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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villamediana, Count de

See also Juan de Tassis y Peralta, 2nd Count of Villamediana on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer. The work of 15 May 1622 was actually La Gloria de Niquea.
​VILLAMEDIANA, COUNT DE (1582–1622), Spanish poet, was born at Lisbon towards the end of 1582. His father, a distinguished diplomatist, upon whom the dignity of count was conferred in 1603, entrusted the education of the brilliant boy (Juan de Tassis y Peralta) to Luis Tribaldos de Toledo, the future editor of Mendoza’s Guerras de Granada, and to Bartolomé Jimenez Patón, who subsequently dedicated Mercurius Trismegistus to his pupil. On leaving Salamanca the youth married in 1601, and succeeded to the title on the death of his father in 1607; he was prominent in the dissipated life of the capital, acquired a bad reputation as a gambler, was forbidden to attend court, and resided in Italy from 1611 to 1617. On his return to Spain, he soon proved himself a fearless, pungent satirist. Such public men as Lerma, Rodrigo Calderón and Jorge de Tobar writhed beneath his murderous invective, the foibles of humbler private persons were exposed to public ridicule in verses furtively passed from hand to hand. So great was the resentment caused by these envenomed attacks that Villamediana was once more ordered to withdraw from court in 1618. He returned on the death of Philip III. and was appointed gentleman in waiting to Philip IV.’s young wife, Isabel de Bourbon, daughter of Henri IV. Secure in his position, he scattered his scathing epigrams in profusion; but his ostentatious attentions to the queen supplied his countless foes with a weapon which was destined to destroy him. A fire broke out while his masque, La Gloria de Niguea, was being acted before the court on the 15th of May 1622, and Villamediana carried the queen to a place of safety. Suspicion deepened, Villamediana neglected a significant warning that his life was in peril, and on the 21st of August 1622 he was murdered as he stepped out of his coach. The responsibility for his death was divided between Philip IV. and Olivares; the actual assassin was either Alonso Mateo or Ignacio Mendez; and naturally the crime remained unpunished.
Villamediana’s works, first published at Saragossa in 1629, contain not only the nervous, blighting verses which made him widely feared and hated, but a number of more serious poems embodying the most exaggerated conceits of gongorism. But, even when adopting the perverse conventions of the hour, he remains a poet of high distinction, and his satirical verses, more perfect in form, are instinct with a cold, concentrated scorn which has never been surpassed.  (J. F.-K.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villard, Henry

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​ VILLARD, HENRY (1835-1900), American journalist and financier, was born in Speyer, Rhenish Bavaria, on the 10th of April 1835. His baptismal name was Ferdinand Heinrich Gustav Hilgard. His parents removed to Zweibrücken in 1839, and in 1856 his father, Gustav Leonhard Hilgard (d. 1867), became a justice of the Supreme Court of Bavaria, at Munich. Henry was educated at the gymnasium of Zweibrücken, at the French semi-military academy in Phalsbourg in 1849-50, at the gymnasium of Speyer in 1850-52, and at the universities of Munich and Wurzburg in 1852-53; and in 1853, having had a disagreement with his father, emigrated—without his parents' knowledge—to the United States. It was at this time that he adopted the name Villard. Making his way westward in 1854, he lived in turn at Cincinnati, Belleville (Illinois), Peoria (Illinois) and Chicago, engaged in various employments, and in 1856 formed a project, which came to nothing, for establishing a colony of “free soil” Germans in Kansas. In 1856-57 he was editor, and for part of the time was proprietor, of the Racine (Wis.) Volksblatt, in which he advocated the election of John C. Frémont (Republican). Thereafter he was associated (in 1857) with the Staats-Zeitung, Frank Leslie's and the Tribune, of New York, and with the Cincinnati Commercial ​in 1859-60; was correspondent of the New York Herald in 1861 and of the New York Tribune (with the Army of the Potomac) in 1862-63, and in 1864 was at the front as the representative of a news agency established by him in that year at Washington. In 1865 he became Washington correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, and in 1866 was the correspondent of that paper in the Prusso-Austrian War. He began to take an interest in railway financiering in 1871, was elected president of the Oregon & California railroad and of the Oregon Steamship Company in 1876, was receiver of the Kansas Pacific railway in 1876-78, organized the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company in 1879, the Oregon Improvement Company in 1880, and the Oregon & Transcontinental Company in 1881, becoming in that year president of the Northern Pacific railway, which was completed under his management, and of which he remained president until 1883. In 1887 he again became connected with the Northern Pacific, and in 1889 was chosen chairman of its finance committee. He was actively identified with the financing of other Western railway projects until 1893. In 1881 he acquired the New York Evening Post and the Nation. In 1883 he paid the debt of the state university of Oregon, and gave to the institution $50,000, and he also gave to the town of Zweibrücken, the home of his boyhood, an orphan asylum (1891). He died on the 12th of November 1900.
See Memoirs of Henry Villard, Journalist and Financier, 1835-1900 (2 vols., Boston, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villanueva de la Serena

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​ VILLANUEVA DE LA SERENA, a town of western Spain, in the province of Badajoz, near the left bank of the river Guadiana, and on the Madrid-Badajoz railway. Pop. (1900) 13,489. Villanueva is a clean and thriving place, with good modern public buildings—town hall, churches, convents and schools. It is the chief town of an undulating plain, La Serena, locally celebrated for red wine and melons. Grain and hemp are also cultivated, and live stock extensively reared in the neighbourhood.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villanueva y Geltru

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​ VILLANUEVA Y GELTRU, a seaport of north-eastern Spain, in the province of Barcelona; on the Barcelona-Tarragona section of the coast railway. Pop. (1900) 11,850. Villanueva is a busy modern town, with manufactures of cotton, woollen and linen goods, and of paper. It has also iron foundries and an important agricultural trade. The harbour affords safe and deep anchorage; it is a lifeboat station and the headquarters of a large fishing fleet. The coasting trade is also considerable. Villanueva has a museum, founded by the Catalan poet, historian and diplomat, Vittorio Balaguer (1824-1901), which contains collections of Roman, Egyptian and prehistoric antiquities, besides paintings, engravings, sculptures, coins and a large library, including many valuable MSS.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villaret de Joyeuse, Louis Thomas

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​ VILLARET DE JOYEUSE, LOUIS THOMAS (1750–1812), French admiral, was born at Auch, of a noble family of Languedoc. He was originally destined for the church, but served for some time in the royal guard, which he had to leave at the age of sixteen after killing one of his comrades in a duel. He then entered the navy, and in 1773 was lieutenant on the “Atalante” in Indian waters. In 1778 he distinguished himself at the siege of Pondicherry and was promoted captain. He afterwards served under Suffren, took part in the battle of Cuddalore, and in 1781 was taken prisoner after a fierce encounter with an English vessel. He was released in 1783, and, unlike the majority of naval officers, did not emigrate during the Revolution. In 1791 he was in command of the “Prudente” in the waters of San Domingo, and in 1794 was appointed rear-admiral and assisted the Conventional, St André, in the reorganization of the fleet. Villaret was in command of the French fleet at the battle of the First of June. He was appointed a member of the Council of the Ancients in 1796, and was sentenced to deportation in the following year on account of his royalist sympathies. He escaped arrest, however, and until the Consulate lived in obscurity at Oléron. In 1801 he commanded the squadron which transported the French army to San Domingo, and the following year was made captain-general of Martinique, which he surrendered to the English in 1809 after a brave defence. In 1811, after some hesitation on the part of Napoleon, Villaret was rewarded for his services with the command of a military division and the post of governor-general of Venice. He died at Venice.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Villalba

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​VILLALBA, a town of north-western Spain, in the province of Lugo; on the left bank of the river Ladra, one of the headstreams of the Miño, and at the junction of the main roads from Ferrol and Mondoñedo to the city of Lugo. Pop. (1900) 13,572. Villalba is the chief town of the district watered by the Ladra, Tamboga and other small streams—a fertile plateau 1500 ft. above sea-level. Cloth and pottery are manufactured, and there is some trade in grain and live stock. The nearest railway station is Otero, 15 m. S. by E., on the Lugo-Corunna line.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Walsingham, Thomas

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​WALSINGHAM, THOMAS (d. c. 1422), English chronicler, was probably educated at the abbey of St Albans and at Oxford. He became a monk at St Albans, where he appears to have passed the whole of his monastic life except the six years between 1394 and 1400 during which he was prior of another Benedictine house at Wymondham, Norfolk. At St Albans he was in charge of the scriptorium, or writing room, and be died about 1422. Walsingham’s most important work is his Historia Anglicana, a valuable piece of work covering the period between 1272 and 1422. Some authorities hold that Walsingham himself only wrote the section between 1377 and 1392, but this view is controverted by James Gairdner in his Early chroniclers of Europe (1879).
The Historia, which from the beginning to 1377 is largely a compilation from earlier chroniclers, was published by Matthew Parker in 1574 as Historia Angliae brevis. For the “Rolls” series it has been edited in two volumes by H. T. Riley (1863–1864). Covering some of the same ground Walsingham wrote a Chronicon Angliae; this deals with English history from 1328 to 1388 and has been edited by Sir E. M. Thompson for the “Rolls” series (1874). His other writings include the Gesta abbatum monasterii St. Albani and the Ypodigma Neustriae. The Gesta is a history of the abbots of St Albans from the foundation of the abbey to 1381. The original work of Walsingham is the period between 1308 and 1381, the earlier part being merely a compilation, it has been edited for the “Rolls” series by H. T. Riley (1867–1869). The Ypodigma purports to be a history of the dukes of Normandy, but it also contains some English history and its value is not great. Compiled about 1419, it was dedicated to Henry V. and was written to justify this king’s invasion of France, It was first published by Matthew Parker in 1574, and has been edited for the “Rolls” series by H. T. Riley (1876). Another history of England by Walsingham dealing with the period between 1272 and 1393 is in manuscript in the British Museum. This agrees in many particulars with the Chronicon Angliae, but it is much less hostile to John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. Walsingham is the main authority for the history of England during the reigns of Richard II., Henry IV. and Henry V., including the rising under Wat Tyler in 1381. He shows considerable animus against John Wycliffe and the Lollards.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Walter, Lucy

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​WALTER, LUCY (c. 1630–1658), mistress of the English king Charles II and reputed mother of the duke of Monmouth (q.v.), is believed to have been born in 1630, or a little later, at Roch Castle, near Haverfordwest. The Walters were a Welsh family of good standing, who declared for the king during the Civil War. Roch Castle having been captured and burned by the parliamentary forces in 1644, Lucy Walter found shelter first in London and then at the Hague. There, in 1648, she met the future king, possibly renewing an earlier acquaintance. There is little reason for believing the story that she was his first mistress; it is certain that he was not her first lover. The intimacy between him and this “brown, beautiful, bold but insipid creature,” as John Evelyn calls her, who chose to be known as Mrs Barlow (Barlo) lasted with intervals till the autumn of 1651, and Charles claimed the paternity of a child born in 1649, whom he subsequently created duke of Monmouth. A daughter, Mary (b. 1651), of whom the reputed father was Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, married William Sarsfield, ​brother of Patrick Sarsfield, earl of Lucan. On the termination of her connexion with Charles II., Lucy Walter abandoned herself to a life of promiscuous immorality, which resulted in her premature death, at Paris, in 1658. Her name is often wrongly written Walters or Waters.
See Steinmann, Althorp Memoirs (1869), pp. 77 seq. and Addenda (1880); J. S. Clarke, Life of James II. (2 vols., 1816); Clarendon State Papers, vol. iii. (Oxford, 1869–1876); and John Evelyn, Diary, edited by W. Bray (1890).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Walsh, Peter

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​WALSH, PETER [Valesius] (c 1618–1688), Irish politician and controversialist, was born at Mooretown, co. Kildare, and studied at Louvain, where he joined the Franciscans and acquired Jansenist sympathies. In 1646 he went to Kilkenny, then in the hands of the rebel "confederate Catholics," and, in opposition to the papal nuncio Rinuccini, urged, and in 1649 helped to secure, peace with the viceroy Ormonde. Persecuted from this time by the irreconcilable supporters of the papal claims, and even in danger of death, after Cromwell's conquest of Ireland he lived obscurely in London and abroad. On the restoration he urged his patron Ormonde to support the Irish Roman Catholics as the natural friends of royalty against the sectaries, and endeavoured to mitigate their lot and efface the impression made by their successive rebellions by a loyal remonstrance to Charles II., boldly repudiating papal infallibility and interference in public affairs, and affirming undivided allegiance to the crown. For eight years he canvassed for signatures to this address, but in spite of considerable support the strenuous opposition of the Jesuits and Dominicans deterred the clergy and nearly wrecked the scheme. From 1669 until his death he lived in London, much respected for his honesty, loyalty and learning. Excommunicated by the Franciscan chapter general in 1670, he remained a devout adherent of his church, although he maintained friendly relations with the Anglicans, accepting their orders and attending their churches. He made a full submission to Rome before his death, though the fact has been questioned. He wrote (1672–1684) a series of controversial letters against Pope Gregory VII.'s doctrine of papal supremacy over princes, ​a voluminous History of the Remonstrance (1674); Hibernica (1682), a worthless history of Ireland; in 1686 a reply to the Popery of Thomas Barlow (1607–1691), bishop of Lincoln; and other works. In these writings he consistently upheld the doctrine of civil liberty against the pretensions of the papacy.
See S. R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War; G. Burnet, History of his own Times, i. 195; T. Carte, Life of Ormonde (new ed. 1851); Dict. Nat. Biog. lix.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Walsh, William

See also William Walsh (poet) on Wikipedia; and our 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica disclaimer.
​WALSH, WILLIAM (1663–1708), English poet and critic, son of Joseph Walsh of Abberley, Worcestershire, was born in 1663. He entered Wadham College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner in 1678. Leaving the university without a degree, he settled in his native county, and was returned M.P. for Worcester in 1698, 1701 and 1702. In 1705 he sat for Richmond, Yorkshire. On the accession of Queen Anne he was made “gentleman of the horse,” a post which he held till his death, noted by Narcissus Luttrell on the 18th of March 1708. He wrote a Dialogue concerning Women, being a Defence of the Sex (1691), addressed to “Eugenia”, and Letters and Poems, Amorous and Gallant (preface dated 1692, printed in Jonson’s Miscellany, 1716, and separately, 1736); love lyrics designed, says the author, to impart to the world “the faithful image of an amorous heart.” It is not as a poet, however, but as the friend and correspondent of Pope that Walsh is remembered. Pope’s Pastorals were submitted for his criticism by Wycherley in 1705, and Walsh then entered on a direct correspondence with the young poet. The letters are printed in Pope’s Works (ed. Elwin and Courthope, vi. 49-60). Pope, who visited him at Abberley in 1707, set great value upon his opinion. “Mr Walsh used to tell me,” he says, “that there was one way left of excelling; for though we had several great poets, we never had any one great poet that was correct, and he desired me to make that my study and my aim.” The excessive eulogy accorded both by Dryden and Pope to Walsh must be accounted for partly on the ground of personal friendship. The life of Virgil prefixed to Dryden’s translation, and a “Preface to the Pastorals with a short defence of Virgil, against some of the reflections of Monsieur Fontenella,” both ascribed at one time to Walsh, were the work of Dr Knightly Chetwood (1650–1720). In 1704 Walsh collaborated with Sir John Vanbrugh and William Congreve in Monsieur de Pourceaugnac, or Squire Trelooby, an adaptation of Molière’s farce.
Walsh’s Poems are included in Anderson’s and other collections of the British poets. See The Lives of the Poets, vol. iii. pp. 151 et seq., published 1753 as by Theophilus Cibber.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Walter of Coventry

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​WALTER OF COVENTRY (fl. 1290), English monk and chronicler, who was apparently connected with a religious house in the province of York, is known to us only through the historical compilation which bears his name, the Memoriale fratris Walteri de Coventria. The word Memoriale is usually taken to mean “commonplace book.” Some critics interpret it in the sense of “a souvenir,” and argue that Walter was not the author but merely the donor of the book; but the weight of authority is against this view. The author of the Memoriale lived in the reign of Edward I., and mentions the homage done to Edward as overlord of Scotland (1291). Since the main narrative extends only to 1225, the Memoriale is emphatically a secondhand production. But for the years 1201–1225 it is a faithful transcript of a contemporary chronicle, the work of a Barnwell canon. A complcte text of the Barnwell work is preserved in the College of Arms (Heralds’ College, MS. 10) but has never yet been printed, though it was collated by Bishop Stubbs for his edition of the Memoriale. The Barnwell annalist, living in Cambridgeshire, was well situated to observe the events of the barons’ war, and is our most valuable authority for that important crisis. He is less hostile to John than are Ralph of Coggeshall, Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris. He praises the king’s management of the Welsh and Scotch wars; he is critical in his attitude towards the pope and the English opposition; he regards the submission of John to Rome as a skilful stroke of policy, although he notes the fact that some men called it a humiliation. The constitutional agitation of 1215 does not arouse his enthusiasm; he passes curtly over the Runnymede conference, barely mentions Magna Carta, and blames the barons for the resumption of war. It may be from timidity that the annalist avoids attacking John, but it is more probable that the middle classes, whom he represents, regarded the designs of the feudal baronage with suspicion.
See W. Stubbs’s edition of Walter of Coventry (“Rolls” series, 2 vols., 1872–1873); R. Pauli, in Geschichte von England (Hamburg, 1853), iii. 872. (H. W. C. D.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Waltershausen, Wolfgang Sartorius, Baron von

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​WALTERSHAUSEW, WOLFGANG SARTORIUS, Baron von (1809–1876), German geologist, was born at Göttingen, on the 17th of December 1809, and educated at the university in that city. There he devoted his attention to physical and natural science, and in particular to mineralogy. During a tour in 1834–1835 he carried out a series of magnetic observations in various parts of Europe. He then gave his attention to an exhaustive investigation of Etna, and carried on the work with some interruptions until 1843. The chief result of this undertaking was his great Atlas des Ätna (1858–1861), in which he distinguished the lava streams formed during the later centuries. After his return from Etna he visited Iceland, and subsequently published Physisch-geographische Skizze von Island (1847), Über die vulkanischen Gesteine in Sicilien und Island (1853), and Geologischer Atlas von Island (1853). Meanwhile he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geology at Göttingen, and held this post for about thirty years, until his death. In 1866 he published an important essay entitled Recherches sur les climats de l’époque actuelle et des epoques anciennes; in this he expressed his belief that the Glacial period was due to changes in the configuration of the earth’s surface. He died at Göttingen on the 16th of October 1876.