in the favour of the young Charles XII. and was one of his foremost generals in the earlier part of the great Northern War. In 1704 he was entrusted with his first diplomatic mission, the deposition of Augustus II. of Poland and the election of Stanislaus I., a mission which he accomplished with distinguished ability but absolute unscrupulousness. Shortly afterwards he was besieged by Augustus in Warsaw and compelled to surrender. In 1705 he was made a senator, in 1706 a count and in 1707 governor of Charles XII.’s nephew, the young duke Charles Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp. In 1710 he succeeded Nils Gyldenstolpe as prime minister. Transferred to the central point of the administration, he had ample opportunity of regarding with other eyes the situation of the kingdom, and in consequence of his remonstrances he fell rapidly in the favour of Charles XII. Both in 1710 and 1713 Horn was in favour of summoning the estates, but when in 1714 the diet adopted an anti-monarchical attitude, he gravely warned and ultimately dissolved it. In Charles XII.’s later years Horn had little to do with the administration. After the death of Charles XII. (1718) it was Horn who persuaded the princess Ulrica Leonora to relinquish her hereditary claims and submit to be elected queen of Sweden. He protested against the queen’s autocratic behaviour, and resigned both the premiership and his senatorship. He was elected landtmarskalk at the diet of 1720, and contributed, on the resignation of Ulrica Leonora, to the election of Frederick of Hesse as king of Sweden, whose first act was to restore to him the office of prime minister. For the next eighteen years he so absolutely controlled both the foreign and the domestic affairs of Sweden that the period between 1720 and 1738 has well been called the Horn period. His services to his country were indeed inestimable. His strong hand kept the inevitable strife of the parliamentary factions within due limits, and it was entirely owing to his provident care that Sweden so rapidly recovered from the wretched condition in which the wars of Charles XII. had plunged her. In his foreign policy Horn was extremely wary and cautious, yet without compromising either the independence or the self-respect of his country. He was, however, the promoter of a new principle of administration which in later days proved very dangerous to Sweden under ministers less capable than he was. This was to increase the influence of the diet and its secret committees in the solution of purely diplomatic questions, which should have been left entirely to the executive, thus weakening the central government and at the same time facilitating the interference of foreign Powers in Sweden’s domestic affairs. Not till 1731 was there any appearance of opposition in the diet to Horn’s “system”; but Horn, piqued by the growing coolness of the king, the same year offered his resignation, which was not accepted. In 1734, however, the opposition was bold enough to denounce his neutrality on the occasion of the war of the Polish Succession, when Stanislaus I. again appeared upon the scene as a candidate for the Polish throne; but Horn was still strong enough to prevent a rupture with Russia. Henceforth he was bitterly but unjustly accused of want of patriotism, and in 1738 was compelled at last to retire before the impetuous onslaught of the triumphant young Hat party. For the rest of his life he lived in retirement at his estate at Ekebyholm, where he died on the 17th of April 1742. Horn in many respects greatly resembled his contemporary Walpole. The peculiar situation of Sweden, and the circumstances of his time, made his policy necessarily opportunist, but it was an opportunism based on excellent common sense.
See V. E. Svedelius, Arvid Bernard Horn (Stockholm, 1879); R. N. Bain, Gustavus III., vol. i. (London, 1894), and Charles XII. (1895); C. F. Horn, A. B. Horn: hans lefnad (Stockholm, 1852). (R. N. B.)
HORN, PHILIP DE MONTMORENCY, Count of (1518–1568),
a man of illustrious descent and great possessions in the Netherlands,
became in succession under Charles V. and Philip II.
stadtholder of Gelderland, admiral of Flanders and knight of
the Golden Fleece. In 1559 he commanded the stately fleet
which conveyed Philip II. from the Netherlands to Spain, and
he remained at the Spanish court till 1563. On his return he
placed himself with the prince of Orange and Count Egmont
at the head of the party which opposed the policy of Cardinal
Granvella. When Granvella retired the three great nobles
continued to resist the introduction of the Spanish Inquisition
and of Spanish despotic rule into the Netherlands. But though
Philip appeared for a time to give way, he had made up his mind
to visit the opponents of his policy with ruthless punishment.
The regent, Margaret, duchess of Parma, was replaced by the
duke of Alva, who entered the Netherlands at the head of a
veteran army and at once began to crush all opposition with a
merciless hand. Orange fled from the country, but Egmont
and Horn, despite his warning, decided to remain and face the
storm. They were both seized, tried and condemned as traitors,
and were executed on the 5th of June 1568 in the great square
before the town hall at Brussels.
See biographical notices in A. J. van der Aa, Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden (Haarlem, 1851–1879); J. Kok, Vaderlandsch Woordenboek (Amsterdam, 1785–1799); also bibliography to chaps. vi. vii. and xix. in Cambridge Modern History, vol. iii. pp. 798-809 (1904).
HORN, English hero of romance. King Horn is a heroic
poem or gest of 1546 lines dating from the 13th century. Murry
(or Allof), king of Sudenne[1] (Surrey and Sussex?) is slain by
Saracen pirates who turn his son Horn adrift with twelve other
children. The boat drifts to Westernesse[2] (Cornwall?), where
the children are received by King Aylmer (Aethelmaer).
Presently Horn is denounced by one of his companions as the
lover of the king’s daughter Rymenhild (Rimel) and is banished,
taking with him a ring, the gift of his bride and a talisman against
danger. In Ireland, under the name of Godmod, he serves
for seven years, and slays in battle the Saracens who had killed
his father. Learning that Rymenhild is to be married against
her will to King Mody, he returns to Westernesse disguised
as a palmer, and makes himself known to the bride by dropping
the ring into the cup she offers him, with the words “Drink to
Horn of Horn.” He then reconquers his father’s kingdom and
marries Rymenhild.
The other versions of the story, which are founded on a common tradition, but are not immediately dependent on one another, are: (1) the longer French romance of Horn et Rimenhild by “mestre Thomas,” describing more complex social conditions than those of the English poem; (2) a slightly shorter Middle English poem, Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild; (3) the Scottish ballad of “Hind Horn;” (4) a prose romance founded on the French Horn, entitled Pontus et Sidoine (Lyons, 1480, Eng. trans. pr. by Wynkyn de Worde, 1511; German trans. Augsburg, 1483).
There is a marked resemblance between the story of Horn and the legend of Havelok the Dane, and it is interesting to note how closely Richard of Ely followed the Horn tradition in the 12th century De gestis Herewardi Saxonis. Hereward also loves an Irish princess, flees to Ireland, and returns in time for the bridal feast, where he is presented with a cup by the princess. The orphaned prince who recovers his father’s kingdom and avenges his murder, and the maid or wife who waits years for an absent lover or husband, and is rescued on the eve of a forced marriage, are common characters in romance. The second of these motives, with almost identical incidents, occurs in the legend of Henry the Lion, duke of Brunswick; it is the subject of ballads in Swedish, Danish, German, Bohemian, &c., and of a Historia by Hans Sachs, though some magic elements are added; it also occurs in the ballad of Der edle Moringer (14th century), well known in Sir Walter Scott’s translation; in the story of Torello in the Decameron of Boccaccio (10th day, 9th tale); and with some variation in the Russian tale of Dobrynya and Nastasya.
King Horn was re-edited for the Early English Text Soc. by G. H. McKnight in 1901; Horn et Rimenhild was edited with the English versions for the Bannatyne Club by F. Michel (Paris, 1845); Horn Childe and Maiden Rimnild in J. Ritson’s Metrical Romances, vol. iii.; and “Hind Horn” in F. J. Child’s English and Scottish
- ↑ There was a barrow in the Isle of Purbeck, Dorsetshire, called Hornesbeorh; and there are other indications which point to a possible connexion between Horn and Dorset (see H. L. Ward, Cat. of Romances, i. 451).
- ↑ Sudenne and Westernesse are tentatively identified also with Isle of Man and Wirral (Cambridge Hist. of Eng Lit., i. 304).
