He is praised and quoted (as Joannes Witlingius) for his judgment against applying the death penalty to anabaptists or other heretics in the De Haereticis, an sint persequendi (1554), issued by Sebastian Castellio under the pseudonym of Martinus Bellius. An incomplete edition of his works (largely expository) appeared at Tübingen, 1576-1590. Several of his sermons were reproduced in contemporary English versions. A volume of Anecdota Brentiana was edited by Pressel in 1868. He died on the 11th of September 1570, and was buried in his church at Stuttgart; his grave was subsequently violated. He was twice married, and his eldest son, Johann Brenz, was appointed (1562) professor of theology in Tübingen at the early age of twenty-two.

See Hartmann and Jäger, Johann Brenz (1840-1842); Bossert, in Hauck’s Realencyklop. (1897).

(A. Go.*)

BRÉQUIGNY, LOUIS GEORGES OUDARD FEUDRIX DE (1714-1795), French scholar, was born at Gainneville near Havre, on the 22nd of February 1714, and died at Paris on the 3rd of July 1795. His first publications were anonymous: an Histoire des révolutions de Gènes jusqu’à la paix de 1748 (1750), and a series of Vies des orateurs grecs (1752). Elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres in 1759, he contributed an Histoire de Posthume empereur des Gaules (vol. xxx., 1760) to the collected works of that illustrious society, and also a Mémoire sur l’établissement de la religion et de l’empire de Mahomet (vol. xxxii., 1761-1763). After the close of the Seven Years’ War he was sent to search in the archives of England for documents bearing upon the history of France, more particularly upon that of the French provinces which once belonged to England. This mission (1764-1766) was very fruitful in results; Bréquigny brought back from it copies of about 7000 documents, which are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale. A useful selection of these documents was published (unfortunately without adequate critical treatment) by Jean Jacques Champollion-Figeac, under the title Lettres de rois, reines et autres personnages des cours de France et d’Angleterre, depuis Louis VII. jusqu’à Henri IV., tirées des archives de Londres par Bréquigny (collection of Documents inédits relatifs a l’histoire de France, 2 vols., 1839, 1847). Bréquigny himself drew the material for many important studies from the rich mine which he had thus exploited. These were included in the collection of the Académie des Inscriptions: Mémoire sur les différends entre la France et l’Angleterre sous le règne de Charles le Bel (vol. xli.); Mémoire sur la vie de Marie, reine de France, soeur de Henri VIII., roi d’Angleterre (vol. xlii.); four Mémoires pour senir à l’histoire de Calais (vols. xliii. and l.); and Mémoire sur les négotiations touchant les projets de mariage d’Elizabeth, reine d’Angleterre, d’abord avec le duc d’Anjou, ensuite avec le due d’Alençon, tons deux frères de Charles IX. (vol. l.). This last was read to the Academy on the 22nd of January 1793, the morrow of Louis XVI.’s execution. Meanwhile, Bréquigny had taken part in three great and erudite works. For the Recueil des ordonnances des rois de France he had prepared volumes x.-xiv., the preface to vol. xi. containing important researches into the French communes. To the Table chronologique des diplômes, chartes, lettres, et actes imprimés concernant l’histoire de France he contributed three volumes in collaboration with Mouchet (1769-1783). Charged with the supervision of a large collection of documents bearing on French history, analogous to Rymer’s Foedera, he published the first volume (Diplomatat. Chartae, &c., 1791). The Revolution interrupted him in his collection of Mémoires concernant l’histoire, les sciences, les lettres, et les arts des Chinois, begun in 1776 at the instance of the minister Bertin, when fifteen volumes had appeared.

See the note on Bréquigny at the end of vol. i. of the Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions (1808); the Introduction to vol. iv. of the Table chronologique des diplômes (1836); Champollion-Figeac’s preface to the Lettres des rois et reines; the Comité des travaux historiques, by X. Charmes, vol. i. passim; N. Oursel, Nouvelle biographie normande (1886); and the Catalogue des manuscrits des collections Duchesne et Bréquigny (in the Bibliothèque Nationale), by René Poupardin (1905).

(C. B.*)