The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 28

ANKARSTRoM, the a.s.sa.s.sin of Gustavus III. of Sweden, at a masked ball, March 15, 1792, for which he was executed after being publicly flogged on three successive days.

ANKLAM (12), an old Hanse town in Pomerania, connected by railway with Stettin.

ANKOBAR, capital of Shoa, in Abyssinia; stands 8200 ft. above the sea-level.

ANN ARBOR (10), a city of Michigan, on the Huron, with an observatory and a flouris.h.i.+ng university.

ANNA COMNE'NA, a Byzantine princess, who, having failed in a political conspiracy, retired into a convent and wrote the life of her father, Alexius I., under the t.i.tle of the "Alexiad" (1083-1148).

AN'NA IVANOV'NA, niece of Peter the Great, empress of Russia in succession to Peter II. from 1730 to 1740; her reign was marred by the evil influence of her paramour Biren over her, which led to the perpetration of great cruelties; was famed for her big cheek, "which, as shown in her portraits," Carlyle says, "was comparable to a Westphalian ham" (1693-1740).

AN'NAM (6,000), an empire, of the size of Sweden, along the east coast of Indo-China, under a French protectorate since 1885; it has a rich well-watered soil, which yields tropical products, and is rich in minerals.

AN'NAN (3), a burgh in Dumfries, on river Annan; birthplace of Edward Irving, and where Carlyle was a schoolboy, and at length mathematical schoolmaster.

ANNAP'OLIS (3), seaport of Nova Scotia, on the Bay of Fundy; also the capital (7) of Maryland, U.S., 28 m. E. of Was.h.i.+ngton.

ANNE, QUEEN, daughter of James II.; by the union of Scotland with England during her reign in 1707 became the first sovereign of the United Kingdom; her reign distinguished by the part England played in the war of the Spanish succession and the number of notabilities, literary and scientific, that flourished under it, though without any patronage on the part of the Queen (1665-1714).

ANNE, ST., wife of St. Joachim, mother of the Virgin Mary, and the patron saint of carpentry; festival, July 26.

ANNE OF AUSTRIA, the daughter of Philip III. of Spain, wife of Louis XIII., and mother of Louis XIV., became regent on the death of her husband, with Cardinal Mazarin for minister; during the minority of her son, triumphed over the Fronde; retired to a convent on the death of Mazarin (1610-1666).

ANNE OF BRITTANY, the daughter of Francis II., Duke of Brittany; by her marriage, first to Charles VIII. then to Louis XII., the duchy was added to the crown of France (1476-1514).

ANNE OF CLeVES, daughter of Duke of Cleves, a wife of Henry VIII., who fell in love with the portrait of her by Holbein, but being disappointed, soon divorced her; _d_. 1577.

ANNECY (11), the capital of Haute-Savoie, in France, on a lake of the name, 22 m. S. of Geneva, at which the Counts of Geneva had their residence, and where Francis of Sales was bishop.

ANn.o.bON, a Spanish isle in the Gulf of Guinea.

ANNONAY (14), a town in Ardeche, France; paper the chief manufacture.

ANNUNCIATION DAY, a festival on the 25th of March in commemoration of the salutation of the angel to the Virgin Mary on the Incarnation of Christ.

ANQUETIL', LOUIS PIERRE, a French historian in holy orders, wrote "Precis de l'Histoire Universelle" and a "Histoire de France" in 14 vols.; continued by Bouillet in 6 more (1723-1806).

ANQUETIL'-DUPERRON, brother of the preceding, an enthusiastic Orientalist, to whom we owe the discovery and first translation of the Zend-Avesta and Schopenhauer his knowledge of Hindu philosophy, and which influenced his own system so much (1731-1805).

ANSBACH (14), a manufacturing town in Bavaria, 25 m. SW. of Nurnberg, the capital of the old margraviate of the name, and the margraves of which were HOHENZOLLERNS (q. v.).

ANSCHAR or ANSGAR, ST., a Frenchman born, the first to preach Christianity to the pagans of Scandinavia, was by appointment of the Pope the first archbishop of Hamburg (801-864).

ANSELM, ST., archbishop of Canterbury, a native of Aosta, in Piedmont, monk and abbot; visited England frequently, gained the favour of King Rufus, who appointed him to succeed Lanfranc, quarrelled with Rufus and left the country, but returned at the request of Henry I., a quarrel with whom about invest.i.ture ended in a compromise; an able, high-principled, G.o.d-fearing man, and a calmly resolute upholder of the teaching and authority of the Church (1033-1109). See CARLYLE'S "PAST AND PRESENT."

ANSON, LORD, a celebrated British naval commander, sailed round the world, during war on the part of England with Spain, on a voyage of adventure with a fleet of three s.h.i.+ps, and after three years and nine months returned to England, his fleet reduced to one vessel, but with 500,000 of Spanish treasure on board. Anson's "Voyage Round the World"

contains a highly interesting account of this, "written in brief, perspicuous terms," witnesses Carlyle, "a real poem in its kind, or romance all fact; one of the pleasantest little books in the world's library at this time" (1697-1762).

ANSTRUTHER, EAST AND WEST, two contiguous royal burghs on the Fife coast, the former the birthplace of Tennant the poet, Thomas Chalmers, and John Goodsir the anatomist.

ANTaeUS, a mythical giant, a _terrae filius_ or son of the earth, who was strong only when his foot was on the earth, lifted in air he became weak as water, a weakness which Hercules discovered to his discomfiture when wrestling with him. The fable has been used as a symbol of the spiritual strength which accrues when one rests his faith on the immediate fact of things.

ANTAL'CIDAS, a Spartan general, celebrated for a treaty which he concluded with Persia whereby the majority of the cities of Asia Minor pa.s.sed under the sway of the Persians, to the loss of the fruit of all the victories gained over them by Athens (387 B.C.).

ANTANANARI'VO (100), the capital of Madagascar, in the centre of the island, on a well-nigh inaccessible rocky height 5000 ft. above the sea-level.

ANTAR, an Arab chief of the 6th century, a subject of romance, and distinguished as a poet.

ANT-EATERS, a family of edentate mammals, have a tubular mouth with a small aperture, and a long tongue covered with a viscid secretion, which they thrust into the ant-hills and then withdraw covered with ants.

ANTELOPE, an animal closely allied to the sheep and the goat, very like the latter in appearance, with a light and elegant figure, slender, graceful limbs, small cloven hoofs, and generally a very short tail.

ANTEQUE'RA (27), a town in Andalusia, 22 m. N. of Malaga, a stronghold of the Moors from 712 to 1410.

ANTHE'LIA, luminous rings witnessed in Alpine and Polar regions, seen round the shadow of one's head in a fog or cloud opposite the sun.