Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/223

 A L T I X G. days, in Auguft 1679. lie recommended ;he care of an edi- tion of a'l his works to his coufin Mr:-.li> Alcing, :. ^.(tcr ef Gronin.'t-n ; :;n>! (hey were. ugly p:. dam, iii i6S';, in ruv volu.i.es in folio: ; .1 analytical, exegetical, prac.t;cJ, problematical, an ... phicjl traei'-. ALVARES or: LUNA, or as f )mc call him AI.VARO, is a chara&er too edifying to be omitted in this collection, i is the favourite or J<.!in U. kin*! of Callilc : wa l.i nous r ' r i r r j i. i IJ - for the pn'<ii!'.ous alcendancy he gamed over this prir.a.-, andjib.ig for the punishment which at length overtook f.i.-n. Iljwds- 1 natural Ion of Don Alvaro de Luna, lord rf C'a,v,:'c in Ai- ^ ' n, and of a v.oinjn infamous for unbounded luit : D, . I Geddes ii;lj. her a common ftrumper. II.: -as born in 1388, ' and iKiniL'.l IV:. r; but Pope Benedict XIII. who was charm- ^, e j .... Utduonary. ed wiih ins wit, though et a child, changed Peter to AJva- rt.- lie v.is introduced to court in 1408, i n-i made a gen- tjeman of the beJchambcr to kiii;^ Joh.i, with whom he grew into the higheft favour. In 1427, he wa _d to rtti.e: the courtiers exerted all their ei^kavours to ruin him : they complained, that a man of no military fk II, of no virtu whatever, (hould, by mere artifice and dillimulation, be ad- vanced to the highes'c authority ; and they ec^uid not bear that, by tlie aiiiilance of a few upftart men, whom he ru>l railed and fixed to his intereft, he iiiould rei^n a: aLVo'utely as if h.v were king. They prevailed a^ainfi: him, and Alvarcj vas baniilied from court a year and an half; but tl-i. was the grcauit affliction imayiaable to the kiiiii : the kine {hewed all ma: C 1 O of diftrcfs the moment he was removed from his pretence ; arid now thought and fpoke of nothing but Alvaics. i was therefore recalled ; and, being inverted with his ufual au- thnrity a revenged himfel&feverely upon his en . . pcr- i ..ding the king to banifh them. Tl.is was furtli- very im- politic : he h'id better fiavc eaisied them by civil ;:nd en< - rous oiTices. Of the five ui.d forty y^ais he i';>uit a court, lie enjoyed for thirty of them fo entire an afcendancy oier t ; ic king, that nothing could be don-: without liib e ; >i- orders : nay, it is related by Mariana, that the kin:.; could not change an ofHcer or KTV,;; t, or even hi;; >> r , without the approbation of Alvares. In fiiort, lv.- vjiited ijothing to complete his grandeur, but the name had all the places in the kin^eom at h;s difpofal : h : vas matter of the trcafury, and by bounties had io ^:;ined t hearts of the fubjects, that the kir. c, though I. now were