Volume 4, Slice 1 Part 26 (1/2)
See L. de la Saussaye, _Blois et ses environs_ (1873); _Histoire du chateau de Blois_ (1873); L. Bergevin et A. Dupre, _Histoire de Blois_ (1847).
BLOIS, COUNTs.h.i.+P OF. From 865 to about 940 the counts.h.i.+p of Blois was one of those which were held in fee by the margrave of Neustria, Robert the Strong, and by his successors, the abbot Hugh, Odo (or Eudes), Robert II. and Hugh the Great. It then pa.s.sed, about 940 and for nearly three centuries, to a new family of counts, whose chiefs, at first va.s.sals of the dukes of France, Hugh the Great and Hugh Capet, became in 987, by the accession of the Capetian dynasty to the throne of France, the direct va.s.sals of the crown. These new counts were orjginally very powerful. With the counts.h.i.+p of Blois they united, from 940 to 1044, that of Touraine, and from about 950 to 1218, and afterwards from 1269 to 1286, the counts.h.i.+p of Chartres remained in their possession.
The counts of Blois of the house of the Theobalds (Thibauds) began with Theobald I., the Cheat, who became count about 940. He was succeeded by his son, Odo (Eudes) I., about 975. Theobald II., eldest son of Odo I., became count in 996, and was succeeded by Odo II., younger son of Odo I., about 1005. Odo II. was one of the most warlike barons of his time.
With the already considerable domains which he held from his ancestors, he united the heritage of his kinsman, Stephen I., count of Troyes. In 1033 he disputed the crown of Burgundy with the emperor, Conrad the Salic, and perished in 1037 while fighting in Lorraine. He was succeeded in 1037 by his eldest son, Theobald III., who was defeated by the Angevins in 1044, and was forced to give up the town of Tours and its dependencies to the count of Anjou. In 1089 Stephen Henry, eldest son of Theobald III., became count. He took part in the first crusade, fell into the hands of the Saracens, and died in captivity; he married Adela, daughter of William I., king of England. In 1102 Stephen Henry was succeeded by his son, Theobald IV. the Great, who united the counts.h.i.+p of Troyes with his domains in 1128. In 1135, on the death of his maternal uncle, Henry I., king of England, he was called to Normandy by the barons of the duchy, but soon renounced his claims on learning that his younger brother, Stephen, had just been proclaimed king of England.
In 1152 Theobald V. the Good, second son of Theobald IV., became count; he died in 1191 in Syria, at the siege of Acre. His son Louis succeeded in 1191, took part in the fourth crusade, and after the taking of Constantinople was rewarded with the duchy of Nicaea. He was killed at the battle of Adrianople in 1205, in which year he was succeeded by his son, Theobald VI. the Young, who died childless. In 1218 the counts.h.i.+p pa.s.sed to Margaret, eldest daughter of Theobald V., and to Walter (Gautier) of Avesnes, her third husband.
The Chatillon branch of the counts of Blois began in 1230 with Mary of Avesnes, daughter of Margaret of Blois and her husband, Hugh of Chatillon, count of St Pol. In 1241 her brother, John of Chatillon, became count of Blois, and was succeeded in 1279 by his daughter, Joan of Chatillon, who married Peter, count of Alencon, fifth son of Louis IX., king of France. In 1286 Joan sold the counts.h.i.+p of Chartres to the king of France. Hugh of Chatillon, her first-cousin, became count of Blois in 1293, and was succeeded by his son, Guy I., in 1307. In 1342 Louis II., eldest son of Guy I., died at the battle of Crecy, and his brother, Charles of Blois, disputed the duchy of Brittany with John of Montfort. Louis III., eldest son of Louis II., became count in 1346, and was succeeded by John II., second son of Louis II., in 1372. In 1381 Guy II., brother of Louis III. and John II., succeeded in 1381, but died childless. Overwhelmed with debt, he had sold the counts.h.i.+p of Blois to Louis I., duke of Orleans, brother of King Charles VI., who took possession of it in 1397.
In 1498 the counts.h.i.+p of Blois was united with the crown by the accession of King Louis XII., grandson and second successor of Louis I., duke of Orleans.
See Bernier, _Histoire de Blois_ (1682); La Saussaye, _Histoire de la ville de Blois_ (1846). (A. Lo.)
BLOMEFIELD, FRANCIS (1705-1752), English topographer of the county of Norfolk, was born at Fersfield, Norfolk, on the 23rd of July 1705. On leaving Cambridge in 1727 he was ordained, becoming in 1729 rector of Hargham, Norfolk, and immediately afterwards rector of Fersfield, his father's family living. In 1733 he mooted the idea of a history of Norfolk, for which he had begun collecting material at the age of fifteen, and shortly afterwards, while collecting further information for his book, discovered some of the famous _Paston Letters_. By 1736 he was ready to put some of the results of his researches into type. At the end of 1739 the first volume of the _History of Norfolk_ was completed.
It was printed at the author's own press, bought specially for the purpose. The second volume was ready in 1745. There is little doubt that in compiling his book Blomefield had frequent recourse to the existing historical collections of Le Neve, Kirkpatrick and Tanner, his own work being to a large extent one of expansion and addition. To Le Neve in particular a large share of the credit is due. When half-way through his third volume, Blomefield, who had come up to London in connexion with a special piece of research, caught smallpox, of which he died on the 16th of January 1752. The remainder of his work was published posthumously, and the whole eleven volumes were republished in London between 1805 and 1810.
BLOMFIELD, SIR ARTHUR WILLIAM (1829-1899), English architect, son of Bishop C.J. Blomfield, was born on the 6th of March 1829, and educated at Rugby and Trinity, Cambridge. He was then articled as an architect to P.C. Hardwick, and subsequently obtained a large practice on his own account. He became president of the Architectural a.s.sociation in 1861, and a fellow (1867) and vice-president (1886) of the Royal Inst.i.tute of British Architects. In 1887 he became architect to the Bank of England, and designed the law courts branch in Fleet Street, and he was a.s.sociated with A.E. Street in the building of the law courts. In 1889 he was knighted. He died on the 30th of October 1899. He was twice married, and brought up two sons, Charles J. Blomfield and Arthur Conran Blomfield, to his own profession, of which they became distinguished representatives. Among the numerous churches which Sir Arthur Blomfield designed, his work at St Saviour's, Southwark, is a notable example of his use of revived Gothic, and he was highly regarded as a restorer.
BLOMFIELD, CHARLES JAMES (1786-1857), English divine, was born on the 29th of May 1786 at Bury St Edmunds. He was educated at the local grammar school and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained the Browne medals for Latin and Greek odes, and carried off the Craven scholars.h.i.+p. In 1808 he graduated as third wrangler and first medallist, and in the following year was elected to a fellows.h.i.+p at Trinity College. The first-fruits of his scholars.h.i.+p was an edition of the _Prometheus_ of Aeschylus in 1810; this was followed by editions of the _Septem contra Thebas, Persae, Choephorae_, and _Agamemnon_, of Callimachus, and of the fragments of Sappho, Sophron and Alcaeus.
Blomfield, however, soon ceased to devote himself entirely to scholars.h.i.+p. He had been ordained in 1810, and held in quick succession the livings of Chesterford, Quarrington, Dunton, Great and Little Chesterford, and Tuddenham. In 1817 he was appointed private chaplain to Wm. Howley, bishop of London. In 1819 he was nominated to the rich living of St Botolph's, Bishopsgate, and in 1822 he became archdeacon of Colchester. Two years later he was raised to the bishopric of Chester where he carried through many much-needed reforms. In 1828 he was translated to the bishopric of London, which he held for twenty-eight years. During this period his energy and zeal did much to extend the influence of the church. He was one of the best debaters in the House of Lords, took a leading position in the action for church reform which culminated in the ecclesiastical commission, and did much for the extension of the colonial episcopate; and his genial and kindly nature made him an invaluable mediator in the controversies arising out of the tractarian movement. His health at last gave way, and in 1856 he was permitted to resign his bishopric, retaining Fulham Palace as his residence, with a pension of 6000 per annum. He died on the 5th of August 1857. His published works, exclusive of those above mentioned, consist of charges, sermons, lectures and pamphlets, and of a _Manual of Private and Family Prayers_. He was a frequent contributor to the quarterly reviews, chiefly on cla.s.sical subjects.
See _Memoirs of Charles James Blomfield, D.D., Bishop of London, with Selections from his Correspondence_, edited by his son, Alfred Blomfield (1863); G.E. Biber, _Bishop Blomfield and his Times_ (1857).
BLOMFIELD, EDWARD VALENTINE (1788-1816), English cla.s.sical scholar, brother of Bishop C.J. Blomfield, was born at Bury St Edmunds on the 14th of February 1788. Going to Caius College, Cambridge, he was thirteenth wrangler in 1811, obtained several of the cla.s.sical prizes of the university, and became a fellow and lecturer at Emmanuel College. In 1813 he travelled in Germany and made the acquaintance of some of the great scholars of Germany. On his return, he published in the _Museum Critic.u.m_ (No. ii.) an interesting paper on ”The Present State of Cla.s.sical Literature in Germany.” Blomfield is chiefly known by his translation of Matthiae's _Greek Grammar_ (1819), which was prepared for the press by his brother. He died on the 9th of October 1816, his early death depriving Cambridge of one who seemed destined to take a high place amongst her most brilliant cla.s.sical scholars.
See ”Memoir of Edward Valentine Blomfield,” by Bishop Monk, in _Museum Critic.u.m_, No. vii.
BLONDEL, DAVID (1591-1655), French Protestant clergyman, was born at Chalons-sur-Marne in 1591, and died on the 6th of April 1655. In 1650 he succeeded G.J. Vossius in the professors.h.i.+p of history at Amsterdam. His works were very numerous; in some of them he showed a remarkable critical faculty, as in his dissertation on Pope Joan (1647, 1657), in which he came to the conclusion, now universally accepted, that the whole story is a mere myth. Considerable Protestant indignation was excited against him on account of this book.
BLONDEL, JACQUES FRANcOIS (1705-1774), French architect, began life as an architectural engraver, but developed into an architect of considerable distinction, if of no great originality. As architect to Louis XV. from 1755 he necessarily did much in the rococo manner, although it would seem that he conformed to fas.h.i.+on rather than to artistic conviction. He was among the earliest founders of schools of architecture in France, and for this he was distinguished by the Academy; but he is now best remembered by his voluminous work _L'Architecture francaise_, in which he was the continuator of Marot.
The book is a precious collection of views of famous buildings, many of which have disappeared or been remodelled.
BLONDIN (1824-1897), French tight-rope walker and acrobat, was born at St Omer, France, on the 28th of February 1824. His real name was Jean Francois Gravelet. When five years old he was sent to the ecole de Gymnase at Lyons and, after six months' training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as ”The Little Wonder.” His superior skill and grace as well as the originality of the settings of his acts, made him a popular favourite. He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea of crossing Niagara Falls on a tight-rope, 1100 ft. long, 160 ft.
above the water. This he accomplished, first in 1859, a number of times, always with different theatric variations: blindfold, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back, sitting down midway while he made and ate an omelette. In 1861 Blondin first appeared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept, 170 ft. from the ground. In 1862 he again gave a series of performances at the Crystal Palace, and elsewhere in England, and on the continent. After a period of retirement he reappeared in 1880, his final performance being given at Belfast in 1896. He died at Ealing, London, on the 19th of February 1897.
BLOOD, the circulating fluid in the veins and arteries of animals. The word itself is common to Teutonic languages; the O. Eng. is _blod_, cf.
Gothic _bloth_, Dutch _bloed_, Ger. _Blut_. It is probably ultimately connected with the root which appears in ”blow,” ”bloom,” meaning flouris.h.i.+ng or vigorous. The Gr. word for blood, [Greek: aima], appears as a prefix _haemo-_ in many compound words. As that on which the life depends, as the supposed seat of the pa.s.sions and emotions, and as that part which a child is believed chiefly to inherit from its parents, the word ”blood” is used in many figurative and transferred senses; thus ”to have his blood,” ”to fire the blood,” ”cold blood,” ”blood-royal,”