Esterhazy, created a count in 1626, once more became the devoted partisan of the house of Hapsburg, though it had again returned to its hereditary task of oppressing the protestants and curtailing the constitutional rights of the country. Upon this Prince George Rakvizy of Transylvania, invaded Hungary in 1643, to redress the grievances. The palatine failing to conciliate the emperor's view with the rights of the country, took at last the field against Rakvizy, but he died in 1645, before the war was ended by the peace of Linz, which again confirmed civil and religious liberty in 1647.
Paul, the third son of Count Nicholas, born in 1635, followed the traditions of the family, and espoused the cause of the emperor and of the jesuits, always ready to curtail the rights of the protestants, and to yield, though with reluctance and not without opposition, to the despotic tendencies of the emperor, Leopold I. He remained faithful to him even when, in 1671, he had abolished the constitution, when the protestant clergymen, refusing to give up preaching the gospel, were exiled and imprisoned, and General Caraffa held the bloody assizes of Eperges. Still the nation offered such resistance to Leopold, that in 1681 he had to return to the path of legality. After ten years of despotism the diet was again called together, which elected Count Paul Esterhazy palatine, as the man, who, enjoying the confidence of the emperor, might be able to defend the despotic plots of the German ministers. His hold upon the nation enabled him in 1687 to carry the bill which established the hereditary right of the Hapsburgs to the crown of Hungary, and abolished that clause of the Hungarian magna charta, which legalized an insurrection against the king whenever he should have violated the constitution. The emperor rewarded the palatine by raising him to the rank of a prince of the Roman empire; but Prince Esterhazy, on account of his foreign title, lost now all his influence in Hungary. Now risings took place against the Austrian rule, and when in 1704 the old emperor, involved at that time in a French war, wished to come to terms with the insurgents, they refused to treat with the palatine, as a man who had sold himself to the Germans. It was therefore to his great regret, that not he, but Archbishop Paul Széchenye, by the good offices of the English government and the Dutch states general, succeeded in bringing about the peace of Szatlaide in 1711, once more promising civil and religious liberty to Hungary. Prince Paul Esterhazy died in 1713.
Besides the two palatines, we may notice Count Emeric Esterhazy who was born in 1665, and died in 1747, primate of Hungary, known by his boundless indiscriminate liberality to the poor, including beggars of every kind.—Count Charles Esterhazy, bishop of Erlau, was an open enemy of the protestants. He founded the library and the observatory of Erlau in 1777.—Prince Paul Anthony Esterhazy, born in 1711, a grandson of the palatine Paul, raised, fitted out, and commanded a regiment of hussars in the wars of Maria Theresa against Frederic II. of Prussia, and died a field-marshal in 1762. His brother Joseph, born in 1714, distinguished himself in the same war, and died in 1790, likewise a field-marshal.—Prince Anthony, born in 1765, is renowned as the munificent patron of the great composer Haydn, and as the founder of a celebrated collection of pictures and engravings; he died in 1833. His son, Prince Paul, born in 1786, chose the diplomatic career, dazzled—as ambassador between 1830 and 1837—London society by the splendour of his jewellery, signed the protocols and treaties which recognized the independence of Belgium, became in March, 1848, Hungarian minister of foreign affairs, but gave in his resignation in September of the same year, as soon as he heard of Ban Jellachich's invasion. He has since lived on his estates, retired from politics.—F. P. L.
ESTHER or ESTHERKA, a Polish Jewess, was born at Opoczno in the fourteenth century. She is celebrated for her beauty, and for the fascination which she exercised over Casimir the Great. Her influence with that sovereign she used to meliorate the condition of her people, and succeeded in procuring for them an unwonted number of privileges. She seems to have had their welfare much at heart, and is said to have died of grief at the persecutions which again broke out against them after the death of Casimir in 1370. Esther bore Casimir two sons, both of whom were made away with by the Polish nobles.—R. M., A.
ESTIENNE. See Stephanus.
ESTIUS, William, was an eminent Roman catholic professor of theology in the university of Douay, during the last quarter of the sixteenth century and the early part of the seventeenth. He occupied the chair of exegetic and scholastic theology for thirty-one years, and held the office of chancellor for ten years before his death, which took place in 1613. During all that time he was the chief ornament of the university, and his reputation as a teacher was confirmed by his success as an author. His best work, in the estimation of theologians of his own church, was his "Commentarii in omnes Divi Pauli, et septem Catholicas Apostolorum Epistolas"—Duaci, 2 tom., fol., 1614, 1615—in which he adopts the literal and grammatical principle of interpretation. Of less importance are his "Annotationes in præcipua et difficiliora sacræ Scripturæ loca," Duaci, 1817, fol.; and his "Commentarii in lib. iv. Petri Lombardi," Duaci, 1615.—P. L.
ESTOURMEL, an eminent French family which, besides the companion of Godfrey of Bouillon, Reimbold d'Estourmel, numbers among its members the following eminent persons:—
Jean d'Estourmel, a distinguished general in the reign of Francis I., died in 1557. He was employed, both by the king and the duke of Vendôme, in arranging the preliminaries of the marriage of Mary of Lorraine with James V. of Scotland (1531). One of his feats of arms gave rise to a ceremony in Peronne, which was annually performed till the era of the Revolution. When that place was besieged by the count of Nassau in 1536, Estourmel threw himself into it with all the provisions he could muster, and repulsing assault after assault, at last compelled Nassau to raise the siege. To commemorate this exploit, the inhabitants of Peronne annually had a solemn procession, headed by the clergy, who were instructed to compliment the descendants of Estourmel on the exploit of their ancestor.
Alexander Cæsar Louis, Count d'Estourmel, son of the marquis d'Estourmel, who made some figure in public life during the revolutionary period, was born in Paris in 1780. He entered the army in 1799; served in Germany, Spain, and Portugal; and after the battle of Eckmühl, in which he took part, received from Napoleon the cordon of the legion of honour. In 1815 he was elected to the chamber of deputies, where he sat, with only short intervals, till 1837. He voted always with the ultra-liberal party in the chamber. In 1833 he was sent to America on a mission of importance, but was recalled at the moment of his entering Washington. From 1837 till his death he lived in retirement —J. S., G.
ESTOUTEVILLE, Guillaume d', a French prelate, born in 1403, and died in 1483. He was from the first designed by his parents for the church, and immediately after entering into orders was literally covered with benefices and honours. He was successively provided with six bishoprics, at the same time that he was archbishop of Rouen and possessed four abbacies. He was sent as legate to France by Nicholas V., and during his residence there conducted the investigations which preceded the passing of the act of rehabilitation in regard to the Pucelle. He returned to Italy in 1453, where he passed the rest of his life. Two illegitimate children survived him.—R. M., A.
ESTRADA, Bartholomeo Ruiz de, a Spanish adventurer, established at Santa Maria de la Antigua in 1514. It is probable that he accompanied an expedition from Darien in that year, which first discovered the river Peru; certain it is, that he afterwards acted as guide to Pizarro and Almagro, who transferred the name of this important river to a large portion of the South American continent.—F. M. W.
ESTRADES, Godfrey, Count d', marshal of France, a celebrated diplomatist, was born in 1627. After serving under Prince Maurice in the Netherlands, he was appointed to treat with the English court about the sale of the fortress of Dunkirk After the treaty had been signed by which it was to be transferred to the French, the English parliament endeavoured to retain possession of it; but the garrison was induced by Estrades to evacuate it, according to the orders of Charles II. In 1666 he was appointed French ambassador in London, and in 1667 he held a similar office in Holland, where he took part in arranging the treaty of Breda. He represented France in the conferences of Nimeguen. He died in 1686.—D. M.
ESTRÉES, César, Cardinal d', son of François Annibal, and nephew of the celebrated Gabrielle d'Estrées, was born at Paris, February 15, 1628, and died December 18, 1714. He displayed a profound knowledge of the affairs of church and state in the different negotiations with which he was charged by Louis XIV. The history of his negotiations at Rome, from 1671 to
