a

1806 (London, 1817).–For this he was impregnable strength of the lines, obliged honored with the order of the Bath ; and to remain six months before them inhe returned to England in 1805. On his active, during which his convoys were return, he married a lady of the family cut off by the Spaniards. He then, at of lord Longford, to whom he had been length, made a most masterly retreat, and previously engaged. Soon after this, he lord Wellington blockaded Almeida; but commanded, for a short time, a brigade Masséna found means to draw off the garunder lord Cathcart, in Hanover. The rison, after a battle at Fuentes d'Onor, in command of the fifteenth regiment was which his lordship had some advantage. next bestowed on him. He now, for a In June, his lordship besieged and aswhile, devoted himself to civil occupa- saulted Badajoz, but was repulsed with tions, and was sent to Ireland as secretary loss. He soon after passed the Tagus, to of state, under the duke of Richmond. oppose Marmont (q. v.), who had sucHe next accompanied lord Cathcart in ceeded Masséna ; and he was successful his expedition to Copenhagen. The in taking Ciudad Rodrigo by storm. In houses of parliament having voted thanks consequence of this success, the regency to the officers on this service, sir Arthur, of Spain bestowed on him the title of who was then returned member of par- duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, and the rank of liament for Newport, in the Isle of Wight, a grandee of Spain. The English parliawas thanked by the speaker, in his place ment had before settled on him £2000 a in the house. In 1808, he received or- year, and they now gave him a second ders to sail for the Peninsula, which he £2000, and the prince regent made him reached shortly after the defeat of the an earl. Having taken Badajoz, in a Spanish generals Cuesta and Blake. second attack, he advanced to SalaAfter a conference with admiral Cotton, manca, defeated Marmont, and pursued he landed at the mouth of the Mondego the French to Burgos, which he besieged. river, and, being joined by general Spen- For this he was rewarded with £200,000 cer, with 5000 men, marched towards and the title of marquis. He had already Lisbon. The twenty-first of August, he been created marquis of Torres Vedras, fought the battle of Vimeira (q. v.); but by the Portuguese government. Burgos, sir Hugh Dalrymple, arriving, took the however, obstinately held out, and thus command, and made the convention of gave time to the French to reinforce the Cintra. Sir Arthur Wellesley returned western army of Portugal, and to march to England, and, in 1809, was again sent the army of Soult froin the southern to Lisbon, with more troops, and the provinces. By this ineans the enemy commission of commander-in-chief. He were rendered too powerful to allow of then marched for Oporto, from which he his maintaining his ground; and he acdrove marshal Soult, and, entering Spain, cordingly raised the siege of Burgos, and fought the battle of Talavera de la Reyna, commenced his retreat, during which he in which he toiled the French in all their was considerably harassed by the French, attacks on his position, but was obliged who took his heavy artillery and the to move off the next morning, and leave greater part of his baggage. In 1813, his sick and wounded to the mercy of after Napoleon's disasters in Russia, and the enemy. (See Spain, and Soult.) He the best French troops in Spain had been was, however, for this exploit, created a replaced by conscripts, he repaired to viscount, and received the thanks of par- Cadiz, to make arrangements with the liament. In 1810, Masséna, with a for- regency of Spain, who placed the whole inidable army, entered Portugal, in the of the Spanish army under his command. full confidence of driving the English The remnant of the French army was army from that country. On this occa- encamped on the Douro; he, however, sion, lord Wellington adopted the de- made good the passage, turned their pofensive plan suggested by Dumouriez, in sition, and they retreated to Burgos, then a work on the subject. He first with- to Vittoria (q. v.), where he intercepted drew to the position of Busaco_(9. v.), them, May 13, 1813, and took their bag. where he was attacked by the French, gage, artillery, and a great number of who were repulsed with mutual slaugh- prisoners. He was now raised to the ter. The position of Busaco being ren- rank of field-marshal, and the Spanish dered untenable by the wrong movement government created him duke of Vittoof a corps on his left flank, he fell back ria. He next besieged Pampeluna and to the lines of Torres Vedras (q. v.), St. Sebastian, and repulsed marshal Soult which had long been constructing. Mas- in several attacks which that general séna (9. v.) advanced, but was, from the made to relieve them. Lord Wellington

then forced the passage of the Bidassoa, ral, a diplomatist, and a minister. The and entered France. Soult endeavored details of his history and conduct in these to impede his march, but was repulsed different characters are too well known on several occasions; and at Toulouse to need repetition.* the last battle was fought.—See Napier's Wells; a city of England, in SomerHistory of the War in the Peninsula (4 setsbire, nineteen miles south-west of vols., 1828–1832).—The peace imme- Bath, 121 west of London : lon. 2° 50 W., diately followed, and the return of the lat. 51° 11' N.; population, 6649. United Bourbons. Wellington was created a with Bath, it forms a bishop's see. It is duke, and returned to London, after an situated in a diversified and picturesque absence of five years, and again received country, having fertile and extensive the tbanks of the houses of parliament, meadows to the south, east and west. It who voted him a gift of £400,000. In is small, compact, generally well built, July he was nominated ambassador extra- and contains one of the most magnificent ordinary to France, and was then sent to cathedrals in England (381 feet long, 131 the congress at Vienna. While he was broad, with a quadrangular tower 178 feet there, Napoleon escaped from the isle high). It receives its name from a reof Elba. He was instantly named, by markable spring, called St. Andrew's well the allied sovereigus, generalissimo of the (vulgarly bottomless well). European troops. He fixed his head- Welser; an old patrician family in quarters at Brussels, and issued a proc- Augsburg, now extinct. A Julius Welser Jamation. Hostilities commenced, and is mentioned under the emperor Otho I, Napoleon, after having defeated the Prus- who was made a noble, in 959, on acsians at Ligny, was completely routed at count of his services in the war against Waterloo, by the fortunate arrival of the Hungarians.—His son Octavianus setBülow and Blücher. (See Waterloo.) tled in Augsburg; and from him sprung Wellington then advanced to Paris, and an the family which became so famous. end was put to the war under the walls of Bartholomew Welser was privy counsellor Paris.—See Sherer's Military Memoirs of Charles V, and so wealthy that, with of the Duke of Wellington (2 vols., Lon- the family of the Fugger, he lent 1,200,000 don, 1832).—The parliament of England forins to the emperor. With the consent now voted him a further sum of £200,000; of the emperor, he equipped, in 1528, and the sovereigns of Europe all be- three vessels in Spain, which sailed under stowed on him rewards and honors. He afterwards commanded the army of oc

* He was created baron Douro of Wellesley cupation in France, and was at the con

in the county of Somerset, and viscount Welling. gress of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1818, where of Wellington in 1812 ; marquis of Wellington in

ton of Talavera, and of Wellington, in 1809; earl he was attended by a guard of honor, like 1812; marquis of Douro and duke of Wellington a prince of the blood. In 1822, he was in 1814. He is also duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, and British minister plenipotentiary at the a grandee of the first class in Spain ; duke of congress of Verona, and, in accordance Vimeira' in Portugal, and prince of Waterloo in

Vittoria, marquis of Torres Vedras and count with the policy of Canning, refused to

the Netherlands. He is likewise knight of the noparticipate in the measures of the powers ble order of the garter, knight grand cross of the against Spain. In 1826, he was sent to Bath, &c., &c. Previous to the change of minisSt. Petersburg to congratulate Nicholas try in ļ830, his grace was at once field-marshal in on his accession to the throne. On the the army ; colonel of the royal regiment of horse

guards; colonel-in-chief of the rifle brigade; conappointment of Canning to the premier- stable of the Tower ; prime minister (first lord of ship, in 1827, Wellington resigned his the treasury); a lord of trade and plantations ; seat in the cabinet, with the other minis- commissioner for the affairs of India ; lord-warden ters opposed to Catholic relief (see Cath-' of the Cinque Ports ; lord-lieutenant of the olic Emancipation); and, in 1828, having pensions, salaries, and the interest on grants, in

county of Hants, &c., &c., and, including his overturned the Goderich administration, the receipt of £40,000 per annum from the pubwhich had given him the important post lic. In addition to these honors and distinctions, of commander-in-chief of the army, he he was field-marshal in the Portuguese, Spanish, himself assumed the premiership, al- Netherlandish, Austrian, Russian and Prussian ser

vice. The king of Portugal ve him a service of though, at the previous session of parlia- plate of the value of about 8700,000; the emperor ment, he had declared his entire unfitress of Austria, and the kings of Prussia and Saxony, for high civil office. In December, 1830, splendid services of Vienna, Berlin and Misnian be was obliged to give way, in turn, to

porcelain ; the city of London a shield of massive the present whig ministry. Such is a

silver, upwards of three feet in diameter, with

representations of his victories in relief, &c. His rapid sketch of the forty-years' public eldest son and heir, Arthur, marquis of Douro, was life of this distinguished man, as a gene. born in 1807, and his other son, Charles, in 1808. the command of Ambrose Dalfinger, of is often many years before it attains a Ulm, to America, and took possession of considerable size. These swellings are the province of Venezuela, which the em- usually spherical, except when this form peror made over to Welser as a pledge. is altered by the disposition of the sur480 Germans accompanied this expedi- rounding parts. Practitioners are not action to Venezuela, in order to settle there; quainted with any effectual means of but their avarice is said to have involved stopping the growth of them. The best them in quarrels with the natives, of whom mode of treatment is amputation of the they destroyed' great numbers, and they whole swelling. were at length cut off themselves. TheWel. WENCESLAUS(Wenzel), emperor of Gerser family remained, nevertheless, twenty- many (frequently called only king of the six years in possession of Venezuela; but, Germans, because he was not crowned in after the death of Charles V, the Spaniards Rome), and king of Bohemia, of the house deprived them of it. During the same of Luxemburg, eldest son of Charles IV period, the Welsers, together with some (q. v.), was born in 1361. The lawless merchants of Nuremberg, sent a vessel to state of Germany, at that period, might the East Indies, in order to seek new have bid defiance to the talents and spirit channels of commerce. The journal of of the greatest ruler; how much more to a this journey of discovery is said to be Wenceslaus! At the age of two years, he still in existence.—The celebrated Philip was crowned king of Bohemia. When pina Welser was niece of the above-men- six years old, he infeoffed a duke, who tioned Welser, and daughter of his broth- kneeled before him, at the command of his er Francis. She had received an uncom- father. At the age of ten years, he was monly good education, and was of great married. Two years later, he was invested beauty, so that Ferdinand (whose father with the mark of Brandenburg, and made subsequently became the emperor Ferdi- to take part in state affairs; and he was nand I) fell in love with her, in 1547, in hardly eighteen years old when he sucAugsburg. She refused all the offers of ceeded his father (in 1378) on the imperithe young duke (then but nineteen years al throne. Of the admonitions which his old), except on condition of marriage. father gave him shortly before his death, The ceremony was privately performed, he disregarded the most important—“Keep in 1550, without the knowledge of his the pope, the priesthood and the Germans father, or his uncle Charles V. The arch- your friends.” Pride and cruelty were duke Ferdinand was much incensed when the predominant traits of his character ; he heard of it, and, for a long time, refus- and his inclinations led him to low sensued to see his son. In foreign countries, ality. Perhaps his conduct may be in this mesalliance also excited much atten- part attributed to the consequences of an tion. It was not till after eight years that attempt to poison him, which was followthe father was reconciled. Philippina ed by a disease of the liver, attended with died, thirty years after the marriage, at a burning thirst. Two circumstances renInspruck, in 1580. The archduke, her dered his situation particularly difficult. husband, honored her memory by a med- In the beginning of his reign, the schism al, with the inscription Dive Philippine. in the church became peculiarly glaring, Of her two sons, the eldest, Andrew, be- in consequence of the election of two came cardinal; the second, Charles, dis- popes, and had the most injurious influtinguished himself in the wars in Spainence on political affairs. The abominaand Hungary, and died, in 1618, without ble jus manuarium, or right of private war, leaving any children.

was universal in Germany, owing to the Wen; an encysted tumor. Encysted want of civil order, and of an energetic tumors are formed, in the midst of the administration. Private leagues were cellular substance under the skin, of that formed to procure that redress of which separates the muscles, or even of wrongs which the laws could not afford; that which enters into the structure of and a confederation of the wealthy and the different organs. These tumors are powerful cities in Suabia and on the comprehended in a membrane called a Rhine, opposed the jealous, arrogant and cyst. The causes of their formation are tyrannical nobility and princes, who, in unknown, but a strongly-marked tendency various parts of Germany, also formed to such swellings exists in particular indi- 'alliances. Wenceslaus, in the midst of his viduals, which leads to the suspicion of revelry and debauchery, looked supinely constitutional causes. An encysted tumor, on the disorders of the empire, and seems in its commencement, is always exceed- to have secretly encouraged the great ingly small, and perfectly indolent; and it league of the cities, in order to weaken the power of the princes. At length the him; so that, in 1400, the electors of fear of seeing the royal authority al- Mayence, Treves, Cologne, and the Pamost annihilated by these leagues, induced latinate, only, pronounced his deposition. him to endeavor to counteract them. In Wenceslaus remained inactive, but, nev1387, a violent war broke out between the ertheless, found several supporters, beconfederated cities on one side, and the cause most of the members of the emprinces, counts and lords on the other, in pire were dissatisfied with the steps of which the cities were obliged to yield, af- those electors. His successor, Robert, ter the battle of Döffingen. Wenceslaus could do as little to remedy the deepremained at Prague; and it is said that he rooted evils of the empire as Wenceslaus. answered the deputies, who invited him The latter quarrelled again with his to come to Germany to restore peace, in brother Sigismund, who took him prisonterms to the following effect: “I do not er, and kept him a year and a balf in Viknow that I am bound to reconcile the enna. Robert died in 1410, and Sigisestates, as I did not cause their quarrels; mund, to whom Wenceslaus resigned and I fear the fate of the wolf, in the fa- his claims, was elected emperor. He ble, who attempted to reconcile two quar- remained in possession of Bohemia, relling rams.” At all events, he acted ac- and was only disturbed by the commocording to this principle. The defeats suf- tiops caused by Huss. He died of apofered by the cities obliged them to remain plexy, in 1419, upon hearing of the inquiet, and Wenceslaus willingly fultilled surrection of the Hussites, alter the exethe wish of the members of the empire, to cution of Huss (q. v.), whom he had enextinguish, by force, all debts due to Jews, deavored to protect. Modern historians for which all debtors were obliged to pay have attempted to find apologies for his fifteen per cent of the debts to the empe. conduct. Certainly all is not true which ror, who was the legal protector of the was said of bim in his time, but bis faults Jews! In Bohemia, Wenceslaus was dis- deprive him of all esteem. liked on account of his preference of the WENDS; the name given by the GerGermans, and his arbitrary spirit

. He mans to a particular branch of that great alienated the nobility by exacting the Sclavonic family, the settlements of which restoration of the crown domains, which in the northern and eastern part of Gerhad been mortgaged to them, and excited many, from the Elbe along the Baltic to general odium on account of the cruelty the Vistula, and, towards the south, as far with which he acted in his disputes with as Bohemia, were known as early as the the clergy. His brother, the king of Hun- sixth century. It included, 1. the Obogary, and his cousin, the margrave of Mo- trites, in Mecklenburg, a powerful tribe, ravia, were hostile to him; and thus origi- under their own kings. Henry the Lion, nated, in 1394, a conspiracy of the Bo- duke of Saxony, almost extirpated them hemian nobles, who surprised bim, and in the twelfth century. 2. The Pomerakept him prisoner. After some months nians and Wiltzians, from the Oder to the he was released ; but his authority was Vistula. Their princes united themselves gone in Germany. He was accused of hav- with Germany in 1181, and did not become ing made John Galeazzo Visconti duke extinct until 1637. 3. The Ukers (Frontier of Milan for money, and thus dimin- Wends; see Ukraine), and other tribes ished the territory of the empire. Dis- in the five Brandenburg marks. Albert sensions broke out every where; and the the Bear, margrave of Brandenburg, conpart which circumstances compelled him quered and extirpated them, not because to take iu ecclesiastical affairs, contributed they were beathens, but because they much to deprive bim of the German were Sclavonians. 4. The Sorbians (more crown. He united with France, to in- properly Serbians), between the Saale and duce the popes, elected in Rome and Avi. Elbe : ancient Misnia, therefore, was called gnon, to resign, and to reëstablish peace in by the Bohemians, Srbsko. 5. Lusitzians the church, by a new election ; and he (improperly Lusatians), in the margraviate undertook, particularly, to induce Boni- of Upper and Lower Lusatia. The Serbians face to resign; but this pope had been had their own lords, princes and kings, recognised by most of the electors, and and extended their dominion over the they were dissatisfied with the measure whole of the present Osterland, Misnia, of Wenceslaus, particularly the arch- the two' Lusatias, Anhalt, the Electoral bishop of Mayence, who owed his eleva- Circle, and the southern part of Brandention to this pope. At last the electors re- burg. In the tenth century, German solved to deprive himn of the crown, but colonists became intermingled with them. disagreed respecting who should succeed The mountains, particularly, became peopled with Germans, because the Sclavo- were distinguished from their Gerinan nians preferred the plains, as more adapt- neighbors. The language was so ridied to agriculture; hence, even now, the culed, that people became ashamed to villages in the mountains bare German speak it. Some customs and modes of names, but almost all places in the plains, dress still exist in many places, which reSclavonic names. In Leipsic, the Servi- mind us of the Wendish origin of their an language ceased to be spoken in 1327, inhabitants, although German only is though many Sclavonic words have been spoken there at present, as in Altenburg: preserved in the country. From the The Wends were a warlike people, and mixture of the Sclavonians with the waged war against the Germans, at difFranks and Saxons, the Upper Saxon idi- ferent periods, from the seventh century, om was formed since the tenth century. several times in connexion with the BoMany German names have evidently come hemians, and, at a later period, with the from the Serbes; those which end in itz, Hungarians, until, in 934, Henry I deik, nik, enz, as Nostitz, Maltitz, Gablenz, feated them, at Merseburg, and Otho in Lessing (said to be originally Lesnjk). Of 948. The German kings then erected the Lusatians only, considerable remains the margraviates of Misnia, Northern have been preserved, owing to their long Saxony and Lusatia, to keep these Sclaconnexion with Bohemia, and the tolera- vonians in obedience. The religious tion which they experienced. The dia- foundations at Misnia, Merseburg, Zeitz, lect of Upper Lusatia approaches to the and Magdeburg, were also established, Bohemian; the Lower Lusatian more to partly with a view to propagate the Christhe Polish. In imitation of the German, tian religion among the Wends. They it adopted the article and several other pe- were driven from their towns to the vilculiarities, as did also the Sclavonians bor- lages; the prisoners of war were given to dering on Germany, in Stiria, Carinthia chapters, convents, and noblemen, as and Carniola. Of the state of their lan- villeins. All possible means were used guage before their conversion to Chris- to make the Wends adopt the Christian tianity, we know little. Even after that religion, and to blend them into one peoevent they remained subject to the se- ple with the Germans. In 1047, Gottsverest oppression: no light penetrated to chalk established a Wendish or Obotritish them. It was not till after the reformation kingdom, consisting of eighteen provinces, that they began to write their dialect. under the Saxon dukes and the German During the thirty years'war (q. v.), it was kings, and strove to introduce German contemplated to eradicate their language, civilization, but, for that reason, was murand German ministers were given to dered in 1066. His son Henry reëstabthem: sixteen parishes actually became lished the kingdom in 1105, which, at a German. It was not till the eighteenth later period, Knud, duke of Sleswic, recentury that they were left unmolested in ceived as a fief, after whose death it was the use of their own language. The or- broken up. The introduction of Christhography was settled in 1689, by a mix- tianity among the Wends was gradually ture of Bohemian and German. In 1716, effected, though traces of heathen worship a seminary, for the instruction of the long remained. The Wends of Lusatia Wends, was established in Leipsic, and, at present occupy a tract extending from in 1749, one in Wittenberg. A Wendish Löbau to the mark of Brandenburg. They seminary for Catholics was also establish- are industrious, but, in consequence of ed in Prague. There is a complete trans- their former oppression, suspicious and lation of the Bible, a grammar, and sever- reserved. Their language enables them al other books, in their language; yet the to make themselves understood by the decrease of the Wendish, in Lusatia, Poles and Russians. In Leipsic, there is is very great. In Pomerania, the last a society in which students from Lusaperson who spoke that language died tia practise preaching in Wendish. It is a in 1404. Only between the Elbe and curious fact, that only about three miles Iretze, a remnant of Obotrites (called from Berlin there is a village called RixPolabes, from Labe, Elbe, and po, dweli- dorf, inhabited by Wends, many of whom, ing) maintained itself till recent times; though in constant intercourse with Gerand, in 1751, the last religious service in mans, and going daily to the market of Wendish took place in Wustrow. These Berlin to sell their produce, nevertheless, Wends existed, indeed, in the latter half were wholly ignorant of the German lanof the last century; but the government guage until lately, when their unwillinglabored to destroy the peculiarities of ness to intermarry with Germans has language and customs by which they given way to more rational notions.