Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/566

BER BERMUDEZ, J. A., was born in 1749, in the Asturias, and educated in the jesuits' college. Befriended by the statesman, Jovellanos, he followed him to Seville, Murillo's city, and there studied art. He then went to Madrid, and worked under Mengs. His patron obtained for him a situation in a bank, and in 1790 he was employed by government in arranging papers in the office of Indian affairs at Seville. In 1797 Jovellanos made him secretary of the Indian department, but on that statesman's exile he returned to Seville, to prepare his "Dictionary of the Fine Arts," which came out in 1800. In 1808, when Ferdinand VII. ascended the throne, Bermudez was restored to office. He died of apoplexy in 1829. His works are—his "Dictionary;" "A Summary of the Roman Antiquities in Spain;" a "Life of Jovellanos," &c. The learned Sterling gives his Dictionary great praise; its chief faults are his undue admiration for his contemporaries of the academy of St. Ferdinand.—W. T.  BERMUDEZ,, a native of Gallicia, supposed to have been born in 1530. He belonged to the order of St. Augustine, and was very remarkable for his knowledge of sacred and profane literature. He wrote a Latin poem, "Hesperoida," in praise of the duke of Alva, and translated it into Spanish. He wrote, also, two dramas in five acts, which he boldly calls "the first Spanish tragedies," both on the same subject—Inez de Castro. Ticknor observes, that these two dramas contain many passages of no little poetical beauty. He died towards the end of the sixteenth century.—A. C. M.  BERMUDEZ, (called by Alvarez ), accompanied the first Portuguese embassy to Abyssinia as physician in 1520, and subsequently became patriarch of Ethiopia. He returned to Portugal in 1565, and published an account of his residence in Abyssinia, now exceedingly rare.—W. B.  BERN,, a learned German, lived at Wandsbeck, near Hamburg, in the first part of the eighteenth century; author of a work entitled "The Age of Atheists, Heathens, and Christians," and other works of a similar character.  BERNABEI,, a musician, was born at Caprarola about 1620; died at Munich in 1690. He was a pupil of Benevoli, and followed his example and the practice of his age in writing for a combination of several choirs of four voices each. He held the office of maestro di capella in the church of St. Giovanni di Lateran from 1662 till 1667, when he received the same appointment in that of St. Luigi di Francesi; and on the death of his instructor in 1672, succeeded him in the pontifical chapel. He filled this last post but for one year, when he was engaged by Ferdinand Maria, elector of Bavaria, to take the direction of his chapel on the death of Johann Caspar Kerl, and he remained at Munich till his death. Here, besides much ecclesiastical music, he wrote two Italian operas. He published a set of madrigals, and a collection of his motets was issued the year after he died. His most distinguished pupils were his eldest son and Steffani.—G. A. M.  BERNABEI,, a musician, the son of the above, was born at Rome in 1643, and died at Munich in 1732, according to some authorities, who remark upon his reaching the advanced age of eighty-nine; but others, who give the same date of his death, state him to have been born in 1659. In 1690 he succeeded his father, whose pupil he was, in the office of kapell meister to the elector at Munich. He had also the distinction of Hofrath, which indicates his general attainments, and the consideration in which he must have been held. He wrote prior to this five Italian operas, and in 1698 published a large collection of sacred music, under the title of "Orpheus Ecclesiasticus." Martini and Paolucci each prints a specimen of his composition. His younger brother,, born in 1666, was also a composer, but of less distinction.—G. A. M.  BERNABEI,, born at Parma, died in 1666, a disciple of Paremegiano, but an imitator of Corregio, his master's great model. He filled half the churches of flat Lombardy with grand frescos. One of his finest pictures is a "Beatification."—W. T.  BERNADOTTE, XIV. of Sweden, the son of a lawyer, was born at Pau, 26th January, 1764. He was educated at home till seventeen, when he entered the army as a volunteer, and was sent to Corsica, where he served two years as a grenadier. On account of his health he obtained his discharge, and returned home; but very soon afterwards, in spite of the entreaties of his family, again enlisted into the French service as a private soldier. On the outbreak of the Revolution he was sergeant-major, and had the good fortune to save his colonel, the Marquis d'Ambert, from an infuriated populace. Bernadotte soon showing himself an able soldier, rose rapidly from rank to rank. He fought as a colonel and chief of brigade under General Cusine, and distinguished himself greatly at Speirs and Maintz. In 1794 he was made chief of brigade, and shortly afterwards general of division. In 1795 he essentially aided the French in their passage of the Rhine at Neuvied, and in 1796 fought under Jourdan's command. The advantage which he obtained on the Lahn, the blockade of Maintz, the battle of Neuhoff, the passage of the Rednitz, the taking of Altdorf, the conquest of Neumark, and the advantages he obtained over Kray, from whom he took his military stores on the Main, established his reputation as a general. After this he was ordered by the Directory to march with reinforcements to the army in Italy, and was commissioned by Buonaparte to lay siege to the fortress of Gradisca, on which occasion he exhibited the utmost coolness and intrepidity. Shortly before the 18th Fructidor, he was chosen by Buonaparte to convey the ensigns taken at the battle of Rivoli to the Directory, and was mentioned in the accompanying letter "as one of the stanchest friends of the republic—as one whose principles would as little allow him to capitulate with the enemies of freedom as with honour itself." About the same time, Bernadotte being asked by some of his friends his opinion of Buonaparte, replied—"I have seen a young man of six or seven and twenty, who assumes the tone of a man of fifty, and this in my opinion bodes no good for the republic." Although he was in Paris on the 18th Fructidor, yet he took no part in the occurrences of the day, and returned to Italy. When Buonaparte, after signing the treaty of Campoformio, returned to Paris, he withdrew half the forces from the command of Bernadotte, which he had brought with him from the Rhine, because he distrusted him. On this Bernadotte, seriously offended, demanded from the Directory either that another command should be given him, or that his resignation should be accepted; and the Directory sent him as ambassador to Vienna. But in consequence of the display of the tri-coloured flag over the entrance to his hotel, and which had been done by order of the Directory contrary to his own wishes, a tumult ensued, and Bernadotte leaving Vienna went to Rastadt, and forward to Paris.

On the 16th of August, 1798, Bernadotte married Eugenie Bernhadine Désirée, born 8th of November, 1781, the daughter of a merchant named Clary, of Marseilles, and sister to the wife of Joseph Buonaparte. In the campaign of 1799 he served under Jourdan, and was ordered as commander-in-chief of the army of observation to cross the Rhine and invest Philipsburg. But when the demands of the Archduke Charles, Jourdan's retreat across the Rhine, the dissolution of the congress of Rastadt, and the advance of the allied forces in Italy, called for extraordinary measures, Bernadotte was appointed minister of war. His energy and popularity were needed at this time, when the French army was dejected by reverses, and the enthusiasm of war had cooled throughout the nation. For three months he laboured assiduously to re-establish confidence and discipline, and was beginning to see the first fruits of his labours, when finding himself overreached by the intrigues of the Abbe Sieyes, he threw up his appointment. Bernadotte had retired to his country residence, when the 18th Brumaire made another change in his circumstances. He was, through Buonaparte, appointed minister of state, in which capacity he opposed the establishment of the order of the legion of honour. The uncompromising spirit evinced by the new minister of state, again made Buonaparte desirous of removing him, and accordingly he proposed to place him at the head of the expedition to St. Domingo. The breach between the two was thus growing wider and wider, when Bernadotte's brother-in-law, Joseph Buonaparte, effected a kind of political reconciliation between them. In 1800, Buonaparte, then first consul, gave him the command of the army of the west, that he might pacify La Vendee and other disturbed districts. At the peace of Luneville he was nominated plenipotentiary to the United States; but the renewed outbreak of war rendering it desirable to keep so able a soldier at home, he was sent, in 1804, as stadtholder to Hanover, where he made himself greatly beloved by his prudence and clemency. The same year, Buonaparte having assumed the imperial dignity, Bernadotte was made marshal, and soon after received the decoration of the legion <section end="566Zcontin" />