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Rh by his son Louis III. the Pious. He acquired the Saxon palatinate in 1179, on the death of Adalbert, count of Sommerschenburg, went to Italy to assist Frederick I. in 1157, joined in the war against Henry the Lion in 1180, and distinguished himself at the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade, on the return from which he died at Cyprus in 1190. He was succeeded by his brother Hermann I., during whose reign Thuringia suffered greatly from the ravages of the adherents of Philip, duke of Swabia, and also from those of his rival Otto of Brunswick. The next landgrave (1217–1227) was his son Louis IV. the Saint, who married St Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II., king of Hungary, and acted as guardian for his kinsman Henry III. the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen. This Louis, who is celebrated in story, destroyed many robber-castles in Thuringia and died at Otranto while accompanying the emperor Frederick II. on crusade. The next ruler was Henry Raspe, who made himself regent on behalf of his nephew Hermann II. from 1227 to 1238 and in 1241 succeeded his former ward as landgrave. Henry was appointed regent for King Conrad IV., but he soon transferred his allegiance from the emperor to Pope Innocent IV., and in 1246 was chosen German king at Beitshochheim. He defeated Conrad near Frankfort in August 1246, but died in the following year at the Wartburg, when the male line of the family became extinct.

In 1242 Thuringia had been promised by Frederick II. to Henry III. the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen, a maternal grandson of the landgrave Hermann I. Henry, however, found himself obliged to defend his title against Sophia, wife of Henry II., duke of Brabant, who was a daughter of the landgrave Louis IV., and it was not till 1263 that an arrangement was made by which Thuringia and the Saxon palatinate fell to Henry. Two years later Henry apportioned Thuringia to his son Albert the Degenerate, who sold it in 1293 to the German king Adolph of Nassau for 12,000 marks of silver. Albert's sons Frederick the Undaunted and Dietrich contested this transaction, and the attempts of Adolph and his successor Albert I. to enforce it led to the infliction of great hardships upon the Thuringians. Frederick defeated Albert decisively and in 1314 was formally invested with Thuringia by the emperor Henry VII. His son Frederick II. the Grave (1323–1349) consolidated the power of his dynasty against rebellious vassals and the neighbouring counts of Weimar and Schwarzburg. His son Frederick III. the Strong (1340–1381) and his grandson Balthasar (1381–1406) further extended their dominion by marriage and conquest, and the latter of these founded the university at Erfurt (1392). Balthasar's son, Frederick the Peaceful, became landgrave in 1406 but left the government largely to his father-in-law Günther, count of Schwarzburg. He died childless in 1440, and Thuringia then passed to the electoral dynasty of Saxony. After a joint rule by Frederick II. and his brother William, the latter in 1445 became sole landgrave as William III. and died without sons in 1482. In 1485 his nephews and heirs Albert and Ernest made a division of their lands, and Thuringia was given to the Ernestine branch of the family of Wet tin, with which its subsequent history is identified (see Saxony).

THURINGIAN FOREST (Thüringerwald), a range of hills in Germany, extending in an irregular line from the neighbourhood of Eisenach in the N.W. to the Lobensteiner Kulm on the Bavarian frontier on the S.E. On the S.E. it is continued directly by the Frankenwald Mountains to the Fichtelgebirge, while on the N.E. it approaches the Harz Mountains, and thus takes its place in the great Sudetic chain of central Germany. The length of the Thuringian chain is 70 m., and its breadth varies from 6 to 22 m. It nowhere rises into peaks, and only a few of its rounded summits reach 3000 ft.; the successive hills form a continuous comb; the north-west slopes are precipitous and seamed with winding gorges. This range encloses many charming valleys and glens; the most prominent feature of its scenery is formed by the forests, chiefly of pines and firs. The north-west part of the system is the loftier and the more densely wooded as well as the more beautiful; the highest summits here are the Grosser Beerberg (3225 ft.), Schneekopf (3203) and the Finsterberg (3104), all in the duchy of Gotha. The south-east part of the Thuringian Forest is the more populous and industrial; the chief summits are the Kieferle (2848 ft.), the Blessberg (2834 ft.), the Wurzelberg (2841 ft.) and the Wetzstein (2575 ft.). The crest of the Thuringian Forest, from the Werra to the Saale, is traversed by the Rennsteig or Rainsteig, a broad path of unknown antiquity, perhaps referred to in a letter of Pope Gregory III. dated 738. The name means probably "frontier-path"; and the path marks in fact the boundary between Thuringia and Franconia. It may be also regarded as part of the boundary line between north and south Germany, for dialect, customs, local names and costume are different on the two sides. The rocks are largely volcanic, the stratification being complex. The mineral resources have been nearly exhausted, but the district is an important centre of small industries (glassware, earthenware, meerschaum-ware, iron castings and toys being among its principal products) and a favourite resort for tourists.

THURLES, a market town of Co. Tipperary, Ireland, pleasantly situated on the Suir, and on the main line of the Great Southern & Western railway, 87 m. S.W. of Dublin. Pop. (1901), 4411. Thurles is the seat of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Cashel; and the cathedral of St Patrick is a beautiful building. The town is the seat of other important Catholic establishments, including an Ursuline convent; a Presentation convent; St Patrick's Catholic College (1829) for ecclesiastical students, where was held in 1850 the synod of Thurles; and an establishment of Christian Brothers, who devote themselves to the instruction of boys on the Lancasterian method. The town has a considerable agricultural and retail trade, and there is a monthly horse fair -largely attended by English and continental buyers. Thurles is governed by an urban district council.

Originally the town was called Durlas O'Fogarty. In the 10th century it was the scene of a defeat of the Irish by the Danes. A preceptory was founded here by the Knights Templars, who possessed themselves of a castle, of which there are remains, erected early in the 13th century. A castle was subsequently erected by James Butler, first lord palatine of Tipperary, of which the keep collapsed in 1868. There were several other strongholds in the vicinity. South-west of the town, at a distance of 35 m., stands the Cistercian abbey of Holy Cross, one of the finest ruins in Ireland. It was founded by Donnell O'Brien, king of Thomond (1168–1194); and owes its foundation and name to the presentation to his family of a portion of the true Cross, which attracted numerous pilgrims. The shrine of this relic is in the Ursuline convent at Blackrock, Co. Cork. The ruins, beautifully placed on the bank of the river, embody a cruciform church, transitional Norman in style, and exhibiting the carving of the period in its highest development. There is a fine Perpendicular tomb in the choir. A large portion remains of the adjoining buildings, including chapter-house, sacristy, cloisters and dormitory.

THURLOE, JOHN (1616–1668), English politician, son of Thomas Thurloe, rector of Abbot's Roding in Essex, was baptized on the 12th of June 1616. He studied law, entered the service