Part 51 (2/2)

BALDWIN, the name of several counts of Flanders, eight in all.

BALDWIN I., king of Jerusalem; succeeded his brother G.o.dfrey de Bouillon; a.s.suming said t.i.tle, made himself master of most of the towns on the coast of Syria; contracted a disease in Egypt; returned to Jerusalem, and was buried on Mount Calvary; there were five of this name and t.i.tle, the last of whom, a child of some eight years old, died in 1186 (1058-1118).

BALDWIN I., the first Latin emperor of Constantinople; by birth, count of Hainault and Flanders; joined the fourth crusade, led the van in the capture of Constantinople, and was made emperor; was defeated and taken prisoner by the Bulgarians (1171-1206). B. II., nephew of Baldwin I., last king of the Latin dynasty, which lasted only 57 years (1217-1273).

BALE, JOHN, bishop of Ossory, in Ireland; born in Suffolk; a convert from Popery, and supported by Cromwell; was made bishop by Edward VI.; persecuted out of the country as an apostate from Popery; author of a valuable account of early British writers (1495-1563).

BALEARIC ISLES (312), a group of five islands off the coast of Valencia, in Spain, Majorca the largest; inhabitants in ancient times famous as expert slingers, having been one and all systematically trained to the use of the sling from early childhood; cap. Palma (58).

BALFE, MICHAEL WILLIAM, a musical composer, of Irish birth, born near Wexford; author of ”The Bohemian Girl,” his masterpiece, and world-famous (1808-1870).

BALFOUR, A. J., of Whittinghame, East Lothian; educated at Eton and Cambridge; nephew of Lord Salisbury, and First Lord of the Treasury and leader of the House of Commons in Lord Salisbury's ministry; author of a ”Defence of Philosophic Doubt” and a volume of ”Essays and Addresses”; _b_. 1848.

BALFOUR, FRANCIS MAITLAND, brother of the preceding; a promising biologist; career was cut short by death in attempting to ascend the Wetterhorn (1851-1882).

BALFOUR, SIR JAMES, Lord President of the Court of Session; native of Fife; an unprincipled man, sided now with this party, now with the opposite, to his own advantage, and that at the most critical period in Scottish history; _d_. 1583.

BALFOUR OF BURLEY, leader of the Covenanters in Scott's ”Old Mortality.”

BALI, one of the Samoa Islands, 75 m. long by 40 m. broad; produces cotton, coffee, and tobacco.

BALIOL, EDWARD, son of the following, invaded Scotland; was crowned king at Scone, supported by Edward III.; was driven from the kingdom, and obliged to renounce all claim to the crown, on receipt of a pension; died at Doncaster, 1369.

BALIOL, JOHN DE, son of the following; laid claim to the Scottish crown on the death of the Maid of Norway in 1290; was supported by Edward I., and did homage to him for his kingdom, but rebelled, and was forced publicly to resign the crown; died in 1314 in Normandy, after spending some three years in the Tower; satirised by the Scotch, in their stinging humorous style, as King Toom Tabard, i. e. Empty King Cloak.

BALIOL, SIR JOHN DE, of Norman descent; a guardian to the heir to the Scottish crown on the death of Alexander III.; founder of Baliol College, Oxford; _d_. 1269.

BALIZE, or BELIZE, the capital of British Honduras, in Central America; trade in mahogany, rosewood, &c.

BALKAN PENINSULA, the territory between the Adriatic and the aegean Sea, bounded on the N. by the Save and the Lower Danube, and on the S. by Greece.

BALKANS, THE, a mountain range extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; properly the range dividing Bulgaria from Roumania; mean height, 6500 ft.

<script>