Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/310

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
262
*

THTJRINGIA. 262 THUBN. duchies and principalities together with some Prussian districts. The so-called Thuringian States are Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Coburg- Gotha, Saxe-Meiningen, Saxe-Altenburg, Schvvarz- burg-Rudolstadt, Seliwarzburg-Sondershausen, and the two Reuss principalities. The largest city is Erfurt, in the Prussian Province of Saxony. The region took its name from the Thuringians, who at the time of the great migration of nations es- tablished an extensive kingdom near the centre of the present Germany. In the early part of the sixth century the Franks overthrew this king- dom, of which the northern part was joined to the country of the Saxons, and the southern to Franconia. The name Thuringia came to be ap- plied to the country between the rivers Werra and Saalc. and the Harz and Thuringian moun- tains. Under the weak Merovingian rulers dukes arose in this Thuringia, which for a time was virtually independent. Christianity was intro- duced in the eighth century. Under the Carlo- vingian sovereigns Thuringia constituted an im- portant frontier province or march, whose gov- ernor was charged with the lack of repressing or keeping down the Slavic Serbs. In the tenth century the country was under the rule of the dukes "of Saxony. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the landgraves of Thuringia held a prominent place among the German princes. They had their seat at the famous Castle of Wartburg. (See Eisenach.) Landgrave Hermann I. (1190- 1216) is noted as a patron of the minnesingers. The old dynasty of landgraves became extinct in 1247. The landgravate of Thuringia then passed to the House of Wettin. which ruled in the margraviate of Meissen, and which in the fifteenth century came into possession of the electoral duchy "of Saxony. On the partition of the Saxon dominions in 1485 between the Ernestine and Al- bertine lines the bulk of the Thuringian pos- sessions passed to the Ernestine or electoral branch. After the War of the Schmalkald League ( 1546-47 ) the Ernestine house was stripped of its possessions outside of Thuringia. Here arose the various modern Saxon (Thuringian) duchies. See Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Consult : Knoch- enhauer, Ueschichfe Thiiriiigens in der karo- Uirgischcn und sachsischen Zeit (Gotha, 1863); id., Gcschichle Thiiringens ziir Zeit des ersten Landgrafenhatiscs (Gotha, 1871). THUBLOE, thtir'16, John (1616-68). An English Puritan statesman. After Cromwell was proclaimed Protector, Thurloe was appointed chief of the intelligence department, a position which he managed with striking fidelity and success. He continued as Secretary of State under Richard Cromwell until May, 1659. and in spite of royalist opposition in 1660, was reap- pointed prior to the Restoration. After Charles II. 's return he was arrested on a charge of high treason, bxit soon afterwards was freed on con- dition of attending on the secretaries of State whenever they should require his service. His large collection of State papers and correspond- ence, comprising the most authentic materials respecting the period of the Civil War and Cromwell's Protectorate, were discovered in a secret recess in his chambers at Lincoln's Inn during the reign of William III., and are now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Dr. T. Birch issued a Collection of State Papers; con- taining authentic memorials of the English af- fairs from the year IGSS to the Restoration of King Charles II., jiubUshcd from the originals, etc., prefixed by a Life of Thurloe (London, 1742). THTJB'LOW, Edward, Baron (1731-1806). An English lawyer. He was born at Bracon-Ash, Norfolk, was educated at Caius College, Cam- bridge, and was admitted to the bar in 1754. At this time he formed an intimate friendship with the poet William Cowper. Through the patron- age of the Viscount Weymouth, Thurlow was elected to Parliament in 1768. In 1770 he was appointed Solicitor-General, and the next year Attorney-General. He attracted the favor- able notice of George III. by zealously support- ing the governmental policy of coercing the American colonies, and in 1778 was made Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, which office he retained under the Rockingham Administration. In this position he caused great embarrassment by op- posing measures brought in by that Government. Under the Coalition Ministry he was compelled to retire; but he was restored as Chancellor when Pitt came to power. For a time he supported the Government; but, relying on the favor of the King, he finally ventured to oppose the meas- ures of his colleagues. Pitt then intimated that he or Thurlow must retire, and the King con- sented to the removal of Thurlow (1792). There is little to justify the great reputation for ability he had among his contemporaries. Consult Foss, Judges of England, leifh Sketches of Their Lives (London, 184'8-64). THTJR'MAN, Allen Granbery (1813-95). An American political leader and legislator, born in Lynchburg, Va. In 1819 he was taken by his parents to Chillicothe, Ohio. He studied law in the oflice of his uncle, William Allen (q.v.) ; be- came private secretary to Governor Robert Lucas in 1834, and in the following year was ad- mitted to the bar and was taken into partner- ship by his uncle. In 1845-47 he was a Democratic member of Congress, then resumed his law prac- tice, and from 1851 to 1856 was on the bench of the Ohio Supreme Court, after December, 1854, as Chief Justice. In 1867 he was the Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, but was defeated by Rutherford B. Hayes. From 1869 to 1881 he was a member of the United States Senate, and the leader of the small party of Democrats in that body. In the Forty-sixth Congress he was elected president pro tempore of the Senate. He was active as an advocate of a liberal reconstruction policy, was one of the au- thors of the bill creating the Electoral Commis- sion in 1876, and was a member of that body. He was also the author of the well-known 'Thurman Act.' designed to compel the Pacific railroads which had received Government aid to fulfill their obligations to the Government, and secured the passage of the bill. In 1881 he was appointed by President Garfield a member of the International IMonetary Conference at Paris. In 1888 he was nominated by acclamation for Vice-President on the Cleveland ticket, which was defeated by Har- rison and Morton. Consult Hensel and Parker, Lires and Public Services of Grover Cleveland and Allen G. Thurman (New York, 1888). THTTRN, toom, Heinrich Matthias, Count (1580-1640). A leader of the Bohemian Protes-