Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/443

 BEATON BEAUCE 423 1494, assassinated at St. Andrews, May 28, ; 1546. He was educated at St. Andrews and at Paris, and received from his uncle, James Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrews, the rec- tory of Campsie and the abbacy of Arhroath. He was ambassador to France 1519-'25, be- came a favorite of James V., and was appoint- ed lord privy seal in 1528. In 1533 he was sent to France to conclude a treaty of marriage between James and Magdalene, daughter of Francis I., and again after her death in 1537 to bring over Mary of Guise. Francis I. made him bishop of Mirepoix, and the following year procured for him from Pope Paul III. the rank of cardinal. In 1539 he succeeded his uncle ; in the primacy of Scotland as archbishop of i St. Andrews. He at once began a vigorous persecution of the reformers in Scotland, com- pelled many suspected persons to recant, and two men, Norman Gourlay and David Straiton, were burned near Edinburgh. Soon afterward Beaton was appointed by the pope legate A la- tere. After the sudden death of King James (Dec. 13, 1542), leaving as his successor the infant Mary, five days old, Cardinal Beaton conceived the idea of seizing the government, and with the aid of a priest, Henry Balfour, | is said to have forged a will for the king, nomi- nating himself regent with three of the nobility as his assistants. This will was proclaimed at the cross of Edinburgh a few days after the death of the king, and the cardinal took pos- session of the regency. But the earl of Arran, who had prospective claims to the succession, called an assembly of noblemen, who set aside Beaton and put Arran in his place. The car- dinal, however, had the support of the queen dowager and of powerful friends ; and after a brief imprisonment he was released and made lord high chancellor (December, 1543), and soon succeeded in making the weak Arran his tool. The English invasion which soon followed was successfully opposed, and during the succeed- ing peace the regent, by the advice of Beaton, endeavored to strengthen the Scottish connec- tion with France. Fully established in the civil as well as ecclesiastical administration of affairs, the cardinal renewed his persecution of reformers, hanging, drowning, and burning several of them. In 1546 he burnt George Vishart, the most eminent preacher among the reformers, and sent to the stake several of his followers. His enemies, seeing no other hope of relief from these persecutions, re- solved upon his death. Early in the morning of May 28, 1546, several conspirators entered the cardinal's bedchamber in the castle of St. Andrews. The assassins were Norman Leslie, Peter Carmichael, and James Melville, who charged him with his wicked life, and especially liis murder of George Wishart, and struck him down with daggers and a stag sword. As he fell, he cried out, " Fie, fie ! I am a priest ; all's gone." Cardinal Beaton lived luxurious- ly, and was scandalously licentious. He is said to have written an account of his embassies, and other works. He was eminently success- ful in diplomacy. BEATRICE PORTINARI, the object of the poet- ical devotion of Dante, born about 1266, died in 1290. She was the daughter of Falco Porti- nari, a noble Florentine, and is represented as possessing remarkable graces of person and of mind. The poet first met her at a social party when she was but nine years of age, and was at once so affected that he became almost speechless. The story of his love is recounted in the Vita Nuova, which was mostly written after her death. Dante saw little of Beatrice during her lifetime, but she grew in his mind and imagination to be the embodiment of divine truth, and in this character she appears in the Divina Commedia. She was married before 1287 to Simone del Bardi, a citizen of Florence. BEATTIE, James, a Scottish poet, born in Kincardineshire, Oct. 25, 1735, died in Aber- deen, Aug. 18, 1803. He obtained a scholar- ship at Marischal college, Aberdeen, and in 1758 became one of the masters in the Aber- deen grammar school, and married the daughter of the head master. In 1760 he was appointed professor of moral philosophy in Marischal col- lege. In 1765 he published a poem, " The Judg- ment of Paris," which gained no celebrity. The work which won him the greatest fame was an "Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth," designed as a reply to Hume, which was translated into several languages, and pro- cured for its author the degree of LL. D. from the university of Oxford, and a private confer- ence with George III., who granted him a pension of 200. While in London he became intimate with Dr. Johnson, Dr. Porteus, and other distinguished literary characters. His famous poem " The Minstrel " appeared in parts from 1771 to 1774. In 1783 he publish- ed "Dissertations, Moral and Critical," and in 1786 "The Evidences of the Christian Reli- gion," written at the request of the bishop of London. In 1 790 he published the first volume, and in 1793 the second, of his " Elements of Moral Science ; " subjoined to the latter was a dissertation against the slave trade. His last publication was an account of the life, writ- ings, and character of his eldest son, James Hay Beattie. BEADCAIRE, a commercial town of France, department of Gard, on the right bank of the Rhone, 12 m. E. of Nimes ; pop. in 1866, 9,395. It is opposite Tarascon, with which it is con- nected by a suspension bridge, and is near the junction of railways to Avignon, Marseilles, Cette, and Alais, by Nimes. It has consider- able trade in grain, flour, and wine, and an annual fair in July, established in 1217 by Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, which was formerly the larg- est in Europe. The canal de Beaucaire, opened in 1773, connects the town with Aigues-Mortes. BEAUCE, a S. E. county of the province of Quebec, Canada, bordering on Maine; area, 1,150 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 27,253. Its great- est length is about 45 m., and its greatest width