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* villefranche-sur-sa6ne. i:!7 VILLENA. partment of Rlioiio. France, on the left bank of the Safine, 1!) miles liy rail nortliiiortliwest of Lyons (Maj): France', I, (i). Tlie C'liurcli of Notre Oanie des .larais (foinieentli to six- teenth eontury) and the Renaissance Hotel de A'ille are worthy of notice. The value of the cotton-fahric mannfactnrcs exceeds $.'5,000,000 an- nnally. There is a large trade in the famovis Beanjolais wine. Population, in 1001, 11,703. VILLEGAIGNON. vcl'fia'nvfiN', or VILLE- GAGNON, NicoL.vs Durand (1.510-71). A French naval officer, horn in Provence. He became a member of the Order of Saint .Tohn, fou<;ht in the disa.strous expedition of Charles V. to Al- j;iers in l.'>41, transported In Scotland the French force destined to assist the I'cijency. and carried Mary Stuart from Dumbarton to France. He then fought against the TurUs, and was after- wards made vice-admiral of Brittany. With the approbation of Admiral Coligny he next at- tempted to found in South America a colony where French Protestants could find refuge. In l.'JSS he sailed from France with two ships, and established a colony at Rio de Janeiro. Other colonists arrived, but religious disputes broke out, and after the return of Villegaignon to France in IS.'iO the weakened colony was con- quered by the Portuguese. For having sided with the Catholics in the disputes, Villegaignon was given the name of the 'Cain of America.' Among his numerous published works are Caroli 1. Imperatoris Expcditio in Africam ad Arginam (1542; republished in 1874) and the controver- sial work. Ad Articulos Calrinianw de t^arra- jiienfo Eucharislw Traditionis Re^oiisioiies (1560). VILLEGAS, vel-yfi'gas, Esteban Manuel de ( 1596-1 (i(i9). A Spanish poet, born at Nijera, and educated at Madrid and at Salamanca. In 1617 he published his Erotican 6 amatoridK. in which, in his youthful presumption, he attacked Cervantes. He published in 1665 an excellent translation of Boethius's Dc C'oiinolation-e I'ltHo- sophice. He died at iladrid. Villegas is known not only for the amazing imitations of Anacreon and Catullus contained in his early volume of poems, but also for the good prose and excellent ver.se of his Boethius. Consult Ticknor, Bislori/ of l^panish Literature (New York, 1849). His poems are accessible in Rivadeneyra's Bibliolcca dc autores cspafiolcs, vol. xlii. VILLEGAS, .Tosis (1848—). A Spanish genre painter, born in Seville. He studied there and at Madrid, and in 1869 at Rome under Fortuny, whose style he copied. His paint- ings include: "Columbus at La Rabida," "Palm Snnda.y in Venice," "A Baptism in Se- ville" (W. h! Vanderbilt Collection, New York Citv) ; "The Armorer's Shop" (Metropolitan Museum, ib.) ; "A Turkish Shoe Shop" (.T. P. Morgan Collection, ib.) : and "A Cairo Slipper Market" (1872; W. T. Walters Collection, Balti- more, Md.). Villegas took the grand gold medal at the Berlin Exhibition of 1875, and in 1895 was elected to the Academy of that city. VILLEHARDOUIN, vel'ar'ddo'fux', Geof- FRoi DE. See Geoffrey de Villehabdouin. VILLEIN (OF. villein, villain, vilain, Fr. vilnin, from ML. riUnnu.i, farm servant, serf, from Lat. villa, country house, farm),. other name for a serf (([.v.). Sometimes, however, his- ((jrians call all the peasants of the Middle Ages, whether fiee or unfrce, villeins. At times 'vil- leins' means the free peasants as distinguished from the unfrce. VILLELE, ve'lal', .losKPii, Count de (1773- 1S54). A French statesui.in. lie was born at Toulouse, August 14, 1773. In 1791 lie en- tered the navy, went to the West Indies, re- niiiined there until 1803, and accumulated a fortune. Returning to Toulouse, he lived quietly until the Restoration. In 1814 he wrote a pami)lilct. Observations sur Ic projet de Con- ■ilitiiliiin, in which he oppo.sed the Charte issued by Louis XVI II. He became Ma.yor of Toulouse, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1S15, and soon became the most influential among tlie leaders of the Royalist Party. He entered the Kichelieu Jlinistry in 1820. and a year later be- came Mitiister of Finance. In 1822 he was given the title of Count and made President of the Coun- cil and Minister of Foreign Affairs. During his ad- ministration an expedition was sent into Spain to restore Ferdinand VIT. (1823) in accordance with the policy of the Holy Alliance. Vill&le's ultramontane and extreme ro.valist policy was very satisfactory to Charles X., but it tended (o bring on the revolution which filially over- threw the Bourbons. His reactionary measures, such as the restrictions imposed on the press, and his partiality for the .Tesuits led to his re- tirement from the Ministry in .January, 1828. lie died in Toulouse March 13, 1854. Consult: Mcmoircs et eorrespoiidanec du Comte dc illcle (Paris, 1888-90) ; Neiiville, yotice hiatorique sur M. le Comic de Villcle (ib., 1855). VILLEMAIN, vel'm.aN', Abel Franc^'OIS (17901870 I. born in Paris. A French historian and critic. He was professor of rhetoric at the Lvcee Charlemagne (1810), the Paris Ecole Normale, and the Sorbonne (1816-26). He won three academic prizes (1812-16), published a Histoire dc Gromivcll (1819), w-as elected to the Academy (1821), and in 1829 became a Deputy. I'lider Louis Philippe he was made a peer (1832). From 1840 to 1844 he was Minister of Public Instruction. After the Revolution of 1848 he gave himself entirely to literature. His chief works, revised in later editions, are: Dis- couvs et melanges (1823) ; Cours de litt^rature frantaise (1828'-30; 2d ed. 1864) ; Etudes de lit- tcrature ancienne et 4trangcre (1846) ; Souvenirs contemporains de I'histoire et de la litterature (1S56) ; and a Histoire de Grcgoirc VII., pub- lished posthumously. Villemain, though a writer of wide culture, is often shallow, but he is al- ways interesting and sometimes eloquent. VILLEMESSANT, vpl'mc-siiN'. .Teas Hip- POLYTE Cartikr (1812-79). A French journalist, born at Rouen. He went to Paris in 1840. and revived, in 1854, Le Figaro (q.v. ) as a weekly, semi-weekly, and, after 1866, a daily newspaper. His methods were original and successful. Con- sult his Mrmoires, d'nn journaliste (Paris. 1867). VILLENA, vPlyS'na. A town of the Prov- ince of Alicante. Spain, on the right bank of the Vinalopo. 63 miles south of Valencia (Map: Spain, E 3). The town, above which towers an imposing fortress, is iiregularlv built, with wind- ing streets and buildings of mediaeval archi- tecture. East of the town is a great salt