Page:Imperialdictiona03eadi Brandeis Vol3a.pdf/590

NOB Henry II. he was sent as ambassador to England, and concluded the five years' truce of Vaucelles in 1556. As admiral of Guienne and governor of Bordeaux he fought and conquered the Huguenots, and died at Bordeaux in 1562.—, his brother, was born in 1519, became an ecclesiastic and bishop of Dax, or d'Acqs, and was one of the most skilful diplomatists of his time. He was ambassador for France in Venice, England, Rome, and Constantinople, and was much consulted by his sovereigns Henry III. and Queen Catherine. He died at Bayonne on his way to the waters of the Pyrenees in 1585. His negotiations, collected by Vertot, were published in 1763, 3 vols. 12mo. In the seventeenth century again two brothers of the family signalized themselves. Their father, Anne, was great-grandson of Antoine abovenamed.— was born in 1650, carefully educated, and early placed in important stations of command. Having served through the Dutch wars of 1672, he was appointed governor of Roussillon and of Languedoc in 1682. Surrounded by protestants, he was ordered to keep down the tumults excited by the forced conversions which were attempted just previous to the revocation of the edict of Nantes, 1685. For seven years he held this difficult post. In 1689 he was appointed to command a military expedition into Catalonia, and gained a marshal's baton in 1693. Returning to court in 1695, he continued to enjoy the royal favour notwithstanding his brother's disgrace, and died the 2d October, 1708.—, Cardinal and Archbishop of Paris, brother of the preceding, was born in 1651. He was admitted doctor of theology in 1676, and rapidly advanced to the highest honours of the church. After his accession to the archiepiscopal throne of Paris in 1695, there broke out the controversy touching Madame Guyon and the Quietists, in which Bossuet and Fenelon took opposite sides. Though a friend and fellow-collegian of Fenelon's, the archbishop submitted to the ascendancy of the imperious Bossuet, and wrote against Quietism. His indecision raised other controversies and feuds in the Gallican church; for taking a violent dislike to the Jesuits, he opposed both them and their opponents, and offended both the pope and the king, yet held tenaciously to his high post, and died little regretted in his diocese, on the 4th May, 1729.—, the son of Anne Jules, who was born in 1678, greatly increased the influence and importance of his family by marrying the niece and sole heiress of Madame de Maintenon. Endowed with considerable talents and placed in the foremost rank of his countrymen, he was concerned, in the course of an unusually long life, in many of the most important transactions of the century. Unfortunately for his reputation, he chose rather to be a mediocre general than a great minister, which he might have been. During the war of the Spanish succession, he was employed both as a military commander and a diplomatist. Under the regency he was president of the council of finance, and he served Louis XV. as a general and negotiator in Germany, Italy, and Spain. He died on the 24th June, 1766.—His eldest son,, was celebrated for his bon mots.—His second son,, better known as Marshal Mouchy, ran a brilliant career in Spain, of which he became a grandee.—, second son of Marshal Mouchy, was born in 1756, and cast himself into the extreme liberal party at the breaking out of the Revolution. In 1792, however, he withdrew to England, and thence to the United States. In 1803 he returned to France, and received a command in St. Domingo. While sailing for Havannah he took an English corvette, but received in the engagement a wound of which he died the 9th January, 1804. He was closely connected by opinions and by marriage with Lafayette.—R. H.  NOBILI, ), born at Lucca in 1532; died there in 1590. He published in 1851 a treatise on predestination. In 1588 there appeared at Rome a restoration, executed by Nobili for Pope Sixtus V., of the ancient vulgar translation from the Septuagint. The work was reprinted by Father Morin at Paris in 1628, together with an edition of the Septuagint.  NOBLE,, an antiquarian and historical writer, was rector of Barming in Kent, to which living he was presented by the king in 1784. His first publication was "Two Dissertations on the Mint and Coins of Durham," 4to, 1780; which was followed by a "Genealogical history of the Royal Families of Europe," 1781. His "Memoirs of the Protectorate House of Cromwell," 2 vols. 8vo, published in 1784, attracted more attention than his previous works, but rather on account of the inaccuracies and want of method discovered in the work than from any merit. Mr. Gough in his Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica exposes Mr. Noble's errors. A second edition of the work was published in 1787, which, however, did not escape Mr. Gough's further criticism, and brought forth a severe pamphlet from Mr. Richards of Lynn. Mr. Noble persevered none the less in publishing works on genealogy—the Stewarts and the Medici family were the subjects he next gave to the world. In 1805 appeared his "History of the College of Arms," and in the following year his "Continuation of Granger's Biographical History of England." He was a frequent contributor to the Archæologia. He died on the 26th of May, 1827.—R. H.  NODAL, and, two Spanish navigators, brothers, were born at Ponte Vedra in Galicia. The discovery of Le Maire strait in 1616 alarmed the Spanish government so much, that effectually to prevent the Dutch from making use of it, they resolved to construct forts on both sides of it. Two ships were therefore despatched to examine the ground, the command of which was given to the brothers Nodal. The expedition set sail from Lisbon in September, 1618. In January, 1619, Garcia de Nodal discovered an island which he called Los Reyes (since named Penguin's Island), and a fortnight after arrived at Le Maire strait, which he called San Vicente. On the 10th February he discovered a group of rocky islands, 50° 40´ south-west of Cape Horn, to which he gave the name of Diego Ramirez. "This," says Burney, "was the most southerly point of land marked on the map for a century and a half." These enterprising navigators returned to Europe in July, 1619, without the loss of a single man, and published an account of their voyage in 1621.  NODIER,, was born at Besançon on the 29th April, 1783. He was the son of an advocate who had become president of the revolutionary tribunal at Besançon. Ingenious, imaginative, sympathetic, capricious, Charles Nodier obeyed through life no law except his own waywardness. From the first an irregular student, Nodier was to the last an irregular writer, and belongs to those authors who are either overestimated or underestimated, whom it is difficult to judge fairly. He will be known chiefly to posterity, if known at all, as the writer of some charming tales. From Nodier's autobiographical memoirs little is to be gathered respecting his career, for they are said to be half a romance and half a clever mystification. In his early days Nodier turned his attention to natural history; then linguistic studies attracted him. When not much more than twenty he published a poem, fiercely attacking Napoleon. For this indiscretion he was punished by a short imprisonment. He was no sooner free than he began to conspire, both with royalists and republicans, against the government. To escape a second imprisonment he fled. Wandering about the mountains and woods on the frontiers of Switzerland and France, he was at last, it is said, driven by distress to accept the situation of postman in a little village. Pardon having been procured for him, he returned to Franche-Comté. He was appointed librarian at Dôle, where his marriage to an excellent woman took place. His labours as a grammarian and lexicographer drew the notice of Sir Herbert Croft, who invited him to Amiens to be his secretary. While at Amiens Nodier corrected, that is, rewrote the romances, which Lady Mary Hamilton had the vanity to publish in French. The Illyrian provinces had been ceded by Austria to France; Nodier went to Laybach to accept sundry sinecures from the hands of those Napoleonists whom he had so often assailed, and to undertake, in their pay, the editorship of the Illyrian Telegraph. On the downfall of the French empire and the loss of the Illyrian provinces, Nodier established himself in Paris, where his existence for some time was sufficiently precarious, and where, with admirable taste, gratitude, and consistency, he sneered at Bonaparte. Nodier's sycophancy toward the Bourbons was not of much use to him. In 1825, however, he was chosen librarian of the Arsenal. Not long before he had paid a short visit to the United Kingdom, and on his return published a "Promenade from Dieppe to the Mountains of Scotland." The French Academy in 1834 elected him one of its members. On the 27th January, 1844, Charles Nodier died, regretted by many, though rather for the warmth of his heart than the elevation of his character. A statue in his honour has been raised in his native city. Charles Nodier had genuine humour, a fertile fancy, a facile and delightful pen. His conversation was of the most brilliant kind. He was the friend and favourite of youth, and as such had much influence on that literary 