Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/279

* JOHN GEORGE III. 253 JOHN SIGISMTJND. Louis XIV. of France, which broke out in 1688, and in 1090 was made commander ol the Imperial army. JOHN GEORGE IV. (1608-94). Elector of Saxony from 1091 to 1694, son and successor of John George III. He continued the policy of his father during his short reign of three years, maintaining an alliance with Brandenburg and the Emperor. As a matter of State policy he imarried Eleonore. ilargravine of Brandenburg- Anspach ; but his life is chiefly interesting for the story of. his romantic attachment for Mag- dalene Sibylle von Neitschiitz, wlio was created Countess of Rochlitz by the Emperor. JOHN GILPIN. The hero of a famous humor- ous ballad of the same title by William Cowper (1782). JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. A novel by Dinali ilulock Craik (lfS.50). It is the story of a poor boy who by his energj' and noble char- acter wins position and respect. JOHN HYRCANUS. See Htrcaxus. JOHN MARCH, SOUTHERNER. A novel by G. W. Cable (1894). It appeared as a serial in Scribner's Magazine, and. as implied by the subtitle, is a story of the South, beginning at the close of the Civil War. It gives a vivid pic- ture of life in a small town. JOHN NETOMUK SALVA'TOR, Archduke OF Austria (lSo2-01?). He was born in Flor- ence, the youngest son of the Grand Duke Leopold II. of Tuscany. He entered the Austrian mili- tary service, and rose through the various ranks to that of major-general commanding a division. In 1883 he was transferred to Linz as a punish- ment for having published a pamphlet entitled Drill oder Erxieliungf in which he expressed him- self too sharply in opposition to the commander- in-chief. Archduke Albert. The Government was still more irritated when he, as it was asserted, intrigued to have himself appointed successor to Prince Alexander of Bulgaria, on the latter's en- forced abdication. Soon after this he was deprived of his military command and left the army. He then studied navigation, passed the examination for ship's captain, and in October, 1889. after having renounced all his titles, rights, and priv- ileges as an archduke, took the name of .Tohann Orth. The next summer he left Hamburg for Buenos Ayres, on board the sailing ship Hanlct Marr/arelha. After touching at Buenos Ayres he continued his voyage in the direction of Val- paraiso, and never was heard from again. Nu- merous romantic stories have been told in con- nection with his strange disappearance; but the probability is that the ^ankt llarf/arefha was wrecked on the coast of South America, and that all hands were lost. Besides his pamphlet al- ready mentioned, he left two others on military subjects: Betrachtungen iiher die Organisation der osterrcichisclien Artillerie (1875). and G<^- schichte dcs Icaiserlich-l-'jniglichcn Linien-Infan- terieregiments Erzherzog Wilhelm Nr. 12 (1877- 80), and a third on spiritualism, entitled Ein- hlicke in den Spiritiximus (5th ed. 1885). In addition to these, he wrote the text of the ballet Die Afixassinen. JOHN O' GROAT'S HOUSE (more correctly, JoiixNY Groat's House). A spot on Duncansby Head, the northeastern extremity of the mainland of Scotland, marking one of the limits of that countrj'. Commemorated in Burns's line, "Frae' ilaidenkirk to Johnny Groat's," it is also widely known as the terminus of C3-eling and automobile record rides from Land's End, the southwestern extremity of England, a distance of 994 miles. It stood on the beach at the mouth of the Pent- land firth, and was probably built for the recep- tion of traelers crossing the ferry to the Ork- neys. Tradition gives a romantic origin. In the reign of King James IV. (1488-1513) three brothers — Jlaleolm, Gavin, and John Groot, or Grot — Dutchmen, settled in Caithness, and ac- quired the lands of Warse and Dungansby. W'hen their descendants had multiplied to eight fam- ilies, disputes arose as to precedency at a yearly festival reunion. .John Groat settled the con- troversy by building an eight-sided house, with a door and a window in each side, and an eight- sided table within, so that the head of each of the eight families of Groats might enter by his own door and sit at his own head of the table. The family of Groats still exists; but a small green knoll marked with the foundation lines is all that remains of John o' Groat's house. A neighboring hotel with an apjiropriate octagonal tower bears the name since 1870. The beautiful shell f'liprwa, Europcea, which abounds in the neighborhood, is knofl-n as 'John o' Groat's bucky.' JOHN^SIGISMUND, sijls-mund, Ger. pron. ze'ges-miMjnt ( l.Ji 2-1019 ). Elector of Branden- ' burg, son of the Elector .Joachim Frederick. Dur- ing his reign the dominions of the Electors of Brandenburg were increased by the acquisition of Cleves, ]Mark, and Ravensberg. and the Duchy of Prussia ( East Prussia ). The first three districts were part of the dominions of the Dukes of Cleves. .Jiilich, and Berg, all of which the Elector claimed as grandson of the eldest daughter of Duke William the Rich, backed by a will executed in favor of the Hohenzollern by his great-grand- father. A rival claimant appeared in the Count Palatine of Xeuberg. who had married a younger daughter of Duke William. After years of dis- pute which, early assuming a religious character, aroused the attention of all the Protestant and Catholic princes of Northern Europe, and led to the intervention of the Emperor with his Spanish soldiers on one side, and of the Dutch on the other, an intervention which caused the two Lutheran claimants such uneasiness that one, the Count Palatine, became a Catholic, and the other a Calvinist, the matter was finally arranged in 1030 by an amicable division of the territories. The acquisition of East Prussia was also accom- panied by difficulties, though John Sigismund's father, not satisfied with the Polish King's promise that the Brandenburg Hohenzollerns should be the heirs of the Prussian dukes, had sought to make assurance triply sure by marry- ing his son to the eldest daughter of the last duke, while he himself took to wife a younger daughter. In spite of these precautions, the prize was near to slipping out of John Sigis- mund's grasp, for the Prussian nobles preferred the unruly freedom enjoyed by their Slavic neigh- bors to what they called 'the Brandenburg tyranny,' and the King of Poland was not un- willing to listen to their petition, so that it was only by giving the greatest concessions, by doing homage, and promising tribute, and allowing him some right of veto, that the Elector finally per- suaded the King to stand by his promise. John