The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 179

EDMUND, ST., Edmund Rich, archbishop of Canterbury, born at Abingdon; while still at school made a vow of celibacy and wedded the Virgin Mary; sided as archbishop with the popular party against the tyranny of both Pope and king; coming into disfavour with the papal court retired to France, where, on his arrival, the mother of St. Louis with her sons met him to receive his blessing, and where he spent his last days in a monastery; died in 1240, and was canonised six years after by Innocent IV., somewhat reluctantly it is said.

EDMUND IRONSIDE, succeeded to the throne of England on the death of his father Ethelred the Unready in 1016, but reigned only seven months; he struggled bravely, and at first successfully, against Canute the Dane, but being defeated, the kingdom ultimately was divided between them (981-1016).

EDOM, or IDUMaeA, a mountainous but not unfertile country, comprising the S. of Judaea and part of the N. of Arabia Petraea, 100 m.

long by 20 m. broad, peopled originally by the descendants of Esau, who were ruled by "dukes," and were bitterly hostile to the Jews.

EDRED, king of the Anglo-Saxons, son of Edward the Elder; subdued Northumbria; had in the end of his reign St. Dunstan for chief adviser; _d_. 955.

EDRISI, an Arabian geographer, born at Ceuta, in Spain; by request of Roger II. of Sicily wrote an elaborate description of the earth, which held a foremost place amongst mediaeval geographers (1099-1180).

EDUCATION, as conceived of by Ruskin, and alone worthy of the name, "the leading human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them"; and attained, "not by telling a man what he knew not, but by making him what he was not."

EDUI, an ancient Gallic tribe, whose capital was Bibracte (Autun).

EDWARD, THOMAS, naturalist, born at Gosport; bred a shoemaker; settled in Banff, where he devoted his leisure to the study of animal nature, and collected numerous specimens of animals, which he stuffed and exhibited, but with pecuniary loss; the Queen's attention being called to his case, settled on him an annual pension of 50, while the citizens of Aberdeen presented him in March 1877 with a gift of 130 sovereigns, on which occasion he made a characteristic speech (1814-1886).

EDWARD I., surnamed Longshanks, king of England, born at Westminster, son of Henry III., married ELEANOR (q. v.) of Castile; came first into prominence in the Barons' War; defeated the n.o.bles at Evesham, and liberated his father; joined the last Crusade in 1270, and distinguished himself at Acre; returned to England in 1274 to a.s.sume the crown, having been two years previously proclaimed king; during his reign the ascendency of the Church and the n.o.bles received a check, the growing aspiration of the people for a larger share in the affairs of the nation was met by an extended franchise, while the right of Parliament to regulate taxation was recognised; under his reign Wales was finally subdued and annexed to England, and a temporary conquest of Scotland was achieved (1239-1307).

EDWARD II., king of England (1307-1327), son of the preceding; was first Prince of Wales, being born at Carnarvon; being a weakling was governed by favourites, Gaveston and the Spencers, whose influence, as foreigners and unpatriotic, offended the barons, who rose against him; in 1314 Scotland rose in arms under Bruce, and an ill-fated expedition under him ended in the crus.h.i.+ng defeat at Bannockburn; in 1327 he was deposed, and was brutally murdered in Berkeley Castle (1284-1327).

EDWARD III., king of England (1327-1377), son of the preceding, married Philippa of Hainault; during his boyhood the government was carried on by a council of regency; in 1328 the independence of Scotland was recognised, and nine years later began the Hundred Years' War with France, memorable in this reign for the heroic achievements of EDWARD THE BLACK PRINCE (q. v.), the king's eldest son; a.s.sociated with this reign are the glorious victories of Crecy and Poitiers, and the great naval battle at Sluys, one of the earliest victories of English arms at sea; these successes were not maintained in the later stages of the war, and the treaty of Bretigny involved the withdrawal of Edward's claim to the French crown; in 1376 the Black Prince died.

EDWARD IV., king of England (1461-1483), son of Richard, Duke of York, and successor to the Lancastrian Henry VI., whom he defeated at Towton; throughout his reign the country was torn by the Wars of the Roses, in which victory rested with the Yorkists at Hedgeley Moor, Hexham, Barnet, and Tewkesbury; in this reign little social progress was made, but a great step towards it was made by the introduction of printing by Caxton (1442-1483)

EDWARD V., king of England for three months in 1483, son of the preceding; deposed by his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester; was ultimately murdered in the Tower, along with his young brother (1470-1483).

EDWARD VI., king of England (1547-1553), son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour; his reign, which was a brief one, was marked by a victory over the Scots at Pinkie (1547), Catholic and agrarian risings, and certain ecclesiastical reforms (1537-1553).

EDWARD VII., king of Great Britain and Ireland and "all the British Dominions beyond the Seas," born 9th November 1841, succeeded his mother, Queen Victoria, 22nd Jan. 1901. On 10th March 1863 he married Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of Christian IX. of Denmark, and has four surviving children: George, Prince of Wales, _b_. 1865; Louise, d.u.c.h.ess of Fife, _b_. 1867; Victoria, _b_. 1868; and Maud, _b_. 1869, who married Prince Charles of Denmark. The king's eldest son, Albert Victor, _b_.

1864, died January 14, 1892.

EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, king of England, married Edith, daughter of the great EARL G.o.dWIN (q. v.); was a feeble monarch of ascetic proclivities; his appeal to the Duke of Normandy precipitated the Norman invasion, and in him perished the royal Saxon line; was canonised for his piety (1004-1066).

EDWARD THE ELDER, king of the Anglo-Saxons from 901 to 925; was the son and successor of Alfred the Great; extended the Anglo-Saxon dominions.

EDWARDES, SIR HERBERT BENJAMIN, soldier and administrator in India, born at Frodesley, Shrops.h.i.+re; was actively engaged in the first Sikh War and in the Mutiny; served under Sir Henry Lawrence, whose Life he partly wrote (1819-1868).

EDWARDS, BRYAN, historian, born at Westbury; traded in Jamaica; wrote a "History of British Colonies in the West Indies" (1743-1800).

EDWARDS, JONATHAN, a celebrated divine, born at E. Windsor, Connecticut; graduated at Yale; minister at Northampton, Ma.s.s.; missionary to Housatonnuck Indians; was elected to the Presidency of Princeton College; wrote an acute and original work, "The Freedom of the Will," a masterpiece of cogent reasoning; has been called the "Spinoza of Calvinism" (1703-1758).

EDWIN, king of Northumbria in the 6th century; through the influence of his wife Ethelburga Christianity was introduced into England by St.

Augustine; founded Edinburgh; was defeated and slain by the Mercian King Penda in 634.

EDWY, king of the Anglo-Saxons from 955 to 957; offended the clerical party headed by Dunstan and Odo, who put his wife Elgiva to death, after which he soon died himself at the early age of 19.

EECKHOUT, a Dutch portrait and historical painter, born at Antwerp; the most eminent disciple of Rembrandt, whose style he successfully imitated (1621-1674).

EFFEN, VAN, a Dutch author, who wrote chiefly in French; imitated the _Spectator_ of Addison, and translated into French Swift's "Tale of a Tub" and Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" (1684-1735).

EFFENDI, a t.i.tle of honour among the Turks, applied to State and civil officials, frequently a.s.sociated with the name of the office, as well as to men of learning or high position.

EGALITe, PHILIPPE, Duke of Orleans, born April 13th, 1787, father of Louis Philippe; so called because he sided with the Republican party in the French Revolution, and whose motto was "Liberte, Fraternite, et Egalite." See ORLEANS, DUKE OF.

EGATES, three islands on the W. coast of Sicily.

EGBERT, king of Wess.e.x, a descendant of Cedric the founder; after an exile of 13 years at the court of Charlemagne ascended the throne in 800; reigned till 809, governing his people in tranquillity, when, by successful wars with the other Saxon tribes, he in two years became virtual king of all England, and received the revived t.i.tle of Bretwalda; _d_. 837.

EGEDE, HANS, a Norwegian priest, founder of the Danish mission in Greenland, whither he embarked with his family and a small colony of traders in 1721; leaving his son to carry on the mission, and returning to Denmark, he became head of a training school for young missionaries to Greenland (1686-1758).

EGEDE, PAUL, son of Hans; a.s.sisted his father in the Greenland mission, and published a history of the mission; translated part of the Bible into the language of the country, and composed a grammar and a dictionary of it; _d_. 1789.

EGER (17), a town in Bohemia, on the river Eger, 91 m. W. of Prague, a centre of railway traffic; Wallenstein was murdered here in 1634; the river flows into the Elbe after a NE. course of 190 m.

EGERIA, a nymph who inhabited a grotto in a grove in Latium, dedicated to the Camenae, some 16 m. from Rome, and whom, according to tradition, Numa was in the habit of consulting when engaged in framing forms of religious wors.h.i.+p for the Roman community; she figures as his spiritual adviser, and has become the symbol of one of her s.e.x, conceived of as discharging the same function in other the like cases.