Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume II.djvu/446

 426 BEAUGENCY successively Sir Henry Stafford, a connection of the ducal house of Buckingham, and Thomas Lord Stanley, afterward earl of Derby, but had issue by neither of these marriages. She was celebrated for her devotion and charity. By her bounty two colleges, Christ's and St. John's, were endowed at Cambridge, and a professorship of divinity established in each ; but the endowments were subsequently re- covered by Henry VIII. as her heir at law. She translated the " Mirroure of Golde to the Sinfull Soul," from a French translation of the Speculum Aureum Peccatorum, and the 4th book of the "Imitation of Christ." BEAUGENCV, an old town of France, depart- ment of Loire, on the right bank of the Loire, 15 m. S. W. of Orleans; pop. in 1866, 5,039. ' In 1152 a council was held here which divorced King Louis VII. from Eleanor of Aquitaine, who [ soon became the wife of Henry Plantagenet, then heir apparent of the crown of England. Beaugency was formerly surrounded by walls, flanked with towers and bastions, and protect- ed by a powerful castle, the ruins of which still ', remain. The kings of France had a palace here in the 14th century. On Dec. 8, 1870, the Ger- man troops under the grand duke of Mecklen- burg, after a successful fight at Meung on the 7th, defeated here the French army of the Loire under Gen. Chanzy, who, on the evacuation of Orleans, thus vainly endeavored to cover Tours. l!l-:l IIAKVVIS. Alexandra, vicomte de, a French general, born in the island of Mar- tinique in 1700, guillotined in Paris, July 23, 1794. He was major in a regiment of infantry when lie married Josephine Tascher de la Pa- gerie, who became after his death the wife of Bonaparte. He distinguished himself in the American war, under the command of Count Rochambeau. In 1789 he was elected deputy to the states general by the nobles of Blois, and was among the first of his order who .joined the tiers-etat. He was twice president of the national assembly, and occupied the chair when the flight of Louis XVI. was made known. A little later he joined, as a general of division, the army of Oustine on the Rhine, .and was accused of causing the surrender of Mentz by his inaction, for which he was con- demned to death by the revolutionary tribunal. 1:1: H II KN US. Eugene de, duke of Leuchten- berg and prince of Eichstadt, son of the pre- ceding and stepson of the emperor Napoleon, born in Paris, Sept. 3, 1781, died in Munich, Feb. 21, 1824. He served in Brittany under Gen. Hoche, who had been his father's friend, and in 1795 went back to Paris, and called on Gen. Bonaparte to obtain from him his father's sword, which had been taken away on the disarming of the sections subsequent to the 13th Vendemiaire. Bonaparte at once granted his request, and soon received a visit of thanks from Mme. Beauharnais, whom he married in 1796. In 1798 Eugene followed Bonaparte to Egypt, and was severely wounded at Acre. He returned to France with Bonaparte, was BEAUHARNAIS appointed to a captaincy in the consular guards, and after the battle of Marengo promoted to the rank of major. On the establishment of the empire he became a prince and colonel general of the chasseurs; in 1805 state arch- chancellor, grand officer of the legion of honor, and viceroy of Italy. On the occasion of his marriage with Augusta Amelia, daughter of the king of Bavaria, Napoleon invested him with the title of prince of Venice, and proclaimed him "his adopted son, and heir apparent to- the crown of Italy." He was then only 24 years old, hut showed at once great prudence and discretion. The Italian army was reen- forced, and soon ranked among the best troops of the great empire; the fortresses and the coasts were put in a state of defence, uniform laws promulgated, facilities for public educa- tion increased, beggary suppressed by the es- tablishment of asylums for the poor, and the cathedral of Milan completed. All this was accomplished without any addition to the taxes ; never were the fiscal charges so mode- rate, and yet in 1813 the public treasury had a surplus of 92,000,000 livres, Italian. When the fourth Austrian war broke out, he was defeated by the archduke John in the battle of Sacile, April 16, 1809; but he soon took his revenge on the banks of the Piave, where he inflicted on the Austrians a loss of 10,00ii soldiers and 15 pieces of cannon. Eugene pursued them into Carinthia, defeated them in several encounters, and joined the great French army in the plains of Austria. Then he invaded Hungary, and gained on June 14, near Raab, a victory over Archduke John, , whose army was one third stronger than hi.* j own. Three weeks later he took an important part in the battle of Wagram. When his mo- ther was divorced from Napoleon, Eugene as. state arch-chancellor was obliged to announce the event to the senate. In 1812 he command- ed one of the main divisions of the army which invaded Russia, and greatly contributed to the victory of Borodino. During the retreat from Moscow he was noted for his self-possession, firmness, and intrepidity, and the retreat he con- ducted from Posen to Leipsic, as commander- in-chief after the departure of Murat, has been considered as one of the most extraordinary war operations on record. Before leaving the army he contributed much to the victory of Liitzen. Then he repaired to Italy, where in less than three months a new army amounting to 50,000 soldiers, was organized, and all the fortresses were prepared for defence. He de- fended Italy bravely against the allied forces, but was finally forced to yield, and retired to the court of his father-in-law in Bavaria. There he received, with the principality of Eichstadt, the title of duke of Lenchtenberg and first peer of the kingdom. He left two sons and four daughters. The eldest daughter, Jos6phine, married Oscar, king of Sweden ; the next, Eugenie Hortense, married the prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen ; and the