Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/113

LEFT BOLIDES 91 BOLIVAB Marchioness of Pembroke. "When her pregnancy revealed the secret, Cranmer declared the first marriage void and the second valid, and Anne was crowned at Westminster with unparalleled splendor. On Sept. 7, 1533, she became the mother of Elizabeth. She was speedily, how- ANNE BOLEYN ever, in turn supplanted by her own lady of honor, Jane Seymour. Suspicions of infidelity were alleged against her, and, in 1536, the Queen was brought before a jury of peers on a charge of treason and adultery, and found guilty. She was beheaded May 19, 1536. BOLIDES, a name given to those meteoric stones or aerolites that ex- plode on coming in contact with the atmosphere. BOLINGBROKE, HENRY ST. JOHN, VISCOUNT, an English statesman and political writer, born in 1678. He be- came Secretary of War in 1704; resigned in 1707; but, in 1710, he was again one of the ministry. For the next four years he assisted in governing the country, and by the treaty of Utrecht, in April, 1713, brought the war with France to a close. In 1712 he was created Viscount Boling- broke; and, in 1714, Queen Anne died. This was a fatal blow to Bolingbroke, who had quarreled with his old friend Harley, the Earl of Oxford, and been commissioned to form a new cabinet. He was compelled to make his escape to France. On the accession of George I., he was impeached by Walpole, at the bar of the House of Lords. Meanwhile he had entered the service of Charles Stuart, the Pretender, who apiwinted him his Prime Minister, but who, after his re- turn from Scotland, dismissed him. In 1723 he was permitted to return to Eng- land, but he was not readmitted to the House of Lords. This excited his ani- mosity, and he began to write against the ministry, which led to the downfall of Sir Robert Walpole. He resided in France from 1735 until his father's death enabled him to take possession of the family estates at Battersea. Here he passed the remainder of his days, employing his time in writing on non- political subjects. He died in 1751. BOLINGBROKE, HENRY OF, a Duke of Hereford, afterward Henry IV. (q. v.) of England. He figures in Shakespeare's plays, "Richard II." and "Henry IV." BOLIVAR, the largest state of Vene- zuela, South America, comprising that portion of Venezuela which lies S. of the Orinoco and Apure rivers; area, 88,701 square miles; pop. about 70,000. BOLIVAR, SIMON, an American mili- tary officer and statesman (named El LiBERTADOR, from his having rescued cen- tral South America from the Spanish yoke), bom in Caracas, July 24, 1783. He descended from a noble and wealthy fam- ily, received his university education at Madrid, married and returned to South America. His wife dying, he visited Europe, and then returned to Venezuela, entering the service of the newly founded republic as a Colonel. In June, 1810. he was in London, endeavoring to induce the British cabinet to assist the Inde- pendent narty against the Royalists and, in the following year, he was acting as Governor of Puerto Cabello, the strong- est fortress of Venezuela. In 1821, the Independent troops were successful in the battle of Carabobo, where the Royal- ists lost upward of 6,000 men, and which decided the cause against Spain, On Au- gust 20 of the same year, a Republican Constitution was adopted, and decreed to continue, as then defined, till 1834. Boli- var was chosen President. In 1823 he assisted the Peruvians to obtain their in- dependence, and was declared their lib- erator, and invested with supreme au- thority. On Feb. 10, 1825, however, he convoked a Congress, and resigned his dictatorship. He now visited the upper provinces of Peru, which, calling a con- vention at Chuquisaca, gave the name of Bolivia to their country, in honor of their liberator, and apnointed him Perpetual Protector, and to draw up a constitution. On May 25, 1836, he presented his