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ESP often to bear the expense of the favours which were heaped upon the constable. By his marriage with the daughter of Charles de Blois, the constable came into possession of the town of L'Aigle, and having inadvertently taken up his residence at that place in 1354, he was set upon in the night by a band of assassins hired by Navarre, who murdered him in bed. His death was signally avenged by the king.—J. S., G.  ESPAGNE,, a French protestant theologian, born in Dauphiné in 1591; died in London in 1659. After officiating for some time as a protestant pastor in Holland, he came over to England and became minister of the French church in London. He left numerous works, which had great success in their day, both in England and in Germany, but are now forgotten, with the exception of "Popular Errors in the Knowledge of Religion," 1639.—J. S., G.  ESPAGNE,, or DE LA CERDA, grandson of Ferdinand de la Cerda (see that name). His father Alfonso, after Sancho's usurpation of the throne of Castille, took up his abode in France, where Louis and his brother Charles (see preceding article) were born about the commencement of the fourteenth century. Louis became admiral of France in 1341. He took part in the war of the succession in Brittany, on the side of Charles de Blois; but after reducing a few strongholds and pillaging a few towns he was completely routed at Quimperlé by Gauthier de Mauny, only two hundred of his army of seven thousand men escaping with their lives. In 1344 Louis d'Espagne was proclaimed king of the Canaries by Clement VI., who only stipulated for the conversion of the inhabitants; but the fleet that was to convey the new sovereign to his dominions, although handsomely offered by the dauphin of the Viennois, never was equipped. There is no further trace of Louis in history.—J. S., G.  ESPAGNET,. President of the parliament of Bourdeaux, a man of great talents and learning, who had the boldness to publish, in 1623, a work entitled "Enchyridion physicæ restitutæ," in which he asserted a pre-Aristotelian system of physics, and was the first of his countrymen who gave battle to the followers of the Stagyrite. It was published anonymously, but the two devices which it contained were anagrams of his name, and upon other grounds the authorship of it was charged upon him by his friends. Subjoined to this remarkable work, which has been several times reprinted, is a treatise entitled "Arcanum Hermeticæ philosophiæ opus."—J. S., G.  ESPAÑA. See.  ESPAÑA,, Count of, was born in France in 1775, and died in 1839. He entered the Spanish service in 1806, and took a brilliant part in the war of independence. He assisted Beresford at the siege of Badajos, and fought at Albuera and Salamanca. His services brought him many honours, besides the post of captain-general of Arragon. On the death of Ferdinand VII. he espoused the cause of Don Carlos, and after many adventures, was, through the jealousy of the insurgent junta, assassinated by the escort which should have conducted him across the French frontier.—R. M., A.  * ESPARTERO,, Duque de la Victoria, Conde de Lucana, and ex-regent of Spain, was born February 27, 1793, in the old Spanish province of La Mancha (now Ciudad Real). He was the youngest of nine children of an honest coach-builder, and being of delicate constitution, was destined for the priesthood. His elder brother, who was curé of a neighbouring parish, assisted in his education, and he studied from 1806 till 1808 at the university of Almagro. In the latter year at the first rumour of a French invasion, young Baldomero volunteered into the infantry regiment of his native province, and in the following year joined the "Sacred Battalion," consisting chiefly of students in the university of Toledo. After some short experience of actual service, Espartero (through the interest of a noble family to whom his brother was chaplain) entered the military school then established at the Isla de Leon, near Cadiz. In 1814 he left this establishment, with the rank of sub-lieutenant, and in February, 1815, volunteered into the expedition under General Murillo, against the insurgents in South America headed by Bolivar. Engaged in seventeen successful battles, and three times wounded, Espartero rapidly rose through the various grades of his profession, becoming brigadier in 1822. In 1824 he was sent on a special mission to Spain, and thus escaped taking a part in the capitulation of Ayacucho, which established the independence of the American colonies of Spain. Espartero on his return to America found that his old companions had left, and was thrown into prison by Bolivar, but escaped on board a French vessel, and reached Spain in 1825, his health impaired by the severity of his imprisonment. During this the last stage of his military career, Espartero had been thrown into close contact with several men whom he was destined to meet in subsequent years—Narvaez, Maroto, Lascerna, and others, who were known by the soubriquet of Ayacuchos, from the scene of the disastrous close of their campaign. Soon after his return, being in quarters with his regiment at Logroño, Espartero gained the heart of the daughter of a rich landowner, Doña Jacinta Sicilia de Santa Cruz, to whom he was married in 1827. He was stationed for a short time in the island of Majorca; but in 1833, on the breaking out of the civil war in the Basque provinces after the death of Ferdinand VII., he obtained permission to lead his regiment into the north, in defence of the throne of the young queen against the pretensions of Don Carlos. In September, 1835, he became commander-in-chief of the army of the north; in 1836 he co-operated with Sir De Lacy Evans in the relief of Bilbao; and in 1837 he repulsed the army of Don Carlos, which was advancing on Madrid, and drove it back over the Ebro. On 31st August, 1839, he signed with Don Raphael Maroto, lieutenant-general of the army of Don Carlos (an old Ayacucho), the convention of Vergara, which virtually terminated the Carlist war, and was followed by the retirement of the pretender to France. The political life of Espartero may be said to date from a period somewhat earlier than this. When in command of the army at Madrid in 1837, he was a member of the "constituent cortes," and by refusing to suppress a political manifesto from some of his officers, caused the downfall of the Calatrava ministry. He refused to take part in the ministry which succeeded, although the portfolio of war was held by his intimate friend, General Alaix. In 1839 his services were urgently needed to tread out the last embers of the Carlist insurrection under Cabrera, and at this moment his secretary and friend, Sinage, was allowed to publish a letter disapproving of the conduct of the Narvaez ministry in dissolving the cortes. The ministry resenting this attack, Espartero retaliated by demanding a general's commission for Sinage. The military exigencies of the moment were too strong; Sinage obtained his promotion and the cabinet was broken up. The remaining ministers, thinking to strike a blow at the party of which Espartero was the virtual chief, proposed to abrogate the old liberties of the ayuntamientos, or municipal corporations, and the Queen-regent Christina signed the decree. Espartero returned in triumph from, his victories over Cabrera, just as the popular excitement against her was at its height; and finally, no course remained open to her but to send for the victorious general to Valencia, and intrust to him the formation of a ministry with absolute powers. This step was immediately followed on 10th October, 1840, by the queen's abdication and retirement to France, and on the 8th May, 1841, the assembled cortes committed to Espartero the regency of the kingdom during the minority of the queen, which was to expire on the 10th November, 1844. Espartero's first administration was, perhaps, unfortunate rather than faulty. He had to struggle not only against the ambition of military and political rivals, but against that wide-spread ignorance and lawlessness which are the necessary fruits of despotism. Thrice, during his short reign, was he compelled to quench in blood insurrections in Barcelona; and before he was finally established in his post, he had to contend against the insurrection at Pampeluna, headed by O'Donnell, and other military outbreaks. In the commencement of 1843, the progresista (or radical) party combined with the partisans of the ex-queen to force on the government an amnesty in favour of some of the latter body. It was, however, the commercial policy which Espartero attempted to introduce, which was the immediate cause of his downfall, and especially a convention which he was reported to have signed with England. Catalonia, Andalusia, Arragon, and other provinces, rose in revolt; insurrection again broke out at Barcelona; a provincial government composed of Lopez, Caballero, and Serruno, declared Espartero a traitor and deprived of all his dignities. Narvaez entered Madrid on the 22nd July, and the regent, deserted by his troops, embarked at Cadiz for England on the 30th of the same month. In this country he was received with the respect due to his achievements and his misfortunes. In 1847 the decrees depriving him of his titles and honours having been repealed, he returned to Spain; 