LUNA, ÁLVARO DE (d. 1453), Constable of Castile, Grand Master of Santiago, and favourite of King John II. of Castile, was the natural son of Álvaro de Luna, a Castilian noble. He was introduced to the court as a page by his uncle Pedro de Luna, archbishop of Toledo, in 1410. Álvaro soon secured a commanding influence over John II., then a mere boy. During the regency of the king’s uncle Ferdinand, which ended in 1412, he was not allowed to be more than a servant. When, however, Ferdinand was elected king of Aragon, and the regency remained in the hands of the king’s mother, Constance, daughter of John of Gaunt, a foolish and dissolute woman, Álvaro became a very important person. The young king regarded him with an affection which the superstition of the time attributed to witchcraft. As the king was surrounded by greedy and unscrupulous nobles, among whom his cousins, the sons of Ferdinand, commonly known as the Infantes (princes) of Aragon, were perhaps the worst, his reliance on a favourite who had every motive to be loyal to him is quite intelligible. Álvaro too was a master of all the accomplishments the king admired—a fine horseman, a skilful lance and a writer of court verse. Until he lost the king’s protection he was the central figure of the Castilian history of the time. It was a period of constant conflict conducted by shifting coalitions of the nobles, who under pretence of freeing the king from the undue influence of his favourite were intent on making a puppet of him for their own ends. The part which Álvaro de Luna played has been diversely judged. To Mariana he appears as a mere self-seeking favourite. To others he has seemed to be a loyal servant of the king who endeavoured to enforce the authority of the crown, which in Castile was the only alternative to anarchy. He fought for his own hand, but his supremacy was certainly better than the rule of gangs of plundering nobles. His story is in the main one of expulsions from the court by victorious factions, and of his return when his conquerors fell out among themselves. Thus in 1427 he was solemnly expelled by a coalition of the nobles, only to be recalled in the following year. In 1431 he endeavoured to employ the restless nobles in a war for the conquest of Granada. Some successes were gained, but a consistent policy was impossible with a rebellious aristocracy and a king of indolent character. In 1445 the faction of the nobles allied with Álvaro’s main enemies, the Infantes de Aragon, were beaten at Olmedo, and the favourite, who had been constable of Castile and count of Santestéban since 1423, became Grand Master of the military order of Santiago by election of the Knights. His power appeared to be thoroughly established. It was, however, based on the personal affection of the king. The king’s second wife, Isabella of Portugal, was offended at the immense influence of the constable, and urged her husband to free himself from slavery to his favourite. In 1453 the king succumbed, Álvaro was arrested, tried and condemned by a process which was a mere parody of justice, and executed at Valladolid on the 2nd of June 1453.
The Chronicle of Álvaro de Luna (Madrid, 1784), written by some loyal follower who survived him, is a panegyric and largely a romance. The other contemporary authority—the Chronicle of John II.—is much less favourable to the constable. Don Jose Quintana has summarized the two chronicles in his life of Luna in the Vidas de Españoles célebres; Biblioteca de Aulores Españoles (Madrid, 1846–1880), vol. xix.
LUNA (mod. Luni), an ancient city of Etruria, Italy, 412 m. S.E. of the modern Sarzana. It was the frontier town of Etruria, on the left bank of the river, Macra, the boundary in imperial times between Etruria and Liguria. When the Romans first appeared in these parts, however, the Ligurians were in possession of the territory as far as Pisa. It derived its importance mainly from its harbour, which was the gulf now known as the Gulf of Spezia, and not merely the estuary of the Macra as some authors have supposed. The town was apparently not established until 177 B.C., when a colony was founded here, though the harbour is mentioned by Ennius, who sailed hence for Sardinia in 205 B.C. under Manlius Torquatus. An inscription of 155 B.C., found in the forum of Luna in 1857, was dedicated to M. Claudius Marcellus in honour of his triumph over the Ligurians and Apuani. It lost much of its importance under the Empire, though traversed by the coast road (Via Aurelia), and it was renowned for the marble from the neighbouring mountains of Carrara, which bore the name of Luna marble. Pliny speaks of the quarries as only recently discovered in his day. Good wine was also produced. There are some remains of the Roman period on the site, and a theatre and an amphitheatre may be distinguished. No Etruscan remains have come to light. O. Cuntz’s investigations (Jahreshefte des Österr. Arch. Instituts, 1904, 46) seem to lead to the conclusion that an ancient road crossed the Apennines from it, following the line of the modern road (more or less that of the modern railway from Sarzana to Parma), and dividing near Pontremoli, one branch going to Borgotaro, Veleia and Placentia, and the other over the Cisa pass to Forum Novum (Fornovo) and Parma. The town was destroyed by the Arabs in 1016, and the episcopal see transferred to Sarzana in 1204.
See G. Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria (London, 1883), ii. 63. (T. As.)
LUNATION, the period of return of the moon (luna) to the same position relative to the sun; for example, from full moon to full moon. Its duration is 29.5305884 days.
LUNAVADA, a native state in India, in the Gujarat division
of Bombay. Area, 388 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 63,967, showing a
decrease of 28% in the decade, due to famine. The chief, whose
title is maharana, is a Rajput of high lineage. Estimated revenue,
£12,000; tribute, £1000. The capital is Lunavada town, said
to have been founded in 1434; pop. (1901) 10,277.
LUNCHEON, in present usage the name given to a meal between
breakfast and tea or dinner. When dinner was taken at
an early hour, or when it is still the principal midday meal,
luncheon was and is still a light repast. The derivation of the
word has been obscured, chiefly owing to the attempted connexion
with “nuncheon,” with which the word has nothing
to do etymologically. “Luncheon” is an extended form of
“lunch” (another form of “lump,” as “hunch” is of “hump”).
Lunch and luncheon in the earliest meanings found are applied
to a thick piece of bread, bacon, meat, &c.
The word “nuncheon,” or “nunchion,” with which “luncheon” has been frequently connected, appears as early as the 14th century in the form noneschenche. This meant a refreshment or distribution, properly of drink, but also accompanied with some small quantity of meat, taken in the early afternoon. The word means literally “noon-drink,” from none or noon, i.e. nona hora, the ninth hour, originally 3 o’clock p.m., but later “midday”—the church office of “nones,” and also the second meal of the day, having been shifted back—and schenchen, to pour out; cf. German schenken, which means to retail drink and to give, present. Schenche is the same as “shank,” the shin-bone, and the sense development appears to be shin-bone, pipe, hence tap for drawing liquor. See also Skeat, Etymological Dict. of English Language (1910), s.v. “nunchion.”
LUND, TROELS FREDERIK (1840– ), Danish historian,
was born in Copenhagen on the 5th of September 1840. He
entered the university of Copenhagen in 1858. About the age of thirty he took a post which brought before his notice the treasures of the archives of Denmark. His first important work, Historiske Skitser, did not appear until 1876, but after that time his activity was stupendous. In 1879 was published the first volume of his Danmarks og Norges Historie i Slutningen af det xvi. Aarhundrede, a history of daily life in Denmark and Norway at the close of the 16th century. Troels Lund was the pioneer of the remarkable generation of young historians who came forward in northern Europe about 1880, and he remained the most original and conspicuous of them. Saying very little about kings, armies and governments, he concentrates his attention on the life, death, employments, pleasures and prejudices of the ordinary men and women of the age with which he deals, using to illustrate his theme a vast body of documents previously neglected by the official historian. Lund was appointed historiographer-royal to the king of Denmark and comptroller of the Order of the Dannebrog. There was probably no living man to whom the destruction of the archives, when Christiansborg Castle was accidentally burned in 1884, was so acute a matter of distress. But his favourite and peculiar province, the MSS. of the 16th century, was happily not involved in that calamity.
