Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/636

GEO made strenuous efforts to recover its independence, but was ultimately compelled to give up the struggle. He died in 1407, and was succeeded by his brother Constantine I.—Several of the later sovereigns of Georgia bore the same name; but it may be sufficient to notice the last of these, with whom not only the dynasty but the independence of the country ended. XIII. ascended the throne in 1798. His father Heraclius II., harassed by the encroachments of Persia, had thrown himself in 1783 under the protectorate of Russia, from which, however, he had derived only a feeble and ineffectual succour, when his territories were overrun by a powerful Persian army in 1795. George, having to cope not only with that evil, but with the inroads of the fierce Lesghian mountaineers, entreated the assistance of the Czar Paul I.; and after his death in 1800, his dominions were incorporated with the Russian empire.—W. B.  * V., ex-King of Hanover, son of King Ernest Augustus of Hanover, the fifth son of King George III. of Great Britain, was born at London, May 27, 1819, three days after the birth of Queen Victoria. The early education of the prince was taken in hand by his mother. Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, a highly accomplished lady, possessing many of the characteristics of her sister, the celebrated Queen Louisè of Prussia, consort of Frederick William III. When, at the death of King William IV. in 1837, the government of the kingdom of Hanover passed to the duke of Cumberland, the prince accompanied his father to Germany. Unfortunately, soon after his arrival, a disease of the organs of the eye, under which the prince had been previously suffering, became much aggravated, and although the famous Dieffenbach employed all his skill to counteract it, and even performed an operation for the purpose in 1840, the prince became almost completely blind. A patent of July 3, 1841, ordered that the prince should be assisted in all political affairs by two responsible ministers, specially attached to his person; and it was on this condition that he accepted the regency of the country during the lengthened absence of his father in England in 1843. George ascended the throne at the death of his father, November 18, 1851. His government was unpopular, on account of the undue influence exercised over his acts by the ultra-conservative party. Personally, however, he was not disliked. On the reconstruction of Germany in 1866, after the Seven Days' War, Hanover became incorporated with Prussia, and George V. was deprived of his crown. He married, February 18, 1843, Princess Maria of Saxe-Altenburg, by whom he has three children, the eldest of whom. Prince Ernest, was born September 21, 1845.—F. M.   I., Grand-duke of Russia, surnamed (Longhand), son of Grand-duke Wladimir Wsewolodowitsch, and distinguished as founder of the city of Moscow. He was born about 1100, and at the death of his father, in 1125, obtained a portion of the ducal estates, which were divided between him and his three elder brothers. This partition gave rise to manifold disputes, and after a while to sanguinary wars. It was during one of his campaigns that George founded the southern metropolis of the Russian empire. The story goes that the prince, riding along the banks of the river Moskva, was struck with the beauty of the country, as well as with that of a lady whom he saw promenading in the gardens of a country house. He entered upon the scene of the fair one's meditations, accosted her in terms of adoration, and hearing that she was married, summarily gave orders for the murder of her husband. In spite of this tragical proceeding, the bereaved lady held out firmly against the solicitations of the grand-duke, who on his part was so little inclined to accept denial that, in order permanently to prosecute his suit, he built houses for himself and his attendants, which in process of time became the centre of a thriving town. Such is the ordinary tradition respecting the foundation of Moscow, which if not supported is at least not contradicted by historical data. Having led a wild and adventurous life, in the course of which he was incessantly engaged in war with neighbouring princes, George died in 1156, when he was on the point of heading an invasion against the important city of Novogorod.—F. M.   II., Grand-duke of Russia, born about 1190. He ascended the throne in 1212, but after a reign of five years had to cede it to his brother Constantine, at whose death he again became sovereign. At the great invasion of Russia by the Tartars, under Genghis Khan, George put himself at the head of the Muscovite princes, and for a while successfully resisted the advance of the eastern hordes. But in consequence of disunion among his allies, George was ultimately obliged to succumb, and had to witness the storming of his capital, and the assassination of his wife and children. Grasping his sword in wild despair, the grand-duke now advanced against the enemy at the head of a small force, but, overwhelmed by numbers, was killed in the battle on the Sila against Balu Khan in 1238.—F. M.  , surnamed, Duke of Saxony from 1500 to 1539, was born in 1471, a younger son of Duke Albert the Bold. Originally destined for the church, he was made abbot of the monastery of Meissen at an early age, but after a while had to leave this charge to undertake the government of the country during the absence of his father and brother, both of them engaged in an expedition against Friesland. In 1496 he married Barbara, daughter of King Casimir of Poland; and four years after, at the death of Duke Albert, entered on the government of Saxony; his elder brother, Henry, contenting himself with the possession of the newly-acquired Friesland. At the beginning of the Reformation, George showed himself a warm friend of Luther; but soon after went over to the opposite party, under the impression that the new movement was directed against the princes no less than the pope. He even prohibited, under severe penalties, the circulation of Luther's translation of the Bible within his dominions, in order, as he expressed it, to prevent the growth of the "great spiritual revolution." This brought much misery to the duke; and losing, in the course of these struggles, his beloved wife and eight children within a very short time, he imagined it to be a punishment from heaven, and sank into profound melancholy. He clothed himself in the coarsest linen, refused all luxuries, and let his beard grow down to his waist. It was this last-named circumstance which procured him the appellation of "Der Bärtige." He died in 1539, and was succeeded by his brother Henry.—F. M.  ., styled the Great Martyr and the Trophy-bearer by the Greeks, patron saint of England, and in an especial manner of the order of the gaiter, as also in ancient times of the kingdoms of Valencia and Arragon, the island of Malta, the city of Genoa, and the county of Barcelona, is said in his most ancient Acts to have suffered martyrdom under Diocletian. Unfortunately the oldest genuine Acts are not of an earlier date than the end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, and even in these, in the opinion of Alban Butler, some portion of the falsehood and absurdity with which his history was so early overlaid, is inextricably interwoven. According to Metaphrastes, a Byzantine writer of the tenth century, St. George was born in Cappadocia of noble christian parents. After his father's death, he accompanied his mother to Palestine, of which she was a native, and where she possessed an estate. He became a soldier, and rose to posts of trust and eminence under Diocletian. But when the persecution against the christians was commenced, he threw up his public employments, and did not conceal his disapprobation of the conduct of the emperor. He was then cast into prison, and, after being cruelly tortured, was beheaded at Nicomedia about the year 304. From very early times he was a popular saint among the Greeks, and owing to the circumstance of a church—built over his relics, or a portion of them, which had been transferred to Joppa in Palestine—becoming a favourite resort of pilgrims, the devotion came to be propagated all over the West; and our martial ancestors, to whom his having been of the military profession was an especial recommendation, chose him for the patron saint of the kingdom of England. The council of Oxford, in 1222, commanded his feast to be kept as a holiday of the lesser rank. In modern times it has become customary to confound this saint with a certain George of Cappadocia, or rather of Cilicia, intruded by the Arians into the see of Alexandria during the exile of Athanasius, and murdered by the pagan populace in a street riot, in revenge for his insolence and fiscal exactions, in the year 361. Jurieu first started the hypothesis of this transformation, which was adopted by Echard, paraded by Gibbon, in all the pomp of his gorgeous style, as almost indubitable, and is now constantly assumed by the compilers of dictionaries as a settled fact. Yet the Englishman who has investigated the subject most deeply. Dr. Heylin (in his Life of St. George), was of a contrary opinion; nor would it be difficult to show, did our limits permit, that upon no sound principle of criticism can the two Georges be identified. The grounds of this assertion shall be briefly indicated:—1. How could any devotion to George, the Arian, have possibly arisen? He was execrated by the catholics of Alexandria, and apparently disliked even 