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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Frederick II., Elector Palatine

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​FREDERICK II. (1482–1556), surnamed “the Wise,” elector palatine of the Rhine, fourth son of the elector Philip, was born on the 9th of December 1482. Of an active and adventurous temperament, he fought under the emperor Maximilian I. in 1508, and afterwards served the Habsburgs loyally in other ways. He worked to secure the election of Charles, afterwards the emperor Charles V., as the successor of Maximilian in 1519; fought in two campaigns against the Turks; and being disappointed in his hope of obtaining the hand of one of the emperor’s sisters, married in 1535 Dorothea (d. 1580), daughter of Christian II., who had been driven from the Danish throne. The Habsburgs promised their aid in securing this crown for Frederick, but, like many previous promises made to him, this came to nothing. Having spent his time in various parts of Europe, and incurred heavy debts on account of his expensive tastes, Frederick became elector palatine by the death of his brother, Louis V., in March 1544. With regard to the religious troubles of Germany, he took up at first the rôle of a mediator, but in 1545 he joined the league of Schmalkalden, and in 1546 broke definitely with the older faith. He gave a little assistance to the league in its war with Charles, but soon submitted to the emperor, accepted the Interim issued from Augsburg in May 1548, and afterwards acted in harmony with Charles. The elector died on the 26th of February 1556, and as he left no children was succeeded by his nephew, Otto Henry (1502–1559). He was a great benefactor to the university of Heidelberg.
Frederick’s life, Annales de vita et rebus gestis Friderici II. electoris palatini (Frankfort, 1624), was written by his secretary Hubert Thomas Leodius; this has been translated into German by E. von Bülow (Breslau, 1849). See also Rott, Friedrich II. von der Pfalz und die Reformation (Heidelberg, 1904).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Frederick I., Elector of Brandenburg

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​FREDERICK I. (c. 1371–1440), elector of Brandenburg, founder of the greatness of the House of Hohenzollern, was a son of Frederick V., burgrave of Nuremberg, and first came into prominence by saving the life of Sigismund, king of Hungary, at the battle of Nicopolis in 1396. In 1397 he became burgrave of Nuremberg, and after his father’s death in 1398 he shared Ansbach, Bayreuth, and the smaller possessions of the family, with his only brother John, but became sole ruler after his brother’s death in 1420. Loyal at first to King Wenceslaus, the king’s neglect of Germany drove Frederick to take part in his deposition in 1400, and in the election of Rupert III., count palatine of the Rhine, whom he accompanied to Italy in the following year. In 1401 he married Elizabeth, or Elsa, daughter of Frederick, duke of Bavaria-Landshut (d. 1393), and after spending some time in family and other feuds, took service again with King Sigismund in 1409, whom he assisted in his struggle with the Hungarian rebels. The double election to the German throne in 1410 first brought Frederick into relation with Brandenburg. Sigismund, anxious to obtain another vote in the electoral college, appointed Frederick to exercise the Brandenburg vote on his behalf, and it was largely through his efforts that Sigismund was chosen German king. Frederick then passed some time as administrator of Brandenburg, where he restored a certain degree of order, and was formally invested with the electorate and margraviate by Sigismund at Constance on the 18th of April 1417 (see Brandenburg). He took part in the war against the Hussites, but became estranged from Sigismund when in 1423 the king invested Frederick of Wettin, margrave of Meissen, with the vacant electoral duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg. In 1427 he sold his rights as burgrave to the town of Nuremberg, and he was a prominent member of the band of electors who sought to impose reforms upon Sigismund. After having been an unsuccessful candidate for the German throne in 1438, Frederick was chosen king of Bohemia in 1440, but declined the proffered honour. He took part in the election of Frederick III. as German king in 1440, and died at Radolzburg on the 21st of September in the same year. In 1902 a bronze statue was erected to his memory at Friesack, and there is also a marble one of the elector in the “Siegesallee” at Berlin.
See A. F. Riedel, Zehn Jahre aus der Geschichte der Ahnherren des preussischen Königshauses (Berlin, 1851); E. Brandenburg, König Sigmund und Kurfürst Friedrich I. von Brandenburg (Berlin, 1891); and O. Franklin, Die deutsche Politik Friedrichs I. Kurfürsten von Brandenburg (Berlin, 1851).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Frederick II., Elector of Saxony

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​FREDERICK II. (1411–1464), called “the Mild,” elector and duke of Saxony, eldest son of the elector Frederick I., was born on the 22nd of August 1411. He succeeded his father as elector in 1428, but shared the family lands with his three brothers, and was at once engaged in defending Saxony against the attacks of the Hussites. Freed from these enemies about 1432, and turning his attention to increasing his possessions, he obtained the burgraviate of Meissen in 1439, and some part of Lower Lusatia after a struggle with Brandenburg about the same time. In 1438 it was decided that Frederick, and not his rival, Bernard IV., duke of Saxe-Lauenburg, was entitled to exercise the Saxon electoral vote at the elections for the German throne; and the elector then aided Albert II. to secure this dignity, performing a similar service for his own brother-in-law, Frederick, afterwards the emperor Frederick III., two years later. Family affairs, meanwhile, occupied Frederick’s attention. One brother, Henry, having died in 1435, and another, Sigismund (d. 1463), having entered the church and become bishop of Würzburg, Frederick and his brother William (d. 1482) were the heirs of their childless cousin, Frederick “the Peaceful,” who ruled Thuringia and other parts of the lands of the Wettins. On his death in 1440 the brothers divided Frederick’s territory, but this arrangement was not satisfactory, and war broke out between them in 1446. Both combatants obtained extraneous aid, but after a desolating struggle peace was made in January 1451, when William received Thuringia, and Frederick Altenburg and other districts. The remainder of the elector’s reign was uneventful, and he died at Leipzig on the 7th of September 1464. By his wife, Margaret (d. 1486), daughter of Ernest, duke of Styria, he left two sons and four daughters. In July 1455 occurred the celebrated Prinzenraub, the attempt of a knight named Kunz von Kaufungen (d. 1455) to abduct Frederick’s two sons, Ernest and Albert. Having carried them off from Altenburg, Kunz was making his way to Bohemia when the plot was accidentally discovered and the princes restored.
See W. Schäfer, Der Montag vor Kiliani (1855); J. Gersdorf, Einige Aktenstücke zur Geschichte des sächsischen Prinzenraubes (1855); and T. Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, vol. iv. (London, 1899).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Croft, William

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​CROFT (or Crofts), WILLIAM (1678–1727), English composer, was born in 1678, at Nether Ettington in Warwickshire. He received his musical education in the Chapel Royal under Dr Blow. He early obtained the place of organist of St Anne’s, Soho, and in 1700 was admitted a gentleman extraordinary of the Chapel ​Royal. In 1707 he was appointed joint-organist with Blow; and upon the death of the latter in 1708 he became solo organist, and also master of the children and composer of the Chapel Royal, besides being made organist of Westminster Abbey. In 1712 he wrote a brief introduction on the history of English church music to a collection of the words of anthems which he had edited under the title of Divine Harmony. In 1713 he obtained his degree of doctor of music in the university of Oxford. In 1724 he published an edition of his choral music in 2 vols. folio, under the name of Musica Sacra, or Select Anthems in score, for two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight voices, to which is added the Burial Service, as it is occasionally performed in Westminster Abbey. This handsome work included a portrait of the composer and was the first of the kind executed on pewter plates and in score. John Page, in his Harmonia Sacra, published in 1800 in 3 vols. folio, gives seven of Croft’s anthems. Of instrumental music, Croft published six sets of airs for two violins and a bass, six sonatas for two flutes, six solos for a flute and bass. He died at Bath on the 14th of August 1727, and was buried in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey, where a monument was erected to his memory by his friend and admirer Humphrey Wyrley Birch. Burney in his History of Music devotes several pages of his third volume (pp. 603-612) to Dr Croft’s life, and criticisms of some of his anthems. During the earlier period of his life Croft wrote much for the theatre, including overtures and incidental music for Courtship à la mode (1700), The Funeral (1702) and The Lying Lover (1703).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Croker, Richard

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​CROKER, RICHARD (1843–), American politician, was born at Blackrock, Ireland, on the 24th of November 1843. He was taken to the United States by his parents when two years old, and was educated in the public schools of New York ​City, where he eventually became a member of Tammany Hall and active in its politics. He was an alderman from 1868 to 1870, a coroner from 1873 to 1876, a fire commissioner in 1883 and 1887, and city chamberlain from 1889 to 1890. After the fall of John Kelly he became the leader of Tammany Hall (q.v.), and for some time almost completely controlled the organization. His greatest political success was his bringing about the election of Robert A. van Wyck as first mayor of greater New York in 1897, and during van Wyck’s administration Croker is popularly supposed to have dominated completely the government of the city. After Croker’s failure to “carry” the city in the presidential election of 1900 and the defeat of his mayoralty candidate, Edward M. Shepard, in 1901, he resigned from his position of leadership in Tammany, and retired to a country life in England and Ireland. In 1907 he won the Derby with his race-horse Orby.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Croker, Thomas Crofton

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​CROKER, THOMAS CROFTON (1798–1854), Irish antiquary and humorist, was born in Cork on the 15th of January 1798. He was apprenticed to a merchant, but in 1819, through the interest of John Wilson Croker, who was, however, no relation of his, he became a clerk in the Admiralty. Moore was indebted to him in the production of his Irish Melodies for “many curious fragments of ancient poetry.” In 1825 he produced his most popular book, the Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, which he followed up by the publication of his Legends of the Lakes (1829), his Adventures of Barney Mahoney (1852), and an edition of the Popular Songs of Ireland (1839). In 1827 he was made a member of the Irish Academy; in 1839 and 1840 he helped to found the Camden and Percy Societies, and in 1843 the British Archaeological Association. He wrote Narratives Illustrative of the Contests in Ireland in 1641 and 1688 (1841), for the Camden Society, Historical Songs of Ireland, &c. (1841), for the Percy Society, and several other works. He was also a member of the Hakluyt and the Antiquarian Society. He died in London on the 8th of August 1854.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Croll, James

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​CROLL, JAMES (1821–1890), Scottish man of science, was born of a peasant family at Little Whitefield, in the parish of Cargill, in Perthshire, on the 2nd of January 1821. He was regarded as an unpromising boy, but a trifling circumstance aroused a passion for reading, and he made great progress in self-education. He was apprenticed to a wheelwright at Collace in Perthshire, but being debarred by ill-health from manual labour, he became successively a shop-keeper and an insurance agent. In 1859 he was made keeper of the Andersonian Museum in Glasgow, a humble appointment, which, however, gave him congenial occupation. In 1857, being deeply impressed by the metaphysics of Jonathan Edwards, he had published an anonymous volume entitled The Philosophy of Theism; but his connexion with the Museum induced him to take up physical science, and from 1861 onwards he studied with such perseverance that he was enabled to contribute papers to the Philosophical Magazine and other journals. For that magazine in 1864 he wrote his celebrated essay “On the Physical Cause of the Changes of Climate during Geological Epochs.” This led to his receiving an appointment on the Scottish Geological Survey in 1867, and for thirteen years he took charge of the Edinburgh Office. In 1875 he summed up his researches upon the ancient condition of the earth in his Climate and Time, in their Geological Relations, in which he contends that terrestrial revolutions are due in a measure to cosmical causes. This theory excited warm controversy. Croll’s replies to his opponents are collected in his Climate and Cosmology (1885). He had been compelled by ill-health to withdraw from the public service in 1880; yet, working under the greatest difficulties, and harassed by the inadequacy of his retiring pension, he managed to produce Stellar Evolution, discussing, among other things, the age of the sun, in 1889; and The Philosophical Basis of Evolution, partly a critique of Herbert Spencer’s philosophy, in 1890. He died on the 15th of December 1890. The soundness of Croll’s astronomical theory regarding the glacial period has since been criticized by E. P. Culverwell in the Geological Magazine for 1895, and by others; and it is now generally abandoned. Nevertheless it must be admitted that his character as a scientific worker under great discouragements was nothing less than heroic. The hon. degree of LL.D. was conferred on him in 1876 by the university of St Andrews; and he was elected F.R.S. in the same year.
An Autobiographical Sketch of James Croll, with Memoir of his Life and Work, was prepared by J. C. Irons, and published in 1896.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Croly, George

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​CROLY, GEORGE (1780–1860), British divine and author, son of a Dublin physician, was born on the 17th of August 1780. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and after ordination was appointed to a small curacy in the north of Ireland. About 1810 he came to London, and occupied himself with literary work. A man of restless energy, he claims attention by his extraordinary versatility. He wrote dramatic criticisms for a short-lived periodical called the New Times; he was one of the earliest contributors to Blackwood’s Magazine; and to the Literary Gazette he contributed poems, reviews and essays on all kinds of subjects. In 1819 he married Margaret Helen Begbie. Efforts to secure an English living for Croly were frustrated, according to the Gentleman’s Magazine (Jan. 1861), because Lord Eldon confounded him with a Roman Catholic of the same name. Excluding his contributions to the daily and weekly press his chief works were:—Paris in 1815 (1817), a poem in imitation of Childe Harold; Catiline (1822), a tragedy lacking in dramatic force; Salathiel: A Story of the Past, the Present and the Future (1829), a successful romance of the “Wandering Jew” type; The Life and Times of his late Majesty George the Fourth (1830); Marston; or, The Soldier and Statesman (1846), a novel of modern life; The Modern Orlando (1846), a satire which owes something to Don Juan; and some biographies, sermons and theological works.
Croly was an effective preacher, and continued to hope for preferment from the Tory leaders, to whom he had rendered considerable services by his pen; but he eventually received, in 1835, the living of St Stephen’s, Walbrook, London, from a Whig patron, Lord Brougham, with whose family he was connected. In 1847 he was made afternoon lecturer at the Foundling hospital, but this appointment proved unfortunate. He died suddenly on the 24th of November 1860, in London.
His Poetical Works (2 vols.) were collected in 1830. For a list of his works see Allibone’s Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1859).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cromarty

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​CROMARTY, a police burgh and seaport of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 1242. It is situated on the southern shore of the mouth of Cromarty Firth, 5 m. E. by S. of Invergordon on the opposite coast, with which there is daily communication by steamer, and 9 m. N.E. of Fortrose, the most convenient railway station. Before the union of the shires of Ross and Cromarty, it was the county town of Cromartyshire, and is one of the Wick district group of parliamentary burghs. Its name is variously derived from the Gaelic crom, crooked, and bath, bay, or ard, height, meaning either the “crooked bay,” or the “bend between the heights” (the high rocks, or Sutors, which guard the entrance to the Firth), and gave the title to the earldom of Cromarty. The principal buildings are the town hall and the Hugh Miller Institute. The harbour, enclosed by two piers, accommodates the herring fleet, but the fisheries, the staple industry, have declined. The town, however, is in growing repute as a midsummer resort. The thatched house with crow-stepped gables in Church Street, in which Hugh Miller the geologist was born, still stands, and a statue has been erected to his memory. To the east of the burgh is Cromarty House, occupying the site of the old castle of the earls of Ross. It was the birthplace of Sir Thomas Urquhart, the translator of Rabelais.
Cromarty, formerly a county in the north of Scotland, was incorporated with Ross-shire in 1889 under the designation of the county of Ross and Cromarty. The nucleus of the county consisted of the lands of Cromarty in the north of the peninsula of the Black Isle. To this were added from time to time the various estates scattered throughout Ross-shire—the most considerable of which were the districts around Ullapool and Little Loch Broom on the Atlantic coast, the area in which Ben Wyvis is situated, and a tract to the north of Loch Fannich—which had been acquired by the ancestors of Sir George Mackenzie (1630–1714), afterwards Viscount Tarbat (1685) and 1st earl of Cromarty (1703). Desirous of combining these sporadic properties into one shire, Viscount Tarbat was enabled to procure their annexation to his sheriffdom of Cromarty in 1685 and 1698, the area of the enlarged county amounting to nearly 370 sq. m. (See Ross and Cromarty.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Crofter

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​CROFTER, a term used, more particularly in the Highlands and islands of Scotland, to designate a tenant who rents and cultivates a small holding of land or “croft.” This Old English word, meaning originally an enclosed field, seems to correspond to the Dutch kroft, a field on high ground or downs. The ultimate origin is unknown. By the Crofters’ Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886, a crofter is defined as the tenant of a holding who resides on his holding, the annual rent of which does not exceed £30 in money, and which is situated in a crofting parish. The wholesale clearances of tenants from their crofts during the 19th century, in violation of, as the tenants claimed, an implied security of tenure, has led in the past to much agitation on the part of the crofters to secure consideration of their grievances. They have been the subject of royal commissions and of considerable legislation, but the effect of the Crofters Act of 1886, with subsequent amending acts, has been to improve their condition markedly, and much of the agitation has now died out. A history of the legislation dealing with the crofters is given in the article Scotland.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cromagnon Race

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​CROMAGNON RACE, the name given by Paul Broca to a type of mankind supposed to be represented by remains found by Lartet, Christy and others, in France in the Cromagnon cave at Les Eyzies, Tayac district, Dordogne. At the foot of a steep rock near the village this small cave, nearly filled with debris, was found by workmen in 1868. Towards the top of the loose strata three human skeletons were unearthed. They were those of an old man, a young man and a woman, the latter’s skull bearing the mark of a severe wound. The skulls presented such special characteristics that Broca took them as types of a race. Palaeolithic man is exclusively long-headed, and the dolichocephalic appearance of the crania (they had a mean cephalic index of 73.34) supported the view that the “find” at Les Eyzies was palaeolithic. It is, however, inaccurate to state that brachycephaly appears at once with the neolithic age, dolichocephaly even of a pronounced type persisting far into neolithic times. The Cromagnon race may thus be, as many anthropologists believe it, early neolithic, a type of man who spread over and inhabited a large portion of Europe at the close of the Pleistocene period. Some have sought to find in it the substratum of the present populations of western Europe. Quatrefages identifies Cromagnon man with the tall, long-headed, fair Kabyles (Berbers) who still survive in various parts of Mauritania. He suggests the introduction of the Cromagnon from Siberia, “arriving in Europe simultaneously with the great mammals (which were driven by the cold from Siberia), and no doubt following their route.”
See A. H. Keane’s Ethnology (1896); Mortillet, Le Préhistorique (1900); Sergi, The Mediterranean Race (1901); Lord Avebury, Prehistoric Times, p. 317 of 1900 edition.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gelati

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​GELATI, a Georgian monastery in Russian Transcaucasia, in the government of Kutais, 11 m. E. of the town of Kutais, standing on a rocky spur (705 ft. above sea-level) in the valley of the Rion. It was founded in 1109 by the Georgian king David the Renovator. The principal church, a sandstone cathedral, dates from the end of the preceding century, and contains the royal crown of the former Georgian kingdom of Imeretia, besides ancient MSS., ecclesiological furniture, and fresco portraits of the kings of Imeretia. Here also, in a separate chapel, is the tomb of David the Renovator (1089–1125) and part of the iron gate of the town of Ganja (now Elisavetpol), which that monarch brought away as a trophy of his capture of the place.